96 



dening business very successfully. They haul from the city (Louisville) the stable 

 manure during winter months, and their care and labor is rewarded with good yields. 

 Dakota. — Pembina : Market-gardening has proved most remunerative during the past 

 season, having had a ready sale for onions at $1.2.5 to $2 per bushel ; carrots, parsnips, 

 and beets, 75 cents per bushel ; cabbage, 10 to 25 cents, and everything else in propor- 

 tion. All the garden-vegetables growing finely on new ground, and without manur- 

 ing. One of our best farmers raised last season, on a flat of 70 square rods, 2G4 bush- 

 els of large red onions, every onion in the patch weighing half a pound. Our soil also 

 produces some of the largest and finest root-crops. 



POTATOES. 



New Yoek. — Saratoga : The only export from the county ; have been a very good crop 

 and brought excellent prices. 



Georgia. — Lumplin : Quite a number of ftirmers raised 150 to 200 bushels of sweet- 

 potatoes per acre. It costs not more than $15 per acre to raise and house them, and 

 they sell for at least 50 cents per bushel. Charlton ; The question lies between sweet- 

 potatoes and the sugar-crop. Considering the outlay necessary to make sugar, sirup, 

 and molasses, I decide in favor of sweet-potatoes. They are produced, collected, and 

 housed with ordinary farm-imiilements, without additional outhiy of money, which, to 

 the poor man, is a strong argument in favor of this crop. Of the yam variety I have 

 grown on one acre 330 bushels of large, fine, yellow yams. The land was sandy, (no 

 clay,) on a hill-side facing south-southeast. 



Alabama. — Eussell : Sweet-potatoes. Farmers have sold their surplus potatoes readily 

 at $1 per bushel, which paid much better, according to acreage, than cotton. 



Mississippi. — Warren : Sweet and Irish ; the average value being about $1 per bushel, 

 and the yield 75 to 90 busliels per acre. 



Texas. — Graysoii: Sweet-potatoes, though the crop is. a limited one. The expense 

 and yield per acre are about as follows : Seed, .$5 ; preparing ground and planting, $10 ; 

 cultivating and harvesting, $15; total expense, $30. In an ordinary season the yield 

 is 150 to 200 bushels, worth 50 cents to $1 per bushel, leaving a profit of $120 to $170 

 per acre. The expense of cotton, including gathering, &c., is about $20 per acre, and 

 it is a good crop that yields 400 pounds of lint per acre, which, at 12 cents, leaves only 

 $28 profit. 



West Virginia. — Warren ; Potatoes, as a field-crop, are growing in importance every 

 year, yielding, when properly manured and cultivated, 100 bushels per acre, worth now 

 in our local market $1 per bushel. Hay is next in order of profit, yielding, with no 

 outlay for manure, and compaiiitively little labor, one and a half tons per acre, worth 

 at home $18 per ton. 



Kentucky. — Kenton : Potatoes are produced at the rate of 70 bushels per acre, and 

 are worth $1.25 per bushel, or $87.50 per acre. 



Indiana. — Steuben : The average yield of potatoes is 125 bushels to the acre ; price 

 during the winter 60 cents per bushel ; this spring $1 per bushel, or an average price 

 of 75 cents per bushel, or a total of $93.75 cents per acre : cost of production, seed, and 

 labor, $29.40, leaving $64.35 for a clear profit. 



HAY. 



Except in locations where au equivalent in manure is obtained in 

 market for the hay sold, the iJiiueipal reasons in favor of and against 

 producing it as a market crop are tersely stated by one of our cor- 

 respondents thus : ''If it were not for depriving the farm of manure by 

 selling its products instead of feeding theai, raising hay and grain for 

 sale would seem to have been the most profitable the past year, indeed 

 for several years past. But we shrink from this method, because we 

 think a man, in producing it, would be just kauling his farm off to the 

 city." 



Maine. — Sagadalwc: Quite a good home-market in tlie villages that dot the county. 

 Waldo : Large quantities shipped at fair prices. York : One-half the land in the county 

 is pasture and one-fourth field; seven-eighths of the field is mowed. All last season 

 the pastures were fresh, and the hay-crop was abundant and well secured. Young 

 cattle and farm-oxen gained 25 per cent. I consider the pasturing and hay of more 

 value than all other farm products combined; seven-tenths of my income is from 

 grass and hay, while the proportion of expense is less than is required for other crops. 

 From 30 tons of hay,' worth $360, fed to my young cattle, the sales were $300, values 

 remaiuiiag the same ; from 24 tons, worth §360, fed to 12 cows (butter at 30 cents) the 



