54 



GENERAL AGRICULTURAL NOTES. 



[.June 189G. 



necessitating hand- work, as compared with the American system 

 of elevators, which allow of the use of steam, places the German 

 grower and seller at a disadvantage in. dealing .with. the wholesale 

 trade ; besides which he can only offer small quantities of very 

 variable kinds of grain, whereas the merchant can rely upon 

 obtaining any quantity of a uniform article from abroad. 



The chief merits of these proposed grain depots are claimed 

 to be : the greater possibility of offering a good, uniform, and 

 easily saleable article by drying, cleaning, and grading the corn 

 brought to the depots ; the regulation of the price by placing 

 on the market only such a quantity of corn as will suffice to 

 meet the actual demand (i.e., by withholding a portion of the 

 supply) ; the opening of a sound system of credit for the 

 farmers to the value of the amount of the corn stored ; and 

 the cheapening of trade charges and cost of transport by selling 

 through the medium of the depots. 



Agriculture in Russian Turkestan. 



According to the Journal de St. Petersbourg, summarising an 

 article by M. Maiew, the agricultural progress of Russian 

 Turkestan has been very considerable during the past few 

 years. The prosperity of this territory depends very generally 

 upon the irrigation, and the area watered has increased from 

 3,707,100 acres in 1880 to 4,366,710 acres in 1893, the develop- 

 ment being most considerable in Tashkend, where the area 

 irrigated has more than quadrupled during the last quarter of a 

 century (from 17,010 acres in 1868 to 76,140 acres in 1893). 



Some 16,071,429 cwts. of cereals are raised in the year, but 

 the most striking progress has been made with cotton, of which 

 article 411,429 cwts., valued at 743,500^., were obtained from 

 183,600 acres in 1883, as against 708,429 cwts., valued at 

 1,464,600/., from 367,200 acres in 1893. There were, in 1895, 

 88 cotton factories working with American machines in the 

 territory. Yines occupy a surface of 40,500 acres, yielding 

 about 2,089, 286 cwts. of grapes, estimated to be worth 300,000L 

 annually. 57,464 cwts. of dried fruits, valued at 40,778^., were 

 exported in 1893 ; while in the same year the production of 

 silkworm cocoons amounted to 32,143 cwts. 



Cultivation and Evaporation of Raspberries in the 

 United States. 



According to an interesting Bulletin (No. 100) published by 

 the Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station, rasp- 

 berries are largely grown in America. One of the most 

 important centres of this industry is in the western part of New 



