512 



average. Our correspoudeut regards it as settled, that cranberries can- 

 not be snccessfully raised without a mnck-subsoil, sanded on the top, 

 good drainage, and a cominaud of plentiful ruuuiug water. 



Peanut crop in Vieginia. — The following statistics, respecting the 

 peanut crop of Virginia, for the year ending September 30, 1875, are 

 condensed fi'oin a "review" prepared and forwarded to this department 

 by Mr. Thomas B. Rowland, of Norfolk. Scarcely a bag of the old crop 

 was left in the State on the 1st of October, when the new began to appear 

 in the Norfolk market. The price began at $2.-50 per bushel, and ranged 

 between that and $2.25 the tirst half of that month ; but during the 

 last half worked down to $1.50. In the first half oi November it de- 

 scended as low as $1.25, but by the 20th was up again to $1.50, between 

 which and $1.80 it ranged, for the most part, through the year ending 

 September 30. Bui under " speculative attempts " and " spurts" limited 

 sales were effected in February at $2; March, $1.90 to $2.25; April, $2.25 

 to $2.50; and in May, $2. By the 1st of ©ctober, 1875, none of the old 

 crop that could be classed " good" was left in market. Mr. Rowland 

 gives the monthly receipts at Norfolk for the year, and the lightest were, 

 October, 1,051 bags; the heaviest, December, 12,117 bags; January, 

 14,689; February, 15,047 ; March, 16,339. The aggregate was 91,407 

 bags. At Petersburg 15,910 bags were received, and Mr. Rowland esti- 

 mates the receipts at Richmond at 20,000, making the total i)roduction 

 in the State, in 1874, 109,317 bags. At 3^ bushels per bag, which Mr. 

 Rowland regards as rather under the average, the amount would be 

 382,610 bushels. Mr. Rowland thinks the acreage of the crop of 1875 

 was 10 to 20 per cent, above the previous one, and that it is " excel- 

 lent in quality." He states that the light frosts have scarcely 

 damaged it, and that the crops left in the ground have continued to 

 improve in maturity to a wonderful degree, promising that the later 

 diggings, which constitute by far the larger portion of the crop, will be 

 extra, plump, and well filled, needing only bright cool weather to cure 

 one of the best crops ever made. The receipts of the new crop at Nor- 

 folk,, up to November 1, were 2,186 bags. 



Large corn- crop. — Mr. Tom Crutchfield, of Amnicola, near Chatta- 

 nooga, Tenn., reports the yield of his corn-crop in 1875 as follows : In a 

 field of 40 acres, bottom-land, an average acre, gathered and measured 

 November 2, yielded 119^ bushels by measure, or 106i|- by weight. An 

 average acre in another part of the field, i)lanted earlier, gathered and 

 measured on the 21st, yielded 114| by measure, or 109i-| by weight. In 

 a field of 118 acres upland, an average acre in one part, gathered and 

 measured on the 22d, yielded 55^ by measure, or 51ff by weight ; in 

 another part, 58J by measure, or 55i| by weight. The bottom-land had 

 been in grass some years and heavily pastured with sheep annually, from 

 the time the hay was cut until the following March. Last spring the 

 flood left upon it a sediment 6 to 18 inches deep. It was plowed to the 

 depth of about 9 inches, cross-plowed, harrowed, checked off, 4 feet by 

 2, and planted from the 29th of April to the 11th of May. The seed 

 was soaked twenty-four hours in copperas water and rolled in gypsum. 

 The covering was done with a shovel-plow. After a good stand was 

 secure, it was thinned to an average of one stalk per foot in the row 

 and kept clean and well cultivated. 



Improyement in wheat culture. — A correspondent in Henderson 

 County, Tennessee, in reporting favorably on the condition of wheat 

 sown this autumn, states that in that section there is a decided im- 



