91 



Culture of cereals in Virginia. — Mr. John A. Pixcker, Tappa- 

 banuook, Essex County, says : 



The- Fultz wheat and Excelsior rye and oats you so kindly sent me in October last 

 all bid fair to atforda large yield for the quantity seeded. The wheat has more branches 

 than I have seen. The cultivation of wheat, formerly our staple crop, we have to 

 abandon and substitute other crops. Fifteen yeirs ago we obtained from 20 to 25 

 bushels per acre. Now we do not average 5 bushels; and yet other crops Lave not 

 diminished, thus showing that our failure to nmke wheat is not caused by want of 

 strength iu the laud, but by other causes not yet discovered. 



Cotton experiments in North Carolina. — Mr. F. A. Arcliibald, 

 Concord, North Carolina, discards both Egyptian and Chinese cotton, as 

 producing only half the quantity of lint of the Gulf cotton. He finds 

 Boyd's Prolific to yield about 1,000 pounds of seed-cotton per acre, 

 worth $18 50; Dixon, 850 pounds, worth $18 50; Gulf cotton, 750 pounds, 

 ATorth $18; Holmes's Prolific, 750 pounds, worth $18; Peeler, 950 

 pounds, worth $20 25; Egyptian, 375 pounds; Chinese, 300 pounds. 



Sea-island cotton. — Mr. Evan Evans, of Charleston, South Caro- 

 lina, says the cultivation of sea-island cotton has become so precarious 

 from uncertainty of labor and want of capital that it must be super- 

 seded by some other crop. He therefore solicits jute-seed for his plan- 

 tation on Saint John's Island. 



Grapes and wine on Kellby's Island, Lake Erie. — Addison 

 Kelley, president of the Kelley's Island Wine Company, says : 



The Kelley's Island Wine Company have made this year 155,000 gallons, and other 

 parties here'l3-2,000 gallons. The Kelley's Island Wine Company made an addition of 

 six new wine-cellars, each 128 feet long, and put in six steam-presses, adding 250,000 

 gallons capacity, and making the whole capacity 350,000 gallons. 



New conditions of culture in Florida. — A correspondent in 

 Alachua County says : 



I formerly owned one hundred and ten slaves, and made 100 bales of sea-island cot- 

 ton. I had Ji large stock of cattle, &c. I now own 2,000 acres, one-half cleared and 

 fenced. In 1866 I worked eighty-live hands, thirtj^ of whom were males. I am now 

 convinced from esperieuca that four plows, with high manuring and diversity of crops, 

 will furnish a better supjiort and a larger income than I formerly received from all my 

 former slaves. 



I shall plant 10 acres in arrow-root this year. From an experiment with a quarter of 

 an acre I made at the rate of $500 per acre. The yield is large and certain, but the pro- 

 cess is tedious. If you could tell us where the machine could be got to grate or pound 

 it, or indicate the best process of drying, &c., we could make enough in a few years to 

 supply the demand without importation. 



Irrigation in Utah. — Two bills have been introduced in Congress 

 in aid of irrigation in Utah. One of these contemplates the incorpora- 

 tion of a company with a capital of $1,000,000, for the irrigation of 

 Bear Eiver Valley, by means of a canal to be constructed from the 

 lower falls of Bear Eiver to the northern end of Great Salt Lake ; and 

 it is proposed that, for this purpose, three sections of public land per 

 mile on each side of the canal be granted to the company. The canal 

 is to be 10 feet wide at the water-level, and 4 feet deep, and is to have 

 a uniform current of not less than two miles per hour. The other bill 

 has in view the construction of a canal on each side of the Jordan 

 River, to irrigate and reclaim desert-lands lying along that river, and 

 extending from Utah Lake to Great Salt Lake. For this purpose alter- 

 nate sections of land lying between the lines of the canals and the river 

 are to be granted to the Territory of Utah ; the land and its proceeds 

 to be applied solely td the enterprise in question; sales to be authorized 

 only as the work progresses. The legislature of the Territory is em- 

 powered to incorporate a company or companies, and to transfer to 



