381 
DOG TAX IN ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND. 
The reduced dog tax seems likely to be better collected than the higher duty 
has been. The tax on dogs in England was assessed at only 301,281 dogs in 
1856; in 1866 the number had increased to 358,472, and 79,281 dogs were re- 
turend by surveyors of taxes as exempt. Between the 6th of April and the 31st 
of July, 1867, 656,977 dog licenses were taken out; 367,775 were granted by 
stamp distributors, and 220,202 by officers of excise. In Scotland only 36,365 
dogs were assessed for taxation in the year ending the 24th of May, 1866, and 
44,556 were returned by surveyors of taxes as exempt. Between the 25th of 
May and the 31st of July, 1867, 88,481 dog licenses were granted. 
CALIFORNIA ITEMS. 
George Gordon, of San Francisco, states that an arrangement has been made 
with an association of German and French gentlemen, now engaged in the sugar 
business in Europe, to erect in California factories for the manufacture of raw 
sugar from beets, upon condition that the beets grown in 1868, from seed, prove 
as rich in saccharine matter as represented ; that the sugar refineries then con- 
tract for the raw sugars, and that the land-owners contract to grow sufficient 
beets to keep the several factories working—about fifteen hundred acres to each 
factory. The parties propose to invest $1,500,000 in the business, and to send 
over six hundred to seven hundred skilled workmen. 
During the past ten years California has imported an average of three thou- 
sand firkins of butter per month, at an expense of over $1,000,000 annually. 
There is no good reason why California should not export twice the quantity of 
butter now imported. 
The great ox “Oregon Baby” died in San Francisco last month, when he was 
being fatted for Christmas. He weighed 3,080 pounds, and was daily increasing. 
A strawberry patch of one hundred and thirty acres is reported in Alameda 
county, California. 
It is claimed that California has this year produced thirty-four million gallons 
of wine. 
J. Landsberger, of San Francisco, manufactures monthly two hundred dozen 
champagne, from California wines. He has on hand twenty-five thousand bot- 
tles of it, in different stages of ripening. 
The French journal L’Invention, in speaking of the California wines at the 
exhibition, says: “‘ We believe this manufacture is destined at no distant day to 
compete successfully with us in the markets of the New World.” 
The sheep firm of Flint, Bixby & Co, Monterey county, California, own 75,000 
sheep, which feed on a range of 200,000 acres. ‘The firm commenced sheep 
raising fifteen years ago with a capital of $5,000. ‘The first flock was of the 
common Mexican breeds, which have been improved by imported fine-wool rams. 
The receipts of flour and wheat at San Francisco, from July 1 to November 
27, aggregate, in round numbers, 4,000,000 centals (100 pounds,) being an 
increase of about 1,000,000 centals over the same period of 1866. Exports for 
same time, 3,000,000 centals—1,000,000 centals greater than during corres- 
ponding period of last year. The San Francisco Commercial Herald estimates 
a further export of 2,000,000 centals for the crop of 1867. 
