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better tools and machinery are used, and a greater variety of crops are grown; in fact, 
there is a general improvement. The greatest drawback is that cotton still occupies 
more than its proper share of attention. 
AGRICULTURAL ADVANCE IN JowA.—A correspondent in Union 
County reports a growing interest in that county in the culture of flax, 
fruit, Alsike clover, and hedges. Between 1,000 and 2,000 aeres have 
been put under flax this spring, and an unusually large number of fruit- 
trees have been set out—some farmers starting orchards with as many 
as five hundred. Alsike clover is meeting with success, both because 
of its adaptation to the climate and because it proves to be a good sub- 
stitute for buckwheat as a source of honey for bees. For the planting 
of hedges there is now a general “rage.” This results, in part, from 
the increasing scarcity of timber. The osage orange is principally 
planted, but some prefer willow. Last season hedges were started by 
setting out plants, but this season the prevailing practice has been to 
sow the seed in the place for the hedge. For osage orange hedges the 
“¢ double-row system” is gaining in popular favor. 
DISCOURAGEMENTS TO FARMERS IN ARKANSAS.—A correspondent 
in Franklin County, Arkansas, under date of May 22, reported that in 
that section, and he thought throughout the State, the farmers had a 
somewhat cheerless prospect before them. Food for both man and 
beast was very scarce; the season had been unusually wet and back- 
ward, and, as a consequence, both corn and cotton were late and small, 
and there were strong indications that these crops must be short in 
quantity and poor in quality. He concludes as follows: 
More oats have been sown this year than ever before, and,as far as my observation 
extends, they look promising. Some interest is being manifested in Hungarian grass, 
but the entire absence of mowers, and hay rakes and forks prevents a great many from 
raising it. It does finely on our river-bottoms, and three tons to the acre can be easily 
raised. The hogs have died off so within the last few years that we have to depend 
upon the counties bordering on Missouri for our main supply of meat. Large quanti- 
ties of meal are also hauled from there, in wagons, and meet with a ready sale at $1, 
cash, per bushel, by the load. It is generally conceded that the farmers in this sec- 
tion are worse off than they were the first year after the war. 
SUPERIOR VALUE OF THOROUGHBRED STOCK.—Very many farmers 
who rely in part for their profits on the horned cattle they keep con- 
tinue to grow only the unimproved, inferior varieties which have de- 
scended to them from the random stock kept by their forefathers. The 
following analysis of the reported results of two auction sales in Ili- 
nois of short-horn stock may suggest to such farmers the wisdom of 
exchanging their scrubby cattle for improved breeds. The first of the 
sales referred to was of short-horn cattle owned by J. H. Spears & 
Sons, of Forest Hill, near Tallula, Menard County. The sixty head 
sold were all purchased by the Messrs. Spears in Kentucky last au- 
tumn most of them from the herd of William Warfield, of Lexington. 
Twenty-six were bulls, and the remainder were cows. ‘The latter 
sold as follows: 1 calf, $100; 9 yearlings, average $307.83 per head; 9 
two-year-olds, average $448.33; 1 three years old, $230; another witha 
bull-calf beside it, $1,510; 3 four-year-olds, average $256.67; 1 five 
years old, $340; 1 six years old, $250; 1 seven years old, $795; 2 eight 
years old, $175 and $225; 1-eleven years old, and calf beside it, $295; 
2 twelve years old, one $150, and the other with twin calves, $500; 2, 
the ages not given, $225 and $260. Total, $11,630.50. The twenty-six 
bulls sold as follows: 1 calf, $105; 16 yearlings, average $274.06; 7 
two-year-olds, $233.57 ; 1 three years old, $330; 1 four years old, $210. 
Total, $665. Total for the herd, $18,295.50. Average per head, 
