i CURRENT FACTS IN AGRICULTURE. 451 
and that, in order to encourage their presence in the summer, he has 
been in the habit of allowing free access to his corn-crib during the 
winter. 
Solution for destroying insects.—Mr. Cloéz, of the garden of the Paris 
Museum, gives in the Revue Horticole an efficacious recipe for destroy- 
ing plant-lice and other insects. Three and a half ounces quassia chips, 
and five drachms staves-acre seeds, in powder, are placed in seven pints 
of water and boiled down to five pints. When cooled, the strained 
liquid is ready for use, either in a watering-pot or syringe. 
Feeding fish to stock in coast regions.—At the farmers’ convention at 
Lewiston, Maine, in January, 1870, Mr. Warren, of Ellsworth, stated 
that he had fed “ fish-chum” to his sheep and poultry, in the place of 
corn and turnips, for some time, and his experience was that it was 
worth as much per pound ascorn. He gave two quarts of the “chum” 
to eyery dozen sheep. By a new method of preparation, all offensive 
odor had been removed from it, and cows and sheep consumed it eagerly. 
Secretary Goodale, of the State Board of Agriculture, said that he had 
had the feeding of sheep with refuse fish under his observation for ten 
years, and that it had proved very satisfactory. It was used to best 
advantage as a supplement to bog-hay and other inferior fodder, deficient 
in nitrogenous clements. 
Tobacco in Ohio.—lt is estimated that the tobacco crop of the Miami 
Valley this year will reach 12,000,000 pounds. The quality of the pro- 
duct is thought to nearly equal that of the Connecticut gold-leaf. A 
large portion has been sold at 17 cents per pound, at which rate the 
crop would realize $2,040,000. The average value of the crop per acre 
is over $200. Nearly three-fourths of the whole product was grown in 
Montgomery County. 
Tobacco-growing in Massachusetts.—The estimated annual value of the 
tobacco crop of Hatfield, Massachusetts, is $275,000. The number of 
acres planted averages between 700 and 800, with an aggregate product 
of 1,100,000 pounds. Twenty years ago only about two acres were eul- 
tivated in tobacco. 
The castor bean in Texas—A gentleman who has had considerable 
practical acquaintance with the cultivation of the castor bean in Texas, 
writing in the spring of the present year, states, as an example of the 
perennial tendency of the plant in Southern Texas, that B. C. Franklin, 
of Galveston, had a plant in his garden the stem of which was seven 
inches in diameter, and that it had yielded seed for eight years. Cap- 
tain Slaight, of Chapel Hill, relates a similar experience. Mr. McIntire, 
of Washington, reports having raised 70 bushels per acre, and BE. Bell, 
of Gonzales, raised 100 bushels on one acre. The plant is quite ob- 
noxious to insects, and its freedom from their ravages is a strong point 
in favor of its culture. The principal losses attending its cultivation in 
the extreme, south arise from planting the small light-colored bean of 
Missouri and Illinois, instead of the large seed appropriate to the cli- 
mate of Texas and Florida; from planting too thickly; and from mis- 
management at harvesting. The writer estimates that in Southern 
Texas and Florida, on proper soil and under skillful management, the 
product of clean seed would average as high as 2,700 pounds per aere, 
worth, at current prices, 881. 
Remedy for club-foot in cabbage.—Bainbridge Bishop, of New Russia, 
New York, states that he has found, by long experience, that elub-foot 
in cabbage can be remedied by boiling leaves and twigs of the scarlet- 
berried elderberry to a strong decoction, and pouring a gill, cold, on the 
center of the plant. One application is generally sufficient. On heavy 
