32 



left to buy na much more. What country can present a parallel to tliisf 

 In what other country can a man make a net profit sufficient to buy 

 twice as much land as he cultivates ? 



CORK TREE IN MISSISSIPPI. 



Wau)ie County, Bliss. — In the winter of 1859 I received a small tin case 

 of iSpauish cork-oak acorns from the Agricultural Department. I planted 

 them, and all came up. One of the trees, now the largest, was planted 

 in a flower garden, in the midst of a group of rose-bushes, and has grown 

 to be about thirteen feet high, and the trunk is eleven inches in diameter. 

 In growth and appearance it is much like the live oak, being an ever- 

 green. The cork around the body is more than an inch thick. My land 

 is i^oor, consisting of a sandy soil with clay subsoil — in short, the sterile 

 I)ine land of East Mississippi, sixty miles north of Mobile, Alabama. 

 This will account for the slow gTowth of my cork oaks. I have no doubt 

 that in the region bordering on the Gulf the cork oak would succeed 

 admirably. 



LABOR IN DE SOTO COUNTY, MISS. 



De Soto County, Hiss. — The good crop and remunerative price of cot 

 ton in this county the past year will tend to lessen all other crops and 

 increase the acreage of that great staple the coming year. Our negro 

 laborers have made money, and begin the new year generally ui)on the 

 same farms, Avith brighter hopes, and, I think, will do better than ever 

 before. We have not laborers enough, and great efforts are being made 

 to bring immigrants this way. A considerable number of Swedes, Irish, 

 and Englishmen have recently come into this country, while our own 

 jjeople from the Northern and Atlantic States are rapidly coming hither, 

 and our waste places wall soon be occupied by intelligent farmers 

 and mechanics. 



FERTILIZERS, PEANUTS, ETC., IN MISSISSIPPI. 



Clarice County, Miss. — I find but two articles to report on for December, 

 corn and potatoes. Last spring I subsoiled one-seventh of an acre very 

 poor land, xdanted it in corn, j^utting one table-spoonful of Pacific guano 

 to each hill. From this I gathered eight bushels of good corn, notwith- 

 standing the very dry and hot weather at the time it was silking and 

 tasSeling. I find that the Arachis, (peanut,) especially the large red kind, 

 which I have named Arachis erecta, is better to raise for stock in this sec- 

 tion of the country than corn. The poorest land here will produce fifty 

 bushels to the acre and one ton of haulm, which horses, cows, and sheej) 

 are very fond of; in a word, a horse will fatten on it without corn. 



LABOR IN LOUISIANA. 



St. Tammany Farish, La. — Colored laborers have done well under the 

 contract system. Most farmers pay one-half at the end of each month, 

 the balance at the time the crops are gathered. Colored men who have 

 small farms in charge show a marked improvement in stock. 



LABOR IN CARROLL PARISH, LA. 



Carroll Parish, La. — Everything and everybody are astir for another 

 cotton and corn crop. Most every one is easy as regards money* mat- 



