197 
cations are gathered from a communication of a correspondent in So- 
noma County. Hains sufficient to fit the ground for plowing and putting 
in grain fell early in November. The weather was delightful till past 
the middle of December, but about the time of the winter solstice abun-. 
dant rains fell, amounting for the season to 9.55 inches. Through Jan- 
uary the weather was clear and warm, and the farmers improved it to 
the utmost. .The breadth of grain sown in the State is probably larger 
than ever before. . That sown early, and all that sown by harvesting of 
last year, called “ volunteer crops,” looks very fine, standing from three 
to eight inches high and covering the ground well. The early rains 
reached all the valleys in the State, and the recent rains have been 
equally extensive, and have fallen to an average depth of two and a half 
inches. The maturing of the great body of crops seems to be already 
insured, even though there should be no further rains. Grass is well 
up, pastures are fine, and cattle and sheep are doing well. The pros- 
pect now is that the agricultural products of California for the coming 
season will be larger than ever before; the wheat-crop alone promises 
to reach 30,000,000 bushels. The lowest temperature during the winter 
was 234° above zero. Flowers and semi-tropical plants are in blossom, 
and all things conspire to make the season seem like one long and 
delightful spring. 
HILL-WHEAT.—Messrs. Murray, Davis & ©o., publishers of the Cin- 
cinnati Price Current, have furnished this Department with a sample of 
wheat known as the “hill-wheat,” in the Cincinnati market. It is 
grown principally in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Southern Illinois. Its 
name is supposed to have originated from the fact that it is mostly the 
product of the hilly districts of those States. It corresponds to the 
amber wheat of more northern latitudes, and ranks between the Medi- 
terranean or red wheat, and the choice white wheat. In the Saint Louis 
market it is quoted as No. 1 wheat. 
NEED OF MORAL EDUCATION IN ARKANSAS.—On page 513 of the 
monthly reports for 1872 there is a brief article in which are given the 
results of the different courses of agriculture pursued since the war by 
two planters of equivalent fortunes, residing in the same locality in 
Louisiana. The one had pursyed the ante-war method, and adhered to 
the culture of cotton alone, the other had recognized the new conditions 
consequent upon the war, and adopted the method of diversified agri- 
culture. It is represented that the results are altogether in favor of the 
latter. Our correspondent in Arkansas County, Arkansas, calls atten- 
tion to this representation, and wishes to give as the result of his own 
experience ‘the other side.” He says: 
When the war closed I also tried the diversified plan. I had eight acres in apples, 
pears, and plums ; twelve acres in peaches; a fair lot of improved hogs, and a nice lot 
of sheep. My apples are all stolen, so that I never have any to put up for winter. My 
hogs have long since been stolen. I have cut down my peach-orchard. If I plant a 
garden and have a nice lot of vegetables, they are all stolen. If I put up a nice crib 
of corn, the lock is forced and my corn is stolen. So I have come down to cotton and 
just enough corn to make my crop. Money can be made by that system if one only 
attends to his businessand doesn’t spend toomnch. Still, I will admit that the diversi- 
fied system is much better, and there is more money and more happiness in it; but 
there are some things people camnot do. 
The concluding statement, so far as it applies to the case in hand, 
seems to need qualifying thus: there are some things people cannot do 
until they have first done some other things. The difficulty which our 
correspondent found so trying that he was discouraged by itis one 
which exists in every section—North, Kast, and West, as well as South— 
DA 
