72 



lost three pigs and two hogs, and yet have been suiTounded by hog 

 cholera each year. Hogs should not be fed in the morning in the spring 

 and early fall ; they will eat and bed up together when the mornings are 

 cool, and of course at night. Being thus bedded up together nearly all 

 the time will produce disease of itself. If not fed they will stir out to 

 hunt something to eat. Give them a good feed at night and they wiU 

 lie down and digest it well. The largest hog- grower in this county fol- 

 lows these rules and is never troubled with hog cholera. 



LARGE YIELD OF OATS. 



A correspondent sends the statement of J. T. Merriam, of Geauga 

 County, Ohio, accompanied with an affidavit to the verity of the facts, 

 showing a yield of twenty i)ounds of oats raised from the product of five 

 heads sown on one rod and thirty and one-half feet of land, giving a 

 yield of ninety bushels to the acre. 



Mr. Merriam states in his affidavit that these oats were of a variety 

 unknown to him, and that they grew from twelve to eighteen inches 

 higher than the oats of another variety in the same field, and that some 

 of the heads measured from twenty to twenty-three inches in length, 

 producing from two hundred and fifty to three hundred and twenty ker- 

 nels of grain to each head. 



In another statement, Mr. Merriam says that he raised from one bag 

 of oats, (containing less than one quart,) received from the Department 

 of Agriculture, and sown on three rods and twenty-six and one-half feet 

 of land, forty-nine and one-half pounds, giving a product at the rate of 

 eighty bushels to the acre. 



FLORIDA PRODUCTS. 



A correspondent in New Smyrna, Volusia County, Florida^ urges the 

 Commissioner of Agriculture to supply, by aid of government vessels or 

 otherwise, new varieties of cane, oranges, bananas, and figs, for propa- 

 gation in that latitude. The want of such facilities for extending the 

 culture of tropical fruits is greatly deplored, and government aid is 

 earnestly sought. He refers to the following as the peculiar products 

 of this region : 



Prominent among these are sugar cane, oranges, lemons, limes, figs, 

 guavas, and, in this section, bananas. There are some facts concerning 

 several of these that may be new to you, and which form the basis of 

 the suggestion mentioned above. 



Sugar cane, — It is the general opinion of sugar planters that, owing 

 to the prevailing custom of planting tops and inferior cane, as well as 

 to hybridizing of the various kinds raised, our cane is very much de- 

 generated. 



Oranges. — There is but one variety accessible to the mass of the 

 people, and this, in some parts of the State, is becoming so much infested 

 with the scale insect as to make it necessary to cut down and burn up 

 the trees. A grove of filteen hundred trees within twelve miles of here 

 is now undergoing this severe remedy, and probably not a tree will be 

 left standing. St. John's River was visited by the same destruction 

 several years since, and may be again at any time. No grove in this 

 county is free from the insect, so far as I am acquainted. 



Bananas. — This fruit is hardy here in ordinary seasons, and produc- 

 tive, but out of the great variety that exists in other countries there are 



