160 



conditions are as follows: Mr. Foster is to furnish the seed, imple- 

 ments, teams, and feed for the teams, and is to receive one-half of the 

 crop when made. 



Timber- GROWING in Livingston Couny, Illinois. — A correspondent 

 reports that experiments in cultivating groves of soft maple have been 

 successful in this county previous to the last two years ; since then a 

 borer has appeared, which increases so fast as to threaten to destroy all 

 the young soft maples. It does not attack those which are more than 

 five inches in diameter. The cultivation of hedges has been stimulated 

 by the scarcity and high jjrice of timber until there is a fair prospect 

 that prairie-farms will soon be better fenced than those having plenty 

 of timber on them. For hedges the Osage orange is deemed the best. 



Preservation OF Government timber. — Public attention seems at 

 last to be waking up to the importance of preserving timber, especially 

 on the public lands, from the prodigal waste and reckless destruction to 

 which it has long been subjected. A bill has been introduced into the 

 legislature of Colorado Territory which provides that whoever shall, 

 through intention or inexcusable carelessness, set fire to any forest, prai- 

 rie, or other grounds within the Territory, " shall be deemed guilty of a 

 high misdemeanor," for which the penalty shall be imprisonment in the 

 penitentiary for a term not exceeding two years, and a fine not exceed- 

 ing $1,000. The person furnishing information of the violation of the 

 law is to receive one-half of the fine collected, and the other half is to 

 go to the school-fund of the county in which the offense was committed. 

 It is further provided that the penalty iuflicted on the oftender shall not 

 debar the person or party injured by his offense from a civil remedy for 

 damages. 



Abnormal weather in Utah. — A correspondent at Salt Lake City 

 reports that while the winter has not been severely cold in that locality, . 

 it has been remarkable for the prevalence of fog. Frequently it has 

 Ijrevailed continuously, night and day, for nearly a week at a time, du- 

 ring which all things and all creatures have been covered with rime. 

 2^othing like it has occurred before during the twelve years he has re- 

 sided there. He desires the learned in meteorology to explain the cause 

 of such continuous fog at that altitude with its arid surroundings. 



Blackberries in New Jersey. — One farmer in Monmouth County, 

 who has six acres in Wilson blackberries, sold, last season, fruit to the 

 value of $3,000. 



Profit from eggs. — Our correspondent in York County, Maine, es- 

 timates that there are in that county 13,000 families, oue-half of wh^ck 

 are supposed to winter on the average 10 hens each, from which are 

 gathered an average of 10!) eggs per hen, which sell for 21 cents per 

 dozen, amounting to $130,000. As the women and children manage 

 this business, he considers it a very good show for them. 



Productiveness of alfalfa. — A farmer in Fresrio County, Cali- 

 fornia, reports that, in 1873, from a field of five acres he cut 20 tons of 

 alfalfa hay, which netted him $10 per ton; also one crop of alfalfa-seed, 

 weighing 2,200 pounds, which netted him 20 cents per pound. This is 

 a clear profit of $128 per acre, though it is not stated that any allow- 

 ance is made for interest on the value of the land or the exhaustion 

 produced by the cropping. 



Brady Agricultural Society. — This society has its field of ope- 

 rations in Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania. The secretary sends to 



