AGRICULTURE. 



9 



every year. In Kansas the crop was too large 

 to be worked up by the machinery. In cane 

 Utah fields have yielded as high as 200 gallons 

 of sirup per acre. 



ffay. In 1874 New England, except Maine, 

 and the Middle States, reported a large crop 

 of good quality. The entire crop of 1875, com- 

 pared with that of 1874, is 3 per cent, greater 

 in quantity. Compared with 1874, Maine had 

 an increase of 10 per cent. ; but in the other 

 States of that section there is an average fall- 

 ing off of about 13 per cent., the principal 

 cause being an early drought. In New Eng- 

 land, as a whole, the good quality of 1874 is 

 fully maintained; but in the other States 

 throughout the whole section north of the 

 thirty-sixth parallel and east of the Mississippi, 

 the quality was much damaged by the rains 

 prevailing in the season of cutting and curing. 



Fruit. The year 1875 was unfavorable for 

 apples, while the crops of peaches and grapes 

 have been considerably above the average. 

 Texas is the only State that had a full average 

 crop of apples. Peaches were abundant : New 

 Jersey, 97; Delaware, 112; Maryland, 102; 

 Mississippi, 108; Arkansas, 106. The large 

 crop in Maryland, although near the markets, 

 did not prove remunerative, and would have 

 been lost but for the introduction of canning 

 on an extensive scale. The grape attained a 

 higher condition than either apples or peaches. 

 The culture of oranges, lemons, and bananas, 

 in Florida, has reached that point of enthusi- 

 asm which is sometimes called a " fever." In 

 Orange County, Florida, this has proceeded so 

 far that cereal crops are largely abandoned, and 

 the whole county bids fair to become one vast 

 orange-grove. Limes are already promising to 

 be produced in quantities for shipping. In 

 1874 the number of bearing orange-trees in 

 Florida was estimated at 50,000 ; the number 

 of groves averaging 100 trees each at 100,000; 

 to which were to be added many larger groves 

 in which the number of trees ranged from 200 

 to 7,000. The estimated increase of orange- 

 groves in Florida in 1874 was 25 per cent. In 

 Middle Florida, on both sides of the river 

 Appalachicola, many young orange-groves are 

 coming rapidly forward. It is claimed that 

 the soil is richer here than on the St. John's ; 

 the trees mature earlier, and bear more fruit, 

 than in Eastern and Southern Florida. One 

 grower reports that he realized $900 from six 

 trees ; another that he realized over $100 from 

 one tree. The production of bananas is main- 

 ly limited to the southern section of the State. 

 It has proved quite successful, and is extend- 

 ing. One cultivator in Marion County has a 

 thrifty plantation of twelve acres. The area 

 covered by plants in the State equals 500 acres, 

 and the number of growing plants exceeds 

 300,000. 



Tobacco. Few if any plants are so modified 

 by peculiarities of soil, culture, and curing, as 

 tobacco. The Connecticut seed-leaf, used as 

 wrappers for Havana fillers, when cut is left on 



the ground to wilt ; then bundles of from five 

 to seven plants are strung on a lath four feet 

 long, and hung in the curing-house in tiers, 

 and dried by the atmosphere. The mode of 

 housing and curing in Maryland is as follows : 

 In Calvert, when the leaves are mature and 

 soft from moist weather, they are stripped 

 from the stalk and tied up in small bundles, 

 care being taken to keep the several qualities 

 separate. Nearly all the crop is air-cured. In 

 Montgomery the cut is hung on sticks four and 

 a half feet long. On one end of these sticks 

 is an iron spear, on the points of which the 

 plants are pressed, while the other end is 

 made fast in the house, and thus about ten 

 plants are hung upon each for curing, the 

 sticks being hung ten or twelve inches apart 

 upon poles. Fires are kindled beneath the to- 

 bacco, which is hung ten feet above. The 

 curing process demands great experience to 

 secure the desirable color, and caution to pre- 

 vent the burning of the house and its contents. 

 The fires are kept up until the tobacco is thor- 

 oughly dry. Much of it is exported ; a large 

 order is usually filled for the French Govern- 

 ment. It sells at a moderate price, and is 

 chiefly used for cigar-fillings, snuff, twist and 

 plug chewing, and for manufactured smoking 

 brands. Kentucky, the tobacco-field of Amer- 

 ica, has many varieties. That grown in the 

 " Clarksville district " has a heavy body, and 

 is largely exported to Germany, Austria, and 

 the north of Europe, though a portion is sent 

 to Mexico and Africa. It resembles that 

 which is cultivated on the manured lands of 

 Virginia. Its mode of curing contributes 

 largely to its peculiar qualities. It is cured in 

 close barns in the course of two or three days 

 of heavy firing, which gives greater body than 

 the air- cure. The coal-cured tobacco of North 

 Carolina is cut when it begins to yellow in the 

 hill. In the barn it is first heated gradually 

 until the leaf is nearly cured, when the tem- 

 perature is raised to 175, and kept to that 

 point until the cure is complete. Heavy fertil- 

 izing is avoided for the bright, charcoal-cured, 

 high-priced grades, in order to obviate the 

 danger of a dark color and bad bloom from 

 too much sap. On this account it is grown 

 usually on new land in a light-gray soil. In 

 some districts of Missouri charcoal-curing has 

 been introduced, with increase of price from 

 twenty-five to fifty per cent. In Vinton 

 County, Ohio, after stripping off the leaves in 

 the field, hauling to houses, stringing on strings 

 with a flat needle, and fastening the 'strings to 

 the ends of sticks, and curing three days with 

 furnace-heat, the stock is ready to take down 

 and pack for market. 



Twenty-five years ago Virginia stood at the 

 head of tobacco-growing States. Since 1860 it 

 has given place to Kentucky, which in the 

 year 1870 is credited with more than 105,000,- 

 000 pounds. The export of leaf-tobacco from 

 the United States in 1874 was 318,097,804 

 pounds, and valued at $30,399,181. 



