88 
affords good winter pasture, and if the stock be taken off in March it will mature a 
good crop of grain in June or July. Hungarian grass is a superior variety for 
hay. ‘Reserve grass’ eclipses all, being very luxuriant and nutritious. It is 
exclusively a winter grass, never appearing in summer. If allowed to seed, 
which it does in April, it will reproduce itself perpetually. After grazing it 
through the winter, if permitted to seed, it will yield a fair crop of hay. I con- 
sider it superior to all other winter grasses, and its seed is almost equal to oats.’ 
The vast prairie pastures of the Opelousas prairie, already referred to, contains 
more than 1,200,000 acres, exclusive of the numerous points of woods that 
fringe its margin on all sides. These prairies are admirably adapted to grazg- 
ing, grass covering almost every surface that is not shaded by forests, or not in 
cultivation. In the parish of St. Landry alone there are over half a million 
acres in grass not under fence. On these prairies it is said that 100,000 tons 
of hay might be made yearly for the New Orleans and other markets, and which 
may be made and marketed a month earlier than western and northern crops. 
7. Louisiana possesses great capabilities for fruit culture, and the climate and 
soil present strong inducements to persons desiring to engage in such production. 
In St. Mary parish they have fruits of various kinds from April to Novem- 
ber: “The Japan plum grows all winter and ripens in April; dewberries 
also ripen in April, and grow in abundance; strawberries, blackberries, and 
mulberries ripen in May; plums in June; peaches, quinces, and figs in July, 
and grapes and apples in August. ‘lhe Muscadine, a species of Scuppernong, 
grows wild and ripens in August; pears ripen in August, and grow in great 
perfection ; oranges ripen in October, and usually remain good on the trees till 
December; bananas, limes, and lemons ripen in October.”’ The yield of 
oranges per acre is enormous. Our correspondent writes that “it is usual to 
plant about one hundred trees to the acre below New Orleans on the river. 
Some orchards yield from $10,000 to $20,000 annually. A full-grown tree will 
bear 1,000 oranges, and a single tree has been known to yield 5,000 oranges. 
Trees commence bearing when five years old, when properly managed.” What 
we quote in regard to the capabilities of this parish may be said, with slight 
variation, of most of the lower counties of the State, while in the more northern 
regions many of the fruits named grow in perfection, and in some localities the 
apple succeeds well. Our Rapides reporter writes: ‘‘I1 have a second crop of 
apples this year. They are hard, small, and poor, though they are eaten.” 
In Washington parish a small orchard, chiefly peaches, in one season yielded a 
profit of $4,000, the fruit being early and within close proximity to New Or- 
leans markets. Our East Feliciana correspondent writes: ‘‘ This is one of the 
finest fruit regions in the world. Apples, peaches, pears, quinces, plums, figs, 
grapes, berries, &c., do well, and wild blackberries grow in great abundance, 
from which a superior wine is made. We have, as yet, but few orchards. One 
man this season sold $600 worth of pears from fourteen trees.’”” Though but 
little attention has heretofore been given to fruit culture, the capabilities of the 
State are so evident, and the inducements so strong, in a pecuniary point of 
view, that this production must, at an early day, become a leading interest of 
Louisiana. 
ARKANSAS. 
1. Two counties, Newton and Benton, report considerable increase in prices 
of lands since 1860; others give an average decrease of sixty per cent. (varying 
from twenty to ninety per cent.) since 1860. Jefferson reports lands almost for 
nothing; farms worth $100 per acre before the war would now bring hardly $5 
per acre. Drew reports forced sales at what the creditor pleases to bid—some- 
times only a few cents per acre; Clark, eighty to ninety per cent. decrease 
