392 



Robeson, N. C. — For the first time our farmers have felt fully rewarded 

 for their labors. The only fear now is that market-products will not 

 command remunerative prices. 



Plundering from Government. — Our correspondent in Escambia 

 County, Alabama, represents that in that section agricultural improve- 

 ment is greatly hindered by the fact that Government timber is suffered 

 to be cut and carried otf to market without limit or restraint. He thinks 

 that if an agent were appointed to see that the provisions of the home- 

 stead-law were enforced, and no one permitted to cut timber until he 

 had a legal right to, one good result would be that " the people would 

 go to work, cultivate farms, and improve homesteads." 



Eeflitx emigration. — Our correspondent in Ellsworth, Kansas, re- 

 ports : "Many farmers are disheartened, and leaving for the older States. 

 Potato-beetles, chinch-bugs, grasshoppers, drought, and fire will turn 

 the tide of emigration eastward." 



iJfEW peach. — Our correspondent in Jasper County, Missouri, sends 

 us an account of a new peach, which the Horticultural Society in that 

 county has named "Amsden's June." It is a seedling, planted in 1858 

 by Mr. L. C. Amsden. The tree first fruited in 1872, bearing nine peaches, 

 *' which began to ripen the last of June," and the last specimen of which 

 was " the i^erfection of ripeness" on the 7th of July, The original tree,^ 

 as well as thirty or forty budded from it, fruited again this season. It 

 is claimed that it is hardy, productive, and entirely free from the "curled 

 leaf," which has been very destructive to the peach-crop in that locality ; 

 that the fruit is very juicy, melting, and well-llavored, and that it is fully 

 four weeks earlier than Hale's Early. 



'^ Successful pear-culture. — L. & A. B. Eathbone, of Oakfield? 

 Genesee County, New York, have furnished for this Department the fol- 

 lowing facts relative to their experiment in cultivating ])ears : In the 

 spring of 1861 they set out 4,000 dwarf pear-trees, 3,000 Duchess, 500 

 L. Bonne de Jersey, 400 Beurre de Anjou, and 100 Vicar of Wakefield. 

 The trees are 10 feet apart, each way, occupying 10 acres. The soil is 

 " a gravelly loam, mixed with sand, with clay subsoil." For five years 

 the trees were severely pruned. The orchard has received medium cul- 

 tivation, but no fertilizer, except that in June, 1873, it was dressed 

 with about 80 bushels per acre of slaked lime and unleachod wood- 

 ashes. Delivered in barrels at Batavia, and beginning with 1868, the 

 several amounts received for annual sales for six successive years were 

 as follows, and in the order named : $100, 8230, 8110, 81,338, $2,250, 

 85,530 — total, 89,558. It will be noticed that in the last-named year, 

 1873, the gross sales reached 6553 per acre. 



Beet-sugar in England. — The culture of the sugar-beet is enlarg- 

 ing in England, not only as a forage-plant but also for the production 

 of sugar. The commissioners of the revenue in 1873 report the establish- 

 ment of a distillery for the production of alcoholic liquor from beet-juice, 

 and that it consumes the produce of 730 acres of beets raised in the 

 neighborhood. The sugar-mill at Lavenham absorbs the product of 450 

 to 570 acres, averaging about 14 tons per acre. The sugar-product of 

 the country for 1872 was 5,890 quintals ; for 1873, 7,560 quintals, of 112 

 pounds each. These aggregates represent mostly raw sugars, but the 

 refining process is being introduced more extensively. 



Steam farm-machinery in Scotland. — The labor difficulties of 

 the United Kingdom have compelled farmers to rely to a greater extent 



