257 



EXTRACTS FROM CORRESPONDENCE. 



Pea-nut Hay. — Hickman, Tenn. — The pea-nut has been our principal crop since the 

 war until last year, 1873, for which I estimate the crop at 50,000 bushels. The hay- 

 saved is worth to the farmer about half the market-price of the pea. It is very nutri- 

 tious, and, when carefully (gathered and cured, all kinds of stock will eat it greedily. 

 The pea-digging time commences in the latter part of September, and continues until 

 about the Ist of November. The implement used is something like a subsoil-plow ; a 

 furrow is run on each side of the row, loosening the vine without turning it. A boy 

 or girl follows the plow, after the second furrow is turned, catches the top of the vine 

 and turns it bottom upwards, exposing the pea to the sun, where it lies from one and 

 a half to three days, if clear weather. An 8-foot stake is then driven into the ground 

 sufficiently deep to prevent the wind from blowing it down. The vines are gathered 

 and packed around the stake, pea inside, in which position the pea will remain all 

 winter without injury. Those who have barns or sheds, under which to pick oft' the 

 pea, commence hauling these small stacks as soon as their other farm duties will per- 

 mit, and then commences the picking season. As the pea is picked off the vine is care- 

 fully housed for the stock. Those who have no barns or sheds let the stacks remain in 

 the field and pick off the pea, restacking the hay as leisure or the weather will permit. 

 They subsequently haul the hay as it is needed. The average yield per acre is about 

 1,200 pounds ; in a wet season the yield is greater. The hay is fed alone. It will in- 

 crease the milk of a cow threefold. I know of many instances where cows have been 

 kept in good beef condition and giving an abundance of milk all winter. A neighbor 

 informed me that he wintered 16 head of beef-cattle on his hay, (pea-hay,) feeding 

 nothing else, and drove them to market last spring, receiving a fair price, though not 

 so much as he would have realized had they been fed on grain. 



Profit in raising sugar. — Suwannee, Fla. — Sugar-cane is the most profitable crc p 

 raised in this county, as the following experiment will show: One acre of sugar-cana 

 will make 2,000 pounds of sugar, worth 8 cents per pound, $160 ; drippings or molasses 

 from the same, 100 gallons, worth 40 cents per gallon, $40 ; total, $200. Expenses : 

 seed for one acre, $30 ; manuring, $10 ; cultivating, $5 ; manufacturing sugar, $55 ; total 

 expenses, $100, leaving a clear profit of $100. 



SCUPPERNONG GKXP¥.s.—Bandolph, Ga. — Grape-culture is assuming considerable im- 

 portajnce. Our climate is pepuliarly adapted to the culture of the Scuppernoug variety. 

 Being indigenous and exempt from any of the casualties of the bunch grape in the more 

 northern climate, it will in time render this the grape country. The yield is enormous — 

 from 400 to 500 bushels per acre, and from 4 to 4!^^ gallons per bushel. This yield, at a 

 small price, will make the production a lucrative business. One hand can cultivate 

 ten acres. The vines live from twenty to one hundred years, and need nothing but 

 Tirgin earth and scuffling to insure a bountiful yield every year. 



Damages by rain and floods. — Perry, ^7ff.— During the month of April an un- 

 precedented amount of rain fell, and farm-work has greatly suffered. Less than half 

 the days in the month were fit for work in the lime-lands. Wheat; though good, has 

 been somewhat injured by the rains. Corn has suffered from the rain and cold weather. 

 The cotton crop is in a very bad condition, and farmers are more gloomy about it than 

 I have ever seen them. 



Arkansas, Ark., April 26. — For the last seven weeks the weather has been so wet that 

 nothing has been done. The Arkansas River is still rising. Many bridges are gone, 

 most of the bottoms on the south side are under water, and cattle and stock of all 

 kinds, where the owners can save them, are being rafted over to the north side, so 

 that our prairies are now dotted over with poor, starving cattle. Hundreds have lost 

 all, and it is reported that many lives have been lost. On the north side we are out 

 of the reach of the river, but not a furrow has been turned over yet in this section. 



Tensas, La., May 1. — Our parish is now almost entirely under water, consequently there 

 is no other subject on which to report. A few small fields and parts of fields, just 

 behind the levees that have not given way, are out, but the rains have been so fre- 

 quent and so heavy that this land has no crops on it. All will require replanting. The 

 amount of rainfall in the month of April was never before witnessed by any person 

 living — nearly 22 inches in thirty days. And still the weather is unsettled, and the 

 water rising. What is to become of the people is the question. The low price of last 

 year's cotton crop left the laborers without any surplus proceeds. The corn crop, much 

 better than the preceding year, but not nearly sufficient to carry them through, is now 

 about exhausted. No money, no credit, no provisions ; that is the condition of most 

 of our laboring people. Their stock is on the mounds aud up in the barns and houses. 

 One man has his six mules in the kitchen adjoining his dwelling. 



Osage, Kans. — In my April report I stated that cattle were coming out of winter 

 quarters in good condition. Since then we have had a succession of sleets and storms 

 which, in connection with great scarcity of feed, have caused the death of thousands 

 upon thousands of cattle in Kansas. From the best information I can get the loss in 



