CURRENT FACTS IN AGRICULTURE. 449 
gia, who employs sixty hands in cultivating his land, and who is also a 
merchant, furnishing supplies to about fifty neighboring planters, tak- 
ing the products of their plantations in payment in the fall, writes that, 
notwithstanding the fact that the same land which grows 15 to 20 bush- 
els of corn, worth $20 fo $30, will produce 700 to 1,000 pounds of seed- 
cotton, worth $35 to $75, experience and observation convince him 
that the all-cotton system is unprofitable. His experience is that those 
who buy all their corn and meat never have any surplus money; 
those who buy all their meat and a portion of their corn have some money 
left, according to the proportion of the home supply of corn; those who 
raise all their corn, buying meat, do better still; while those who raise 
both corn and meat are most prosperous of all. In his judgment the 
explanation is, that a skillful manager can, at the same time, raise an 
ample supply of corn and nearly a full crop of cotton, doing the chief 
part of the work on the corn crop before beginning the harvest work on 
the cotton. It is a question of complete utilization of time on the one 
hand, and waste of time on the other. 
Steam-plowing in Cuba.—A sugar-planter in Cuba writes that in No- 
vember, 1868, he commenced work with one of the Fowler steam-plows, 
(running with two engines of fourteen-horse power each,) and since then 
has broken up 2,000 acres of strong clay land intermixed with stones of 
all sizes, and resting for the most part on a stone bottom, plowing to an 
average depth of eighteen inches. The plow having been managed by 
an experienced hand, the breakages have been few and of a trivial char- 
acter, and the wire-rope is still in excellent condition. The lands of the 
estate have been doubled in value by steam-plowing, and what was for- 
merly almost an impervious marsh, the effect partly of nature and partly 
of inefficient cultivation, has been reduced to a porous soil. 
Harvesting wheat in California.—A. California writer states that in his 
region wheat is often cut, thrashed, and put in sacks on the same day. 
The “ header,” which is now generally used instead of the reaper, cuts 
the straw midway, and makes a swath twice as wide as that made by 
the reaper. With two headers and five wagons a large thrashing-ma- 
chine is kept running, and in this manner 1,500 bushels of, wheat (or 
the crop of forty acres) are harvested in a single day. 
A suggestive experiment.—One of the largest wheat-growers in Cali- 
fornia has avoided the expense of commission, tolls, storage, &c., by 
shipping his ‘wheat direct to Liverpool. He chartered a ship, which 
was hauled in at the end of the Central Pacific Railroad wharf, at Oak- 
land, and in a few hours 1,200 tons of grain were brought alongside and 
stowed, and the vessel returned to the stream, ready for her voyage, 
without having incurred any wharfage charges. 
Preservation of hops.—By means of an air-tight “refrigerating cham- 
ber,” recently invented, hops may be preserved for a long time without 
deterioration. A brewer of Albany, New York, states that he put 
twenty-four bales of New York hops in one of these chambers, February 
15, 1869. They were examined several times during the ensuing sum- 
mer, fall, and winter, without exhibiting any lossin quality. A portion 
of these hops used during the winter of 186970 showed no change of 
color, and proved in every respect equal to the new crop. 
Hops in Alabama.—Dr. E. H. Sholl, of Sumter County, Alabama, states 
that in February, 1868, he and Mr. E. Kring planted one and a half 
acre in hops, manuring liberally with home-made superphosphate. The 
vines grew vigorously, and were poled May 8. At date of June 3 some 
of the hops were fully matured, and the entire crop was gathered by 
July 20. -In January, 1869, seven and a half acres were set out, and 
29 A 
