164 



cept a little (3Dd of the picco piotacted by u l)oar<l feucc. October 7, i.-ifjv/ed fo;;r (ir.iirt;i 

 same variety, Avbich is also all winter-killed. Tlio i)a3t winter liaa been tliu most 

 severe on v.'inter- wheat we have bad for many year3. A good rain a few days ago has 

 revived the little wheat still alive. September 8, 1 sowed one Held of Iowa Amber. 

 From present appearances, it will make half or two-thirds of a eroj). On the Ibllowing 

 day I sowed another field of the same variety of wheat, which looks as though it 

 vv'ould make three-fourths of a crop. 



EULTZ WHEAT IN Cai.houn County, ALABAMA. — Mr. E. 'J\ Head 

 writes from Jacksouville, Alabama, iiuder date of April 7 : 



Vvlieat is uioi'o backward in appearance than usual at this season of tlie year, but 

 we have high hopes of a good crop. The Fultz wheat has stood the cohl weather oi 

 winter best of any thus far. I think it v/ill bo a success here. 



Excelsior oats. — Mr. Joliu De Lyser, of Sheboygan County, Wis- 

 consin, gives the following as tiio result of his experiments with Excel- 

 sior oats : 



In the spring of 1869 I received Ixom the IJepartment of Agriculture 10 pouud.s of 

 Excelsior oats. Owing to the wet season, I only succeeded in raising li bushels, 

 weighing 40 pounds to the bushel. In 1870, 1 sowed this seed on a half acre of ground, 

 and secured 22 bushels of oats, weighing 42 jjounds to the bushel. Last spring I 

 soAvcd 11 bushels on four and one-half acres, and raised 40 bushels to the acre, (thrasher 

 measure,) weighing 49 pounds to the bushel, being GI-jy bushels (of :32 pounds to the 

 bushel) per acre. 



Tahiti cotton. — In January, 1S71, this "Department received through 

 Hon. Geo. M. Eobeson, Secretary of the Wavj^, a specimen of the cotton 

 staple grown in the island of Tahiti. The staple was of such unnsuisl 

 length and fineness that the then Commissioner at once wrote to Hon. 

 Dorance Atwater, our consul at Tahiti, requesting him to x>rocure from 

 two to five bushels of the seed for experimental purposes in the extreme 

 Southern or Gulf States. Secretary Eobeson, in his letter transmitting 

 the sample of cotton, informs the Department that the naval officer for- 

 warding it states that in the year 1870 tvro million pounds of the 

 cotton were sold in France at $1 per pound. About six bushels of this 

 seed were received from Mr. Atwater, a, few weeks ago, iind five bushels 

 of it wei-e at once forwarded, in packages of oue peck each, to lead- 

 ing cotton-growers of the South. The remainder, about one bushel, was 

 forwarded to the Cotton-Growing Association of California. 



TouzELLE wheat. — Professor J. W. Mallet, of Albemarle County, 

 Virginia, says of the White Touzelle wheat : 



The grain ripened rather earlier than most of the wheat in this region; v.ao fall 

 and plump, Aveighing62i jjounds to the bushel, and was a good deal adntiracl b,y many 

 farmers, who considered it likely to prove a useful variety here. 



Fine crop of sugar-cane. — The Louisiana Sugar Bowl, of April i, 

 says that the Patent Brothers last year cultivated 100 arpents of plant, 

 and 70 arpents of stubble-cane, with tv»'enty hands, and made 225 hogs- 

 heads of sugar, weighing about 300,000 ])Ounds. This is equal to a yield 

 of 1,70-li pounds to the arpent, which, at an average of 7 cents per 

 pound, y-lelded within a fraction of 6110.32 per arpent. The same hands 

 also made enough corn to supply the plautation duriug this year. Be- 

 sides their OAvn crop the Patent Brothers ground the small crops df eipht 

 or ten of their neighbors, amounting to about 75 hogsheads more, tney 

 receiving about one-third of this sugar, which swelled their crop to about 

 250 hogsheads last year. 



Wine product of 1871. — In a i)aper read before the jMississippi 

 Valley Vine-growers' Association at a recent session, I^Ir. Bush estima- 

 ted the production of Missouri at 1,000,000 gallons; Illinois, 1,200,000 5 

 ISIew York, 2,250,000; other States east of the Kocky Mountains 

 1,000,,000; Calitbrnia, 7,000,000; total, 12,150,000. Mr. Bush predicts 



