513 



provement in the process of wheat culture; sucli as a more careful 

 preparation of ground, selection of seed, &c. 



Cattle disease in Arkansas. — The following- statements are con- 

 densed from a couimunicatiou by our correspondent in Crittenden, re- 

 specting a disease among cattle in that county : The disease is confined 

 to cattle along the river, (in no way exposed to Texas cattle,) and among 

 them those on some farms entirely escape ; those on the farm of 

 our reporter, residing at Grayson, were not attacked ; on two adjoining 

 farms nine-tenths were lost. In that immediate neighborhood the loss 

 amounts to fully three-fourths of all the cattle, but will not average for 

 the county more than one in two hundred. The first symptoms are loss 

 of appetite and high fever. In some instances death follows in a few 

 hours, but the average interval between the attack and its fatal termi- 

 nation is about four days. One farmer, who out of twenty-five lost all 

 but two, reports that he saved the latter by feeding them on cotton-seed. 

 He thinks the whole seed better than meal, and ascribes its virtue 

 chiefly to its effect in moving the bowels. 



Epizooty. — Our correspondents in different sections have noted a 

 distemper or influenza prevailing among horses this autumn. It is gen- 

 erally described as a recurrence of what was known as the epizooty. 

 But if so, it is in a much milder form than at its previous visitation. 

 Very little serious damage and scarcely any loss has been reported ; 

 though a correspondent in Mobile writes, November IS, that in that city, 

 and throughout Alabama, the disease is causing much trouble, and 

 *• seems to be growing worse every day." 



Cotton manufacture in Texas. — The Northeast Texas Council, 

 Patrons of Husbandry, headquarters at Jefferson, Marion County, re- 

 port the organization of a joint-stock company for manufacturing cotton 

 fabrics. The president and local agent is Dr. J. R. Biggs, of Jefferson. 

 The stock is issued in shares of $25, to give everybody a chance to par- 

 ticipate. Every county should organize a similar enterprise, by doing 

 which the cry of hard times would be banished from the South. 



Loss OF Angora goats. — Mr. Hardy, of Mohave County, Arizona, 

 recently purchased 2,000 Angora goats in California. As they were 

 passing through the Mohave Desert, in Kern County, they ate freely of 

 a variety of milk- weed, from the effects of which 500 died, and many of 

 the remainder are left in a very enfeebled condition. 



Angora goats in Oregon.— Messrs. Landrum and Rogers, of Wes- 

 tonville, Cal., introduced 2,400 of these goats into the Willamette Val- 

 ley to aid in subduing the " club land " for cultivation. 



Horse-breeding in England, — Sir Charles Legard, member of Par- 

 liament, commenting upon the remission«of the tax on horses, stated that 

 the historical pre-eminence of England, as a horse-producing country, had 

 of late been contested by several continental countries in which special 

 attention had been paid to this branch of agricultural industry for the 

 past twenty years. Foreign breeders have shown a determination, at 

 almost any cost, to obtain the best blood of England for their own studs, 

 and their late triumphs at some of the English races was a note of 

 warning to the government to take immediate steps to retain in the 

 country the choice stallions and the best strain of the blood extant. 

 Prussia had especially been active, buying up all the active, short-legged, 

 sound hack-raares in the United Kingdom at £5 per head more than 

 any other buyer would offer. This class of animals was now almost 



