533 



ent feeling ou the subject of cotton, the area, in this county, also in Lawrence, Cov- 

 ington, Marion, Pike, Simpson, Copiah, and Franklin, will be very much reduced. 

 Every one here says it is time we should begin to raise the wheat we consume at 

 home. 



AGRICULTURAL HINDERANCES AND HELPS IN EAST TENNESSEE. — In 

 a commuuication from the secretary of the agricultural board of Sulli- 

 van County various discouragements and encouragements to agriculture 

 in that section are set forth. Among the former are specified inveterate 

 habits among farmers of skimming over as much as possible of land 

 already exhausted without any attempts at increasing its productive- 

 ness ; of letting the greater part of manure and other available fertiliz- 

 ers, which onght to be carefully saved and applied to the laud, run to 

 waste ; and of resting contented with primitive and crude inherited 

 modes of farming, without any disposition to learn and prolit by modern 

 improvements; a consequent disposition of the more enterprising 

 among the rising generation to quit the farm and emigrate ; laziness ; 

 one-horse gentlemen ; speculators and kid-glove gentry ; too many office- 

 seekers ; too many professional men, and other consumers who are not 

 producers ; and, lastly, too many dogs. " We have one of the best sheep- 

 countries on the globe ; bat our people prefer to raise dogs, and the 

 sheep are decreasing rapidly. On the other hand, a few are taking the 

 necessary steps to increase the productiveness of their farms, and manu- 

 factures, in the train of which agricultural prosperity is sure to follow, 

 are springing up. We have in our county several new factories, one 

 cotton and one woolen fectory at Bristol, and one just across the line, 

 on the Virginia side. One cotton -factory at Union, on the railroad, ten 

 miles below Bristol, is doing a fine business; and since the war a woolen- 

 mill has been established in Carter, ten miles south of Union, which is 

 also doing a prosperous business. Still another has gone up in Hawkins 

 County, or on our county-line, which is largely patronized from four 

 counties. Although we have no money, we are beginning to feel the 

 effects of these improvements." 



Hedges in Texas. — Our correspondent in Austin County calls at- 

 tention to the gradual destruction of the timber and the inefficiency of 

 the fence-laws. He thinks the bois (Varc, a native of Texas, is not 

 remarkably available on account of ignorance of its culture and the 

 depredations to which it has been subjected. A good, reliable hedge- 

 I)lant is a desideratum. 



Mineral wealth in Xorth Carolina. — Our correspondent in 

 Stokes County says that the deposits of coal, iron, and lime in that 

 region have attracted the attention of English miners. These minerals 

 are plentiful and of good quality. Railroad communication within 

 twelve miles. 



^' Excelsior oats in Oregon. — Mr. H. Shortridge, of Lane County, 

 received from this Department, three years ago, a package of this 

 variety of oats. From the seed of successive sowings he raised, the 

 past season, a fair quantity, reported to be very heavy in yield and to 

 weigh 50 pounds to the bushel. 



Benefit from seed distribution. — Our correspondent in Fulton 

 County, Arkansas, reports that the two best varieties of wheat in that 

 section, in respect to both yield and quality, are the Tappahannock and 

 Fultz, the seed of which was received from this Department. He adds 

 that the usual acreage in wheat was nearly doubled the past fall ; that 

 no complaint of the fly has been heard, and that, at the last of Novem- 

 ber, the growing crop never looked more promising. 



