522 



luul the effect to rednoe the price of No, 1 giaiiulat^d sugar in Califor- 

 iiia li to 2 cents per pound, and to make it 1 cent per pound lower, on 

 the average, tluin in the New York market. 



Cheese-^iaking- in Texas. — A Mr. Brown, avIio emigrated from 

 Jefferson Comity, New York, to Erath County, Texas, began there 

 experiments in cheese-making, in 18GD. With rude apparatus, he made, 

 from 35 common Texas range cows, 1,000 pounds; lost 700 pounds of 

 it, and sold the rest for 35 cents per i)ound. With better apparatus, 

 obtained from the North in 1870, he made, from 40 cows of the same 

 grade, 2,000 pounds, and lost about 300. Inferring that the loss was 

 not owing to climate, cows, or feed, but td improper management of the 

 business in that untried climate, ho improved the winter following in 

 gaining information from the best authorities on cheese-making; i)ro- 

 cured Bavarian prepared rennet, and last season tried again, and with 

 very satisfactory results, not losing 10 pounds. He estimates that with 

 good management an ordinary Texas cow will make, during the season, 

 100 pounds of cheese, besides rearing a calf, and that at least $40 worth 

 of pork may be raised on the whey from her milk, properly fed out. 



Agriculture in Idaho. — Mr. J.II. Evans, Lewiston, Idaho, writes to 

 this Department, under date of October 11, that it was thought until 

 the last few years that mining was the only pursuit that would pay in 

 that upper country ; but that the last three years have developed the 

 fact that there is ii vast agricultural country along the table-lands and 

 valleys of the Blue and Cieur d'Alene Mountains. 



A brief description of the Genesee Valley, in about the latitude of 

 40°, will apply in most respects to numberless others. This valk\y is ten 

 miles from Lewiston, the capital of Nez Perce Count}^, at the conflu- 

 ence of the Kooskooskie with the Lewis and Clark branch of the Co- 

 lumbia liiver, and is some fourteen miles long, and from half to one 

 mile wide. The soil is a vegetable mold, slightly intermixed with sand, 

 from two to three feet deep, resting upon a clay subsoil. Water, dur- 

 ing the dryest part of the year, is found at the depth of 12 to 10 feet, 

 pure and cold, while along the smaller valleys intersecting the Gene- 

 wee are to be found numberless springs. Timber consists of pine, fir. 

 tamarack, and cedar, and is inexhaustible. The hills are coA'ered with 

 the finest bunch-grass, which has remained green and tender all sum- 

 mer, upon which cattle and horses thrive as well as upon any of the 

 tame grasses. Stock-raising is destined to be one of the leading pur- 

 suits, as the mild winters render it unnecessary to provide but a small 

 amount of food ; indeed, thousands of Indian horses and cattle go 

 through every winter without any feed. There is only one man in many 

 miles who had any crop the present season, and he had wheat, oats, 

 and barley of a superior description. He also had fine vegetables of all 

 the common kinds. There was frost every month the iiast summer on 

 the low, moist land, but none on the hill-sides until the 25th of Septem- 

 ber. Apples, pears, peaches, plums and grapes, do splendidly along 

 the Clearwater Eiver. 



New x\-GiiicuLTURAL Societies.— John E. Hauser, Grundy County, 

 Tennessee, writes to this Department, under date of October 30, that 

 the interests of agricultural progress must necessarily lead the farmers 

 to this Department for advice and support, and that he takes pleasure 

 in announcing the organization of the Agricultural Society of New 

 Switzerland, composed of a Swiss colony in Grundy County, Tennessee, 

 counting now^ twenty-eight members, and enjoying a healthy and flourish- 

 ing condition. Heretofore, the Cumberland I\lountains have been re- 



