450 AGKICULTURAL REPORT. 



luster, aud quality. It is now proposed to establish, at ceutral locations 

 iu silk-raising districts, reeling factories;, or " flfe/iers de onotiUnage,'^ us 

 tliey are called in France, where cocoons may be reeled " into grege, 

 trains, and organzincs." These will afford a market to whicli small pro- 

 ducers can bring tlieir cocoons, and at which they can be assorted and 

 reeled in uniform threads of different grades, and in quantities to suit 

 manufacturers. 



Fish-culture in California. — Tlie recent report of the president of the 

 California Acclimati/iug Society stated that the society had then iu its 

 possession 12,138 eastern trout, oUO Tahoe trout, 1,100 Kalmon-trout, 

 1,700 San Andreas trout, and 9 bass. During the year there had been 

 constructed nine ponds, a dwelling-house for the workmen, a hatching- 

 house, hatching-boxes, tiumes, dams, &c. 



Salmon on the Pacific coast. — Reports from the Columbia River fisheries, 

 for the four months ending August 1, 1872, show 170,000 salmon canned, 

 dressed weight 2,700,000 pounds, value $132,000 5 salmoai taken for 

 curing, 162,500, dressed weight 2,000,000 pounds, value 8117,000. 



Electrical treatment of tvine. — It is stated that the quality of v.ines 

 may be improved by passing through them an electrical current from 

 platinum electrodes. 



The spectroscope in testing u'ines. — Mr. J. C. Scoby, of England, has 

 successfully applied the spectroscope for testing the purity of wine. 



Artesian wells in Southern California. — The Los Angeles Star stated, 

 in the early part of the current year, that there were then about one 

 hundred artesian wells iil that county, half of them running. One of 

 the best was only 27 feet deep, two 29, and another 32 feet, and these 

 were the shallowest artesian wells in ihe State. These, with a fifth of 92 

 feet, and a sixth of 135 feet in depth, are situated within a radius of 

 four miles, and taken together throw up 1,000,000 gallons daily. Their 

 average bore is 7 inches. 



Clover in Georgia. — Mr. E. B. Baxter, of the Hancock County (Geor- 

 gia) Agricultural Club, in September, 1871, on three-quarters of an acre 

 of mulatto soil, carefully plowed and haxrowed, sowed one peck of clean 

 clover-seed. The first cutting was in January, and gave 3,840 pounds 

 of hue fragrant hay. In April a barrel of plaster was applied broad- 

 cast just after a small shower of rain, and on August 12 a second cut- 

 ting was made, estimated to have been equivalent to 2,000 pounds of 

 hay, but this crop was nearly all spoiled by four days of continuous rain. 



Clover-seed in Western New TorJc. — A firm in Waterloo, IsTew York, 

 writing in May, 1872, stated that the amount of clover-seed shipped 

 from that station during the season reached 1,330,857 pounds, making 

 more than GQ car-loads. The amount forwarded from Geneva was es- 

 timated at about 233,000 pounds; from Seneca Falls, 145,000 pounds- 

 total, 1,708,857 pounds, or over 854 tons. The entire crop of the section 

 was about 30,000 bushels, and iu many cases the yield had ranged as 

 high as 5 bushels ])er acre. One grower obtained 315 bushels from 48 

 acres, averaging G bushels and 33 pounds per acre, and the crop sold 

 for over 82,200. It was of the large variety and of extra quality. 



Alfalfa on sage-brush land. — The Reno Crescent, of Reno, Nevada, re- 

 ports 13J tons of alfalfa seed sold iu that town in the spring of 1872, 

 against 3 tons sold iu 1871. The same paper gives the names of twelve 

 persons, who, in 1872, on 025 acres of sage-brush land, hitherto deemed 

 worthless, raised 1,995 tons of alfalfa hay, in some cases reaching an 

 average of G tons per acre. The much smaller general average here 

 shown is partly from the fact that while some grow for hay alone, others 

 graze for a portion of the season, and others devote part of the acreage 



