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THE GENESEE FARRIER. 



PINE WOOD IN EASTERN VIRGINIA. 



A correspondent of the Richmond (Va.) Enquirer 

 ■writes as follows, in relation to the trade in pine wood 

 in Surry county, the quantity shipped North, and the 

 future 2)rospects; 



" Much has been written and said lately about the 

 various resources of our State, its great agricultural 

 resources, its iron, coal, gypsum, &c., &c And even 

 our Norfolk friends, perhaps ashamed of their want 

 of enterprise and a proper commercial spirit, have 

 been boasting much lately about 'feeding the North.' 

 Instead of having ships from every clime riding in 

 their harbor, they abandon their noble port and turn 

 their attention to ' trucking,' raising peas and toma- 

 toes for the Northern cities. Well, our wise law- 

 givers have much to answer for this state of things.-^ 

 But to my subject. I propose to write you some- 

 thing about the trade that is carried on between us 

 and the North in pine wood. This business has be- 

 come of considerable importance, employing a great 

 many laborers, thereby enhancing the price of labor, 

 and injuring to some extent the agricultural interest, 

 which is to be regretted. Let me tell, in the briefest 

 manner possible, how it is carried on, hoping it may 

 be interesting to some of your readers at least. The 

 trees are felled and their trunks cut into pieces three 

 feet ten inches long, which are mauled up and put in 

 square pens to dry or season. Five of these pens, 

 seven feet high, make a cord of wood, which is the 

 slave's day's task, and all he chooses to cut over task 

 he is paid for. After the wood is sea.soned, it is then 

 hauled to the river, whence it is shipped to the Nor- 

 thern cities, andnineteen-twentiethsof it in Northern 

 bottoms. We get three dollars and seventy-five cents 

 per cord, delivered on board the vessel; all the wood 

 is carried north of Baltimore — a vast quantity to the 

 city of New York. From the best data to be had, 

 there are more than a hundred vessels engaged in 

 this trade, in James river alone, which are mostly 

 schooners, carrying from eighty to two hundred and 

 thirty cords at a load — averaging, perhaps, about one 

 hundred and thirty cords. They make the round trip 

 in a fortnight. Now, one hundred vessels, carrying 

 a hundred and thirty cords each, and making twenty 

 five trips a year, one would think it would take but 

 a short time to exhaust the pine timber, but it is not 

 80. There are millions of cords yet to be cut, the 

 best timbered lands yielding as much as seventy-five 

 cords of split wood to the acre. We should also re- 

 member that the pine is of rapid growth. Pine wood 

 has been cut and shipped to the North which was 

 scarcely twenty years old. So, if no substitute for 

 wood be found, it will be fair to infer that this trade 

 will be carried on for many years to come. The ves- 

 sels generally return in ballast, but sometimes they 

 bring on a cargo of hay, to feed the teams engaged 

 in hauling the wood. Some will sneer at this, but 

 free trade is my motto, not only between the States, 

 but with the whole wide world. So, if they choose 

 to buy our wood, and we their hay, let no one say 



aay." 



-m^,-t,m. — . 



FooT-ROT IN Sheep. — The application of double- 

 distilled vinegar and sublimate of mercury, is said to 

 be a remedy for foot-roi in sheep. 



THE CALIFORNIA CROPS. 



We venture to assert that the potatoes that will 

 lay upon the ground and rot in the San Jose Vall'.'y 

 the present year, will count in bushels by million--. 

 We saw one pile that was the length of eighty raib 

 of a fence, ninety-six feet, about thirty feet wide, and 

 some two feet above the fence, seemingly enough to 

 supply the State. These, with vast quantiues all 

 over the county, and other counties also, will be lost. 

 unless some plan is devised for using them. — Califor- 

 nia Farmer. 



Barley. — This article, new crop, says the San 

 Joaquin Republican, sold yesterday in our market at 

 one and a half cents per pound, and we hear of sale.^ 

 being made at less than this figure. 



Wheat. — Mr. J. M. Horner, of Alameda county, 

 has 200 acres planted in wheat, which will yield 

 nearly forty bushels to the acre. His threshing ma- 

 chine, which harvests twenty acres a day, -will com- 

 mence operations in a day or two. 



The wheat crop in Los Angelos county is remark- 

 ably fine, and will yield much more than an averase 

 crop for several of the past years. Mr. Reed, of the 

 Puente, has an excellent crop of eighty acres of Aus- 

 tralian wheat. We hear of no smut in the wheat in 

 this section, and but little rust. 



Oats. — In Eldrado county, in some cases the head:- 

 measure 28 inches in length, and has over six hn-i- 

 dred kernels. These specimens were taken from c 

 field on Dix's Rancho, and it is said that the entire 

 crop is unsurpassed in size by any that has been here- 

 tofore noticed. Another sample, taken from the 

 Somerset Ranch, measures over seven feet in length. 

 The heads are twenty inches in length. 



Sheep Raising in Virginia. — ^The Charlottesville 

 (Va.) Advocate learns that many of the Piedmont 

 larmers have determined to sow only small crops oi 

 wheat until the joint worm is eradicated, and to oc- 

 cupy their lands with raising sheep and growing wool. 

 The demand for sheep in Eastern Virginia will afford 

 a good market for the great surplus of the western 

 and southwestern counties. 



Feeding Farm Horses. — Sir John Conrey, a large 

 farmer near Reading, England, it is said feeds his 

 farm horses as follows: 8 lbs. hay, 10 lbs. straw cut 

 into chaff, .5 lbs. oats, 1 lb. bean meal, 1 lb. bruized 

 flax seed steeped 48 hours in 15 pints of cold water. 

 This quantity constitutes the whole food of each 

 horse for twenty-four hours. 



A Cincinnati paper states that several thousand 

 barrels of swine's blood are used in that city every 

 year for making sweet wine. 



"Sweet wine," forsooth! — may it not more proper- 

 ly be called soiv-er wine — or, if you please, what a 

 Dutchman would call " hock." — JV. O. Bulletin. 



Never trust a man for the vehemence of his asse^ 

 vations, whose bare word you would not trust; a 

 knave will make no more of swearmg to a falsehood' 

 than of affiraing it. 



