271 



and marketed at an average rate of 10 cents per pound, including- all 

 grades. The coming year at least 200 acres will be cultivated with 

 sugar beet, and operations will be gradually extended. The machinery 

 in use was jiartly imported from Europe and partly from Fond du Lac, 

 Wisconsin, and Chatsworth, Illinois. It cost $25,000, and the building 

 $10,000. The capital of the company is limited. Its distance from 

 machine-shops for repairing, and the necessit}^ of wagoning twelve 

 miles the sugar product and some of the material used in its manu- 

 facture, are drawbacks to the enterprise; but under the efficient manage- 

 ment of Mr. Wilferling, the superintendent, the company is sanguine of 

 success, both in making good sugar and in realizing a fair i)rofit upou 

 the investment. 



MODE OF CUEING FIGS IN ASIA MINOR. 



E. J. Smithers, esq., United States consul at Smyrna, communicates 

 to the Department some facts in regard to the process of curing figs in 

 that region. The fruit is allowed to ripen on the tree and to fall to the 

 gTOund, where it is allowed to remain three or four days, or until dry 

 enough to bear transportation. It is then collected in hair sacks, and 

 tightly pressed, in order to save space and to prevent fermentation. 

 The sacks are then taken early in the morning to the local market, 

 where professional packers resort to purchase material for the day's 

 packing. At the packing-house the different qualities are assorted, and 

 the fruit skillfully manipulated and moistened with salt water. Each 

 quality is then placed in boxes of different sizes for the general market. 

 The refuse is either sold on the spot for distillation of spirits, or packed 

 indiscriminately, with the feet, into large boxes, to be sold as the com- 

 monest quality. Figs grown here are of a large whitish variety, thin 

 skinned, very juicy and sweet, but unpalatable when fresh. The first is 

 largely cultivated in the neighborhood of Aidin, but the best quality is 

 grown at Nasli. 



COTTON AND CORN IN TEXAS. 



John Dickinson, esq., of Houston, Texas, writes to the Department 

 as follows, under date of July 1, in relation to the cotton and corn crops 

 in Texas : 



The months of April and May ■were too wet in many portions of the State, and heavy 

 drivintf raius did much injuiy by washing the soil. June was very favorable; dry 

 and hot, enabling every one to free their fields from grass and weeds. Showers every- 

 where are needed now, particularly for the late corn, the bulk of the planting. If the 

 dry weather continues a few wegks longer this crop will be seriously diminished. If 

 no rain falls soon we may look for the very early maturing of cotton, at the expense, 

 however, of great wastage, shedding of forms, blooms, and bolls. The general opinion 

 is that the Texas crop this year will be one-fourth less, under even ordinary picking 

 facilities, than that of last year, and that it will be sent earlier to market, and be of a 

 much better quality, as far as careful handling is concerned. The number of bales 

 already received at our ports is 300,000, and it will reach a little beyond it. The crop, 

 apj)arently, is pretty well in. 



HEAVY WOOL-CLIPS. 



The correspondent of the Department in Alameda County, California, 

 sends us a sample of wool taken from the hip of a fleece that weighed 

 78J pounds, sheared from a French merino ram, bred by John D. Pat- 

 terson, esq., on his breeding ranch in that county, from stock imported 

 by him direct from France; length of wool on the hip, one foot. Tie 

 first fleece sheared from this ram, when he was sixteen mouths old, 



