487 



EXTRACTS FROM CORRESPOiNDENCE. 



CORN FOR FUEL. 



roitaxvattcmle County. Iowa. — Iowa coal is worth $7 per ton ; wood from |6 to $7 per 

 cord, according to quality. People are burning a good deal of com ; think it as cheap 

 nt 18 cents per bushels as coal or wood, while it is clean, neat, and handy ; no dirty 

 hands and no chopping with dull axes. 



Harding Couittii. — We had an immense crop of corn in 1871, and nearly as large in 

 1872. At the gathering of the last crop there was old corn enough to answer the wants 

 of the country until the harvest of 1873. Thousands upon thousands of bushels that 

 were purchased by dealers and shippers last year have been held over, as there has 

 been no time since the harvest of 1871 when it would pay to shell and ship it. Large 

 quantities are now burned for fuel, as it is thought cheaper to burn at 15 cents per bushel 

 of 75 pounds on the cob, than wood at $5 to $6 per cord. A perpetual or " draw " lime- 

 kiln, running night and day, burned large quantities the past autumn with very satis- 

 factory results as to cost, and an extra quality of lime over that burned with either 

 coal or wood ; so the proprietor informed me. I myself sold to him old corn at 20 

 cents, as preferable to the present crop at 15 cents. He ships to the whole west half of 

 the State, to the Missouri River, and even beyond to Dakota. 



ITNSEASOXABLE WEATHER. IX TEXAS. 



Nu-ece^ CouHit/, Twa."?, Decemoer 1. — On the 16th of November we had ice half an inch 

 thick, and on ithe 17th three-fourths of an inch thick. The winter has commenced 

 five weeks earlier than in 1871. Should the cold weather continue the mortality iu 

 cattle will be greater than last year. The cattle are in poorer condition and the grass 

 is shorter, owing to the protracted drought of the past summer. 



COSTLY HUNTING. 



Prairie Couniy, Arkansas. — The fires following the long drought have devastated the 

 country, the loss in this county being about $1.50,000. This enormous loss has been 

 caused by hunters from Tennessee and Kentucky setting fire to the woods. 



THE TIME TO sow WHEAT AND CLOVER IN SOUTH CAROLINA. 



Greenville County, South Carolina. — Ninety-nine times in a hundred wheat planted 

 here by the 10th of October will yield a good crop by the 10th of June. Clover-seed 

 rolled in at the same time with the wheat will give a crop of stubble-hay after the 

 wheat comes off, better than corn-fodder for cattle. If the land is good the clover,' 

 which stands three years, yields a larger profit in hay than can be gained by any other 

 crop. Then clover-sod plowed in and put to cox-n will give thirty bushels to the acre. 

 Then, with six wagon-loads of barn-yard manure, plowed iu, the wheat-crop will be 

 from twelve to fifteen bushels per acre. 



EARLY SNOW IN UTAH. 



Salt Lale City, rt<i}i Territory, December 1, 1872.— On the 26th of October we had the 

 first snow-storm of the season,which was very severe, lasting from Saturday night to Tues- 

 day noon following. A night of dismal coldness succeeded, and storms and cold weather 

 have prevailed up to the present, with but little cessation. Large quantities of winter- 

 apples have been frozen on the trees, and considerable quantities of carrots and other 

 roots have frozen in the ground. The " oldest inhabitant" of these mountains has 

 never before seen winter set in so early and so severely. Mining and other induijtries 

 seem almost paralyzed — none expecting find none being prepared to meet the inclem- 

 encies of an almost arctic winter while yet a month or more of the fall season remained. 

 Much annoyance and considerable suffering has resulted from the temporary stoppage 

 of the operations at the coal-beds. ' 



AN OVERPLUS OK W'lIEAT. 



« 



Alameda County, California, Septemhcrl. — Thousands of sacks of wheat still remain on the 

 field where it was thrashed, there being no place to store it. Granaries and warehouses 

 -ire full, and not one-half ships enough to take the surplus away. Freight now to 

 Liverpool £5 10?. against £2 10s. last season. In proportion as freights go up the price 

 of wheat declines. There are needed in San Francisco Bay one hundred more ships, 

 than are there to export grain. The high prices of labor, sacks, and freights have 

 about discouraged the farmers, so that they are at present doing but little toward pi\t- 



