344 



Note. — S. smooth ; B. bearded ; S. B. short beards ; S. and B. both smooth and bearded heads. 



Excelsior oats. — Mr. S. S. Fenn, of l^ez Perees County, Idaho, 

 received from this Department, in the spring of 18(50, two and a half 

 pounds of the Excelsior oats. He sowed the seed about the 1st of June, 

 and harvested 179 pounds. This product was sown tlie following year, 

 and produced 194J bushels, weighing 49 pounds per bushel. The laud 

 was irrigated and otherwise prepared with great care. 



In another case one acre was sown with the Excelsior oats about the 

 last of May, 1870, and 79^ bushels, of 49 pounds each, were harvested. 

 This crop was raised on high and dry ground, without irrigation. The 

 straw was bright and strong, and averaged 4 feet above ground. The 

 common varieties of oats cultivated in that region average only GO bush- 

 els, weighing 34 pounds each, and were considered an excellent crop 

 when raised without irrigation. Other attempts at the cultivation of 

 these oats in this region have met with flattering results. 



Olive culture in Georgia. — Mr. P. M. Nightingale, of Brunswick, 

 Georgia, writes us his observations and experience in the culture of the 

 olive, and the manufacture of olive oil, as follows : 



I have succes.sfully cultivated tlio olive on Cuniberlaiid Island, my former place ol 

 residence, and before the war I made a very superior quality of sweet-oil, i)ronouiiced 

 by very fiood judges to be quite equal, if not superior, to the best that has been im- 

 port<'d. The olive grows with little care and great rapidity on Cumberland Island, and 

 it is the impression of all who have seen tbe grove on that island, that the trees com- 

 pare very favorably in point of size with those in Europe. They bear nearly every 

 year, and produce two to three bushels of fruit to the tree. Each bushel of olives will 

 yield one to two gallons of oil. I also succeeded iu pickling the olives, but not to my 

 entire satisfaction. This yn'ocess is more diHicult, and requires more care and judg- 

 ment than extracting and preparing the oil. The fruit must be in exactly the right 

 state for pickling. If that stage is passed, the pickles, though very nice at first, will 

 not keep. If, on the contrary, the fruit is gathered for this process before it is 

 stifficieutly matured, it becomes hard and tasteless. Tlie olive tree is easily propa- 

 gated from cuttings, layers or shorts, or by ingrafting into the root. It begins to bear 

 in aljout six years, but does not produce abuudautly imtil it is ten or twelve years old. 

 When matured it is larger than the largest apple tree. The oldest trees ou Cumber- 



