56 



Wool. — Terrace Cultivation in China. 



Vol. XII. 



mings immediately, you will gradually get 

 rid of the whole brood. 



If there is anything in this rather prolix 

 account that is worth making public, it is at 

 your service. I am, sir, your obedient ser- 

 vant. An Old Orchardist. 



New York, July, 1847. 



Wool. 



The following statement, from the Spring- 

 field, 111. Republic, gives a good account of 

 the wool product of Clark county. The 

 fault found in it, with the dirty manner in 

 which Western wool is sent to market, is, 

 we are sorry to say, well founded. We have 

 frequently called the attention of our agri- 

 cultural readers to this subject, and circulars 

 have been sent out from large dealers in both 

 eastern and western cities, representing the 

 effect of burs, dirt, and bad handling, upon 

 prices; but our western growers still prefer 

 to lose 33^- per cent, from the price, to per- 

 forming the additional labour of sending their 

 wool to market clean. 



Springfield, Aug. 4th, 1847. 



Messrs. Gallagher & Grain, — At your 

 request, \ve furnish you with the following 

 statistical account, as near as can be ascer- 

 tauied, of the amount of wool grown in this 

 county. The amount purchased by the dif- 

 ferent buyers are as follows : 



Paist & Jones, South Gharleston, 70,000 



Bean & Griggs, Springfield, 60,000 



Ira Paige, Springfield, 30,000 



W. Pugsley, of Madison county, 10,000 



Making in all, 



Add to this surplus, say 



170,000 

 30,000 



200,000 



In the hands of the farmers for their own 

 consumption, and you have 200,000 lbs. at 

 24^ cents per lb., which is the average cost 

 of our own purchases, making the nice little 

 sum of Si49,000. So much for Clark. 



If wool growers would give more attention 

 to their sheep, and take that pride every 

 farmer ought in preparing his clip for mar- 

 ket, by having it clean,, free from burs, and 

 well tied up, mstead of the dirty and slo- 

 venly manner in which the greater portion 

 of weatern wool is brought to market, tliey 

 would obtain from two to three cents more 

 per pound for it, and help to redeem the bad 

 name we have in our domestic and in the 

 European wool markets. 



It is a well known fact, that "Western 

 American wool" is not sought for until the 

 last resort in the Entjlish wool markets. 



They seek after German and Australian in 

 preference, for no other reason than that our 

 wool, generally, is hurry, dirty, and badly 

 handled. — Enquirer. 



Terrace Cultivation in China. 



The terrace cultivation of China has been 

 noticed by nearly all the writers upon this 

 country; and like most other subjects, it has 

 been either much exaggerated, or under 

 valued. It appeared to me to be carried to 

 the greatest perfection on the hill-sides ad- 

 jacent to the river Min, near Foochoofoo; at 

 least I was more struck with it there than 

 anywhere else. On sailing up that beauti- 

 ful river, these terraces look like steps on 

 the sides of the mountains, one rising above 

 another, until they sometimes reach six or 

 eight hundred feet above the level of the 

 sea. When the rice and other crops are 

 young, these terraces are clothed in luxu- 

 riant green, and look like a collection of 

 gardens among the rugged and barren 

 mountains. The terrace system is adopted 

 by the Chinese, either for the purpose of 

 supplying the hill-sides with water where 

 paddy is to be grown, or to prevent the 

 heavy rains from washing down the loose 

 soil from the roots of other vegetables. 

 Hence these cuttings are seen all over the 

 sides of the hills, not exactly level like the 

 rice terraces, but level enough to answer 

 the purpose of checking the rains in their 

 descent from the mountain. For the same 

 reason, the sweet potatoe, and some other 

 crops which are grown on the hills, are al- 

 ways planted in ridges which run cross- ways 

 or horizontally; indeed, were the ridges made 

 in a different direction, the heavy rains which 

 fall in the early summer months would carry 

 both the loose soil and crops down into the 

 plains. Rice is grown on the lower terrace 

 ground ; and a stream of water is always 

 led from some ravine, and made to flow 

 across the sides of the hills, until it reaches 

 the highest terrace, into which it flows and 

 floods the whole of the level space. When 

 the water rises three or four inches in height, 

 which is sufficiently high for the rice, it 

 finds vent at an opening made for the pur- 

 pose in the bank, through which it flows into 

 the terrace below, which it floods in the 

 same manner, and so on to the lowest. In 

 this way the whole of the rice terraces are 

 kept continually flooded, until the stalks of 

 the crops assume a yellow ripening hue, 

 when the water being no longer required,, 

 it is turned bark into its natural channel, or 

 led to a different part of the hill, for the 

 nourishment of other crops. — Fortune^ sW an' 

 derings in China. 



