AGRICULTURE. 



in California, where it is said to be exerting 

 sufficient influence to reduce, by one or two 

 cents in the pound, the price of cane-sugar. 

 The great difficulty in its production is, the 

 loss of so much of the sugar in the processes 

 necessary to free it from the great variety of 

 organic and inorganic matters which are con- 

 tained in minute proportions in the beet-juice. 

 These constituents vary in different soils, and 

 are much less numerous and in smaller percent- 

 age in California than in the Mississippi Val- 

 ley ; but, everywhere, they seriously affect the 

 profits of the manufacture. The attempt has 

 been made, during the past year, to introduce 

 some of the sugar-bearing palms into Florida 

 and Texas, in the hope of utilizing them in 

 the production of sugar, but they will hardly 

 supply any very large percentage of the crop. 



The Flax product did not vary materially 

 from the previous year though, perhaps, 

 slightly below it. A determined effort is now 

 making, and with considerable success, to in- 

 troduce extensively throughout the Southern 

 States the culture of jute. Of all the textile 

 fibres, this is, perhaps, most easily cultivated 

 and most profitable. The ramie -plant is 

 adapted to finer textile manufactures, and is 

 easily grown, but the process of preparing it 

 for manufacture is long and difficult, and, as 

 yet, no machine has been invented which ac- 

 complishes this object quickly and economi- 

 cally. Jute, on the contrary, is more easily 

 prepared for market than either flax or hemp, 

 though by a process somewhat similar. Its 

 legitimate uses are abundant ; it is the material 

 of which gunny-bags, coffee-sacks, cotton, hop 

 and wool baling-cloths are most cheaply made ; 

 it is used as a cheap substitute for artificial 

 hair, and it forms, we are sorry to say, the ma- 

 terial most employed in the adulteration of silk, 

 and silk and linen goods. We are now import- 

 ing it in immense quantities ($4,487,810 worth 

 of it in 1872), and, if we must use it, it is cer- 

 tainly better that we should raise it ourselves. 



The leguminous plants, Peas and Beans, 

 which form a considerable addition to our 

 food as well as some portion of the food of 

 domestic animals, vary but little from year to 

 year in the amount produced and thrown 

 upon the market. If a somewhat larger acre- 

 age is sown in these crops in a given year, a 

 blight is sure to afjfect one or the other. In 

 1872 the bean-crop was about an average, 

 while the yield of peas per acre was about 12 

 per cent, below the average, but the increased 

 acreage brought the aggregate crop about to 

 the usual amount. 



Of FRUITS, grapes were, except in the New 

 England States, largely above an average crop, 

 though inferior in quality to the product of 

 other years ; the apple crop was, especially in 

 the earlier varieties, unprecedented in its abun- 

 dance, though somewhat hindered in reaching 

 the market by the horse-disease; pears were 

 also greatly in excess of the usual crop. 



We give on p. 6 our usual table of the num- 



ber and value of each kind of live-stock at the 

 beginning of February, 1872. 



The returns of the actual numbers of live- 

 stock in February, 1873, have not yet been 

 published ; but, from advanced sheets of the 

 Agricultural Report, for the Year 1872, we 

 gather the following particulars : The increase 

 in the number of horses for the year is about 

 two per cent., notwithstanding the heavy losses 

 by the epizootic. This would make the ag- 

 gregate number about 9,171,000. In mules, 

 the increase is very small, the whole number 

 not much exceeding 1,300,000. In oxen and 

 other cattle the increase is not quite two per 

 cent., the aggregate being about 16,700,000. 

 In milch -cows the increase is a little more, 

 averaging a fraction above two per cent., the 

 aggregate being about 10,525,000. In sheep 

 the increase is greater, the aggregate being 

 32,680,000. The number of swine has not in- 

 creased, owing to the ravages of hog-cholera, 

 and other diseases, but it has not materially di- 

 minished. The prices of horses have considera- 

 bly advanced, except in Missouri, Kansas, and 

 Nebraska, where there has been a slight decline. 

 This is also true of mules, the advance being 

 even greater than in horses. Milch-cows have, 

 generally, declined slightly in price, while oxen 

 and other cattle have about held their own. 

 Sheep are advancing steadily in price, the in- 

 crease ranging in the Western States from 20 

 to 90 cents per head. In swine there has been 

 a small decline in prices, and a more consider- 

 able one in pork -products. 



We may sum up the progress of the year in 

 agricultural matters very briefly. Some advance 

 has been made in agricultural implements and 

 machinery; notably in ploughing by steam, 

 whether by traction engines, which seems the 

 favorite method in the South, and is perhaps 

 better adapted to heavy clay-lands when used 

 for sugar, cotton, or rice ; or by the Williamson 

 engine, which is an improvement on the British 

 " Thompson road-steamer," having broad, vul- 

 canized rubber tires. The latter seems to be 

 more desirable for large farmers than anything 

 yet invented. It will go over any surface with- 

 out injury, over hard or soft ground, can be 

 used for ploughing and cultivating, will plough 

 from one to three acres per hour, according to 

 length of land and depth of furrow, will turn 

 on a space not exceeding in diameter its own 

 length, can be used successfully for driving, 

 threshing, and other machines, will draw from 

 twenty to thirty tons of freight in wagons on 

 a fair co'untry road at the rate of six or eight 

 miles per hour, consumes about one ton of 

 coal a day, requires for working it an engineer, 

 fireman, and a boy to drive a water-cart, and 

 costs, with plough and tackle complete, $5,000. 

 But, while this is well adapted for large farms, 

 like those of the Southern and Western States, 

 there is needed something of much lower 

 price, simple, strong, and efficient, which will 

 serve the purpose of the smaller farmers, who, 

 with farms of from 100 to 500 acres, require 



