181 



Tbo production or j'ield is as Inrjre as the ability of tlie feeding hands can reach. The 

 bunches of fifteen and twenty stalks engaged at the time are almost instantly trans- 

 formed into clean filament. 'Hemp, ramie, hibiscus, and any long fibrous plant aie 

 equally well treated by the apparatus, which capacity and power can be incieased as to 

 produce tuns and tons daily. 



Those assertions are based on true, practical facts, and as soon as they will be believed 

 and applied in our long-textile growing sections, the country will cease to be tributary for 

 our actual enormous import of foreign staple. From new observations, I can re-assert that 

 ordiiiary jute growth gives an average of at least one ton per acre of fiber, and that the 

 whole cost of production will not exceed $-25. In good-, moist land jute grows ten feet in 

 average, and has one-third of its body in fiber. The mower and reaper applied on wheat 

 cut jute perfectly well. 



International horticultural exhibition. — A grand intern a- 

 tioual exhibition, under the patronage ot'theGennau Empress and berson 

 the Crown Prince, will be opened at Cologne August 25, and will continue 

 a month. The exhibition will comprise all horticultural plants and pro- 

 ductions, except vines and grapes, all kinds of tools, implements, and 

 machinery, and collections in any way connected with rural life and 

 the development of garden culture. 



The following classificatiou has been adopted: 



I. Horticulture, including glass-house plants, open-air plants, fruit- 

 trees and shrubs, cut and dried flowers. 



II. Horticultural 'productions, including fruits, fresh, dried, and pre- 

 served ; produce of vegetable juice and fiber, viz, wine, beer, liquors, 

 oils, rosin, gum, coloring-matter, hemp, cotton, flax, sugar, starch, &c., 

 with manufactures of these substances ; reaiing of bees and their pro- 

 ducts; vegetables, fresh, dried, and preserved ; seeds of all kinds. 



III. Garden architecture, including plans and models of gardens, parks, 

 glass-houses, summer-houses, garden furniture, bridges, roads, wtilks, 

 rock-work, tunnels, grottos, fences, gates, espaliers, &c., with prices 

 of construction. 



IV. Garden decoration, including fountains, statues, vases, urns, pedes- 

 tals, borders, beds, flower-baskets and stands, hanging-lamps, illuminat- 

 ing-materials, &c. 



V. Garden tools and macliinery, pumps, water-pipes, conduits, carts, 

 water-engines, spades, hoes, rakes, clippers, flower-pots, labels, survey- 

 ing and leveling instruments, &c. 



VI. Garden collections, of woods, seeds, insects, both injurious and 

 beneficial, &c. 



VII. Artificial fruits, floti-ers, and plants, singly and in collections. 



VIII. Garden literature, in all its branches. 



Eminent horticulturists of different nations have been solicited to 

 act upon the various juries, and motive-power for machinery will be 

 provided. A lottery will be established for the disposal of articles. 

 Exhibitors must engage to allow their articles to remain to the close of 

 the exhibition, and to receive them within a week after its close. 



The general committee in charge of the exhibition consists of lead- 

 ing civil and military officials of the German Empire, of eminent scien- 

 tific men, and of opulent and respectable private citizens. 



Nature's record of droughts. — A correspondent in McLennoii 

 County, Texas, informs this Department that he is examining the annual 

 rings on trees with reference to the effect of very dry seasons ui)on tree- 

 growth. He has a theory that a series of such seasons may rt'turn in 

 regular periodicity, the discovery of which would be of great value to 

 the farmer, since it would enable him to anticipate short croi)S and, by 

 previous surplus ones, prepaie for them. lie has selected lor his pur- 

 pose the burr-oak, on some of wliicli he finds a record of the growth of 

 three hundred years. So far as he has traced back human records, he 



