189 



I planted tlie IJ busbels on good river-land, and raised last year about 

 16 bushels of the finest wheat ever grown on ray plantation. I am well 

 pleased with it, and believe it to be well adapted to this climate, and a 

 great improvement on any we have had in tbis county. The Mediter- 

 ranean wheats were not suited to this climate — especially the white ; 

 the red bearded did moderately well. 



WHITE SCHONEN OATS. 



Mr. C. H. Stewart, of Mercer County, Missouri, states that from a 

 quart of white Schoueu oats, furnished him by this Department, a crop 

 of 1^ bushels was raised, and that from this crop, as seed, a second 

 year's crop of 18 bushels was harvested. A portion of the second 

 year's crop "was destroyed before harvest, otherwise the yield -would 

 have been larger. 



DIVERSITY OF CROPS. 



Columbus, Ga. — The agricultural industry of this portion of the 

 South is not diversified to the extent that it is hoped the future may 

 realize. Our people yet have " cotton on the brain." Many crops, the 

 yam, Spanish potato, and turnips, which were largely cultivated before 

 emancipation, are greatly neglected. Attention, however, is being di- 

 rected to minor crops, and a few years may show quite a changed state 

 of affairs, and cotton become of secondary consideration. It is difficult 

 to change the habits of a people en masse, and time, together with the 

 conviction that a change will materially benefit their condition, alone 

 can do it. The southern planter who has his corn-crib in Ohio and his 

 smoke-house in St. Louis or Louisville can never prosper; and although 

 figures may clearly prove that foreign markets can cheaply supply bis 

 wants, the poverty of his pocket presents incontestable proof to the con- 

 trary. Our soil is good, our people are intelligent and enterprising, and 

 "when their energies are directed to other channels of industry than that 

 of making cotton alone, they will retrieve their fortunes and be again 

 prosperous and happy. 



DROUGHT IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA. 



San Diego, Cal. — We have had two successive years of unusual drought. 

 A similar period occurred in 18G3-'64. ISTo "water has been discharged 

 by any rivers opening into the bay or ocean in this part of California 

 for tw^o years, the most of them sinking or drying up fifteen to twenty 

 miles from their mouths. No cereals have matured, either last year or 

 this, within twelve miles of the ocean. At a greater distance than that, 

 and near the mountains, crops are produced, and cattle find pasturage. 

 It is a prevalent belief here, that tlie approach of rains is announced by 

 a rise in springs and' streams. With few exceptions, there has been, 

 during Maj', whenever clear, a haze dimming or obscuring the view of 

 the mountains and islands twenty miles distant. 



GRASS AND CLOYER IN THE SOUTH. 



Amite County, Miss. — I have both tested, and had tested by experi- 

 enced planters, the "i)erennial rye grass" you sent me last September, 

 (1870,) and can say from experience and information from others that 

 it is the best grass for x)asturage that has yet been introduced into this 

 section. It is na humbug, and it should be cultivated by every planter 

 in this climate. 



