286 



In some it is superior to cotton. In some it is inferior to cotton. But, from its 

 greater cheipness, it produces a very valuable fabric. The Commissioner of 

 Agriculture states that of the fund of 820,000 he has transferred back 810,500 

 to the surplus fund of the treasury ; and in these days, when there is a defi- 

 ciency bill for everything, I thought that so economical an administration was 

 deserving of honorable mention." 



TREES IN THE PRAIRIES- 



In growing trees upon the western plains peculiar difficulties are encountered^ 

 and will doubtless be surmounted, as they have been in Illinois and other 

 prairie regions, in a satisfactory degree. One of these drawbacks is found in 

 the mild and moist climate of autumn and great fertility of soil, which continue 

 growth until the near approach of winter. A correspondent in Otoe county, 

 Nebraska, gives an instance of this kind : "I have to report unfavorably in re- 

 gard to fiuit. There are some young orchards started which have been in bear- 

 ing a few years. Last season was warm, wet, and growing, up to the last of 

 October. Trees made a rapid growth, and the wood being immature, a sudden 

 freeze in November killed vast numbers of them, as well as many young forest 

 trees that had been started on the prairie for belts and screens. We do not 

 call them winter-killed, for they were killed in autumn. The same thing hap- 

 pened to a more limited extent in the autumn of 1863. Some are discouraged in 

 attempting to raise fruit here ; others are of opinion that hardy, slow-growing 

 varieties will succeed, and advocate the seeding of the land to grass in order to 

 check the growth of the tree." 



BOATING TO NEW ORLEANS- 



The amphibious character of the agriculture of the Ohio river districts in for- 

 mer days is referred to by a southern Indiana correspondent. Tempting as New 

 Orleans prices sometimes were, it is doubtful if alternate experiences, as farmers 

 and boatmen, in the average of cases, proved permanently profitable. Labor on 

 the farm and on the flatboat often proved as incongruous as dissimilar. One 

 tended to stability and steadiness, the other to roving and recklessness. It 

 seems that this singular industrial copartnership exists in some localities yet. 

 The products of the farm are shipped in the autumn, and the boys are kept from 

 school all winter and subjected to unwholesome influences of the river and the 

 city, and the farm business of the winter is entirely neglected. This course, fol- 

 lowed for fifty years, is represented as reducing the yield of corn in some cases 

 from seventy-five to ten bushels per acre. 



CASTOR OIL BEAN. 



In southern Illinois and in Missouri the castor oil bean — Ricinus communis — 

 has been cultivated in certain localities with a good degree of success. St. Louis 

 is the market. A casual correspondent, writing from St. "Joseph, says that this 

 culture, like that of hemp, has been greatly interfered with during the war by 

 the loss of the slave population and the necessity of providing food products. 

 He says : 



"But the prices now offered by manufacturers in St. Louis, viz., $3 50 to 

 84 per bushel, will no doubt increase its cultivation in the future. 



