248 



the recent average being less than a half-million pounds per annum. 

 In 1861 the export exceeded 81,000,000 pounds. The average import of 

 the past four years has been 71,000,000 pounds ; of the four years pre- 

 ceding, 50,000,000 pounds. The records are as follows : 



A PROMISING GRASS. — Oiir Correspondent in Jefferson, Ala., sends 

 a description of a grass which made its appearance in that county, on 

 the Little Oapuba River, and '' is new to all who have seen it." It was 

 discovered two years ago. It spreads rapidly on bottom-lands, but not 

 on upland. Last year, T. K. Truss sowed one acre in wheat on rich 

 bottom -laud in the Cahaba Valley. After the wheat was gathered, the 

 land not being plowed, this grass came up spontaneously. In the 

 autumn he cut and baled it, and. sent it to a commission-merchant iu 

 Birmingham. The bill of sale was as follows : 20 bales of hay, 5,466 

 pounds, $104.70; expenses, $12.55; net profit, $92.21. "As "to the 

 quality of the hay, it is pronounced by livery-stable men equal to timo- 

 thy." Our correspondent stated that with this leport he forwarded a 

 specimen of the seed and a stalk of the grass, measuring 9 feet in length ; 

 but these have not been received. 



Orangbblight. — A lady in th-e parish of Terre Bonne, Louisiana, 

 reports a remedy' for orange-blight, which she supposes to be identical 

 with that described on page 200 of the Annual Report of this Department 

 for 1873. It had been her former practice to have the earth raised up 

 around her orange-trees. For years they have been dying by slow de- 

 grees, and many were quite dead. The leaves would first turn yellow, 

 and then the limbs would gradually wither and die. Various remedies 

 were tried in vain, until a faithful servant heard certain Creoles describ- 

 ing their process of preventing the blight, and reported the same. He 

 was commissioned to carry it into effect, and did, as follows: In Jan- 

 uary he cleared away all the grass within 2 or 3 feet of the trees, and 

 dug among the roots, leaving some of them exposed to the air and sun. 

 The result is tha.t all the trees have improved. The living parts have 

 leaved out in full, have bloomed freely, and appear to be in vigorous 

 health. On one tree, which bore only two oranges last year, and which 

 was so nearly dead as to be thought beyond recovery, each live branch 

 has put out the richest green leaves and is iu full bloom. 



Wool-growing in California. — The following table, prepared by 

 E. Grozer, represents the shipments of wool from San Francisco for the 

 last two years. It indicates the rapid increase of wool-growing in Cali- 

 fornia, and the large dimensions it has already reached. That industry 



