372 
57,322 bushels; by negroes, 995 bushels, or a total of 58,317 bushels. 
Of hay, by whites, 3,158 tons; by negroes, 16, or a total of 3,174 tons. 
The total business transactions of the county, through its warehouses, 
during the year amounted to 13,135,000 pounds. The absolute total 
grown in the county was 11,417,000 pounds, which, sold at an average 
of 74 cents, yielded for the crop $799,190. The discrepancy between the 
assessor’s returns and the actual is, of course, explicable. The amount 
of whiskey, in gallons, actually returned up to June 1, was 399,487 ; 
estimated by the United States collector, to close of the season, 60,513, 
Total, 460,000. 
THE DAIRY.—In one township of De Kalb County, Illinois, Somonauk, 
there are three large cheese factories whose united product for the sea- 
son, up to July 15, was 350,000 pounds. ‘Two of these factories made 
240,000 pounds last year, the cheese being pronounced most excellent in 
quality. At this time there are in all ten co-operative factories in the 
county, one producing butter as well as cheese, and one butter only. 
Besides, there are in the county several private dairies using, respect- 
ively, the milk of from fifty to one hundred cows. 
TREE PLANTING IN KANSAS.—Mr. John Hodgins, of Nemaha County, 
Kansas, writes: 
A package of chestnuts, planted in November last, (1872,) are coming up nicely. I 
have a fine bed of asparagus, raised from seed received from the Department two years 
ago. I have over 4,000 forest trees, of 30 varieties, and 12 varieties of fruit—all doing 
well on the high prairie soil. 
THE ONION AS FOOD.—It is stated that the onion forms one of the 
common and universal supports of life in Spain and Portugal. Author- 
ity shows that according to analysis the dried onion contains from 25 to 
30 per cent. of gluten, and ranks in this respect with thé nutritious pea 
and the grains. 
It is not merely as a relish that the wayfaring Spaniard eats his onion with his hum- 
ble crust of bread, as he sits by the refreshing spring ; but it is because experience has 
long proved that, like the cheese of the English laborer, it helps to sustain his strength 
also, and adds, beyond what its bulk would suggest, to the amount of nourishment 
which his simple meal supplies. 
SUGAR IN CALIFORNIA.—The following is taken from a recent num- 
ber of the Pacific Rural Press, (California :) 
During the past year 83,000,000 pounds of sugar were imported to the Pacific coast. 
Of this 65,500,000 pounds fwere consumed. There was only 1,500,000 pounds of beet 
sugar manufactured in the State, by the factories of Sacramento and Alvarado, so there 
is still room for eighty-six such factories, giving employment to 8,600 operatives for 
seven months of the year—from August until March—not to speak of the Chinese, num- 
bering one hundred, on the Alvarado Company’s farm, where they are employed in 
weeding, hoeing, &c. These Chinese are the only hands at present employed on the 
Alvarado farm, and are kept to cultivate the young beets. 
The San Francisco Bulletin asserts that the prospects of beet culture 
in the State are exceedingly promising, and with the decline of cane- 
sugar manufactured in the Southern States, it is not improbable that it 
will ultimately be the source of supply of a large portion of the sugar 
consumed in the United States. The venture of the Alvarado Com- 
pany has proved eminently successful, and the farmers of the locality 
have discovered that it is possible to raise a very fair crop of beets when 
wheat from excessive moisture or drought has entirely failed. 
IMPORTANCE OF GOOD SEED.—AS showing the importance of proper 
seed selection the experience of a farmer of San Mateo County, Cali- 
ifornia, may be cited. He sowed large, full-grown wheat and small- 
