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other varieties of wheat in this region. Since that period Mr. McMahon has 
been raising this grain and selling several hundred bushels yearly to the farmers 
of this section at an advanced price. The grain has been ground for flour and 
found to produce exceedingly well. The average product per acre has been 
thirty-one bushels, weighing sixty-two pounds per bushel. It is now the popu- 
lar grain of this portion of the State, where the mercury falls to 28° below zero 
in winter. 
Lancaster county, Pennsylvania—On the 18th of September, 1866, I seeded 
one quart of early Boughton wheat received from the Department of Agriculture. 
It was fully ripened twelve days before our earliest variety, (early red chaff,) 
and yielded seventy-nine pounds, not being injured in the least by the midge. 
A neighbor of mine seeded one quart of the same variety and harvested seventy- 
seven and three-quarter quarts of good clean wheat. If it does anything like 
as well next season it will be the wheat for this section. It stands the winter 
well. 
EARLY SOWING OF WHEAT. 
Randolph county, North Carolina—I think the farmers of this section are 
too backward in seeding down their fall crops. I sowed eight acres of fallow 
land with winter wheat in September, and by the last of October it pretty nearly 
covered the ground. When sowed early it is better able to withstand a severe 
winter, the blades being a covering and protection for the roots. 
THE HOP CROP. 
Sauk county, Wisconsin—The hop crop of this county is enormous, being 
100 per cent. ahead of last year. The crop this year will bring into the county 
$3,000,000. 
TOBACCO GROWN WITHOUT SUCKERS. 
A. Packham, esq., of Prestonville, Carroll county, Kentucky, furnishes 
the following’ directions to tobacco-growers who would save the labor and trouble 
_ of suckering their plants several times during the season : 
«“ At the time when suckering is about necessary, provide yourself with a 
small tin oil-can, the tinner making the spout of it with a sharp point, similar 
in shape to the blade of a penknife; then filling your can with a solution of 
crude potash, go through the motion of suckering by breaking off such as you 
see, and then with the point of your can make an incision down obliquely into 
the stalk, just at the spot between the stem and the stalk, where the sucker 
would grow, dropping into the incision so made one drop of the potash. ‘This 
is the whole secret. It will not injure the valuable leaf, check its growth, or 
hurt the plant, but it will kill the germ of the future sucker. With practice a 
person can doctor a plant as above stated with as much celerity as one can the 
suckering, and will thus save the trouble of going over and suckering millions 
of plants every year.” 
LESPEDEZA STRIATA, OR BUSH CLOVER, 
B. D. Lamsden, of Eatonton, Georgia, in writing to the department in 
relation tothe Lespedeza striata, or bush clover, now attracting considerable at- 
tention in middle Georgia, says : 
«Tt is an annual, and has leaves in threes, like clover. The flowers are like 
those of the pea and bean, and the seeds somewhat resemble a bean, but are 
encased in separate shields. Its history or origin no one knows. If it is the 
Lespedeza striata it came from Florida, as the plant which bears that name was 
discovered there and called after one of its governors. It was noticed in this 
county (Putnam) five or six years ago, and has rapidly spread over the whole 
county ; every field and lane having more or less in the fence corners. Last 
year I saved some of it for hay, which was readily eaten by all kinds of stock. 
