National and Educational Interests. 133 



ready for presentation to the board of supervisors. The 

 residents of the county are ahnost unanimously in favor of 

 the adoption of the proposed plans, and the count}^ officials 

 will, no doubt, accept them without hesitation. It is but 

 seldom that men have the opportunity to make for themselves 

 such an honorable place in the history of their county and of 

 their countr}- ; for, undoubtedly, the adoption of the Contra 

 Costa system of road-naming and house-numbering will in a 

 short time become general throughout the United States and 

 in European countries, and ever}^ one of the hundreds of thou- 

 sands of sign-boards erected will stand a monument to the 

 projectors and executors of ihe Contra Costa plan." 



The Census. The eleventh census has undertaken the compi- 

 lation of statistics of horticulture. This is the first attempt 

 yet made by the government to measure the extent of our 

 horticultural interests, and it comes as a response to repeated 

 demands from the agricultural press. Several horticultural in- 

 terests are to be made the subjects of special reports, as the 

 nursery business, semi-tropical fruits, seed-farms, truck farms 

 and the florists' business. These subjects have been placed 

 in charge of J. H. Hale of South Glastonbury, Connecticut. 

 As a preliminary labor, a directory is being made of all horti- 

 culturists in the United States who cultivate one-fourth acre 

 or more. 



The general census schedules contained the following 

 questions concerning orchard and garden products : Onions : 

 Field crop, number of acres, bushels produced and sold, and 

 value. Potatoes : Sweet and Irish, bushels produced and 

 sold. Market garden and small fruits : Number of acres in 

 vegetables, blackberries, cranberries, raspberries, strawberries 

 and other small fruits, and total value of products in i88g. 

 Vegetables and fruits for canning : Number of acres and pro- 

 ducts, in bushels, of peas and beans, green corn, tomatoes, 

 other vegetables and fruits. Orchards : Apples, apricots, 

 cherries, peaches, pears, plums and prunes, and other orchard 

 fruits; in each the number of acres, crop in i88g, number of 

 bearing trees, number of young trees not bearing, and value 

 of all orchard products sold. Vineyards: Number of acres 

 in vines bearing, and in young vines not bearing ; products 

 of grapes and raisins, and value in 1889. 



The new tariff. The Fifty-first Congress passed ''An act 



