85 
home consumption, and made subsidiary to it. For many years past the yield 
per acre of the great staple has been steadily diminishing under the careless 
system of culture which obtains, no return being made to the soil for the con- 
tinued and exhaustive demands made upon it. An almost universal complaint 
is made of the unprofitableness of cotton culture at present prices, and in the 
unsettled condition of labor, and a determination expressed to devote more 
attention to the cereals and root crops, some of which are well suited to the soil 
and climate. 
5. Red May, purple-straw, blue-stem, Orleans, white May, red Mediterranean, 
common white, and other varieties of wheat are sown. Winter wheat is almost 
exclusively grown, but the crop is a very uncertain one, and but little care taken 
in its culture ; drilling is almost unknown, the “ brush drag” being frequently 
used to cover the grain sown upon roughly-ploughed land. Red May, Orleans 
May, blue-stem, and purple-straw are especially mentioned as being earlier, more 
hardy, and less liable to rust, the great enemy of the wheat crop in that region. 
Seeding is done during October and November, and harvesting from May 20 to 
June 20. 
6. No special attention has been given to the cultivation of grasses. Crab 
grass is the most common of the indigenous kinds, springing up in oat fields 
and taking complete possession of the corn lands as soon as the cultivation of 
the crop ceases, thus furnishing good summer pasture. On worn-out lands broom 
sedge springs up, affording good early pasture, but becoming too dry and harsh 
by midsummer. In many places the Bermuda grass has taken firm foothold, 
and within a few years the Lespedeza has made its appearance, displacing all 
other varieties, and proving a very valuable acquisition to the pastures. In 
Marengo and Hale counties red clover has been found to do well on the richer 
soils, but is not generally cultivated. Some other varieties, such as flag grass, 
“nimble Will,” &c., have good local reputation. 
7. Fruits, in great variety, flourish. Apples, peaches, pears, plums, figs, apri- 
cots, pomegranates, grapes, melons, berries, &c., are grown, or grow spontane- 
ously; but little attention, however, is paid to fruit culture, except for home 
consumption. ‘The Scuppernong grape is reported by a correspondent in Ma- 
rengo county to be entirely free from rot, and to yield certainly and largely. 
In Perry county 3,000 to 4,000 quarts of strawberries per acre, valued at 20 
cents to 50 cents per quart, is not considered an unusual yield. A far- 
mer in Macon county realized $87 50 from the melons grown upon one-eighth 
of an acre, 
LOUISIANA. 
1. In the present unsettled condition of affairs in Louisiana, as in the other 
States of that section of the country, it is difficult to approximate the relative 
value of farm lands as compared with the census estimates of 1860. Our cor- 
respondents in no instance report the decrease in price at less than thirty-three 
per cent., and, in some cases, give it as high as ninety per cent., the former 
figures being returned for Washington, and the latter for Tensas and Concordia, 
with no demand and few sales other than forced, and little money in the country 
to purchase. ‘The average for the State, on the basis of these returns, is seventy 
per cent. Our Tensas correspondent writes: ‘Within a year two of the 
most valuable estates have been assessed by order of the court, (the owner 
having deceased,) and the value placed on land, with every necessary improve- 
ment, was $5 per acre for the cleared, and $10 per acre for the portion in timber. 
In 1859 about 400 acres of one of these places were sold at $125 per acre, and 
$18,000 in cash paid upon it, but within the past twelve months the purchaser 
obtained a release of the purchase by forfeiting this payment. During 1860, 
when the levees were intact, these same lands could not have been purchased 
for $130 per acre, and would readily have commanded that price at public sale. 
