producing 12,000 oranges each. Victoria grows 
neaxly everything which England does and in 
that colony, as stated in a succulent sentence, 
“ the apple, pear, peach, nectarine, apricot, al¬ 
mond, gooseberry, currant, fig, cabbage, cauli¬ 
flower, turnip, carrot, parsnip, asparagus, pea. 
bean, water-melon, rock-melon, and tomato may 
be seen all growing togotber in the same plot of 
ground, while the borders bloom with the 
fuchsias, geraniums, and other common flowers 
of the English garden." The average yield of 
wboat iB seventeen bushels per acre, of oats, 
twenty-five bushels, and of barley, eighteen 
bushels; but fifty and sixty bushels of wheat are 
got, aud tho weight runs as high as sixty-nine 
pounds per bushel. The mineral resources of 
the island, chiofly in New South Wales and 
Victoria, are apparently inexhaustible; besides 
gold and silver, there are tin, copper, iron, lead, 
coal, and zinc, and also, as is claimed, abundant 
petroleum. The staple productions are gold, 
wool, and meats. 
It so happened that the Australian gold dis¬ 
coveries and Jthe consequent rush thither, were 
almost cxaotly parallel in time with the similar 
occurrences in California. Up to 1875 the 
quantity exported (which does not fully cover 
tho production) was $222,364,625 from New 
South Wales; #20,405,860 from Queensland; 
$89,055 from Tasmania, aud $889,105,625 from 
Victoria, whoso capital city, Melbourne, is famili¬ 
arly known in connection with gold-seeking. 
New Zealand, 100,000 square miles in oxtent, 
and lying 1,200 miles to the southeast, is 
reckoned one of the Australian colonies, and ex¬ 
ported 3151,407,045 gold, up to June 30, 1875. 
Omitting it, however, as it is omitted in other 
statistics, the gold product, as measurod by ex¬ 
ports, was $1,131,965,105 up to 1875, against 
$905,356,572 in California during the 13 years, 
18*18 to I860. Of New South Wiles we road that 
gold lias been found in the gizzards of fowlsaud 
picked up in the streets of Bathurst; it has 
been brought up by sounding-lines from tho 
soa-bottom, off the coast; It has been even 
found glittering among the pebbles on the 
beach; but most of the product has been got, 
not in the alluvial fields, but in the quartz rock. 
As to coal, up to tho end of 1871, (the last year 
for which returns aro procurable,) the produc¬ 
tion In New South Wales was 9,816,693 tons, and 
the export was 318.951,115 in value. Tin was 
discovered in Now South Wales in 1870 and its 
quality is reckoned high in the Loudon market; 
tho quantity received in Sydney in 1872 was 
1,730 tons, of $616,360 in value. Tho following 
table contains sundry important details: 
Nn. Of Lb>*. Wool 
No. of Horned Kximrteii 
Sheet). Cattle. in 1874. 
New South Wale*.. 19.0:8,590 2,710.734 93.201,871 
Victoria.H .221,0 W B38.058 g»,(KOj011 
South Australia... 6,120,211 185,342 35,74l.s« 
Queensland.7 .'68,040 1.343,(03 13.763 058 
West Australia.... 777 861 01.748 
Tasmania.... 1,714,10? 110,450 
Total 
as the United States are concerned, Australia is 
still an unknown country, trade with it being 
almost nothing. Whether a profitable trade 
can bo built up—the obvious condition thereto 
being the ability to compete with Great Britain 
—is a question wo would not attempt to answer; 
but it may certainly be worth while for American 
merchants and manufacturers to look into tho 
subject and to make something.near as adequate 
a presentation of this country at Sydney next 
April as Australia made at Philadelphia last 
April. 
thought by many will succeed. Particulars of the 
movement may he had by addressing Club 
Farming, Minneapolis, Minn. 
Tho advantages of Minnesota for prosperous 
general agriculture have never been over stated. 
Climate, soil, productions, all and each aro fa¬ 
vorable to prosperous snocess. The best wheat- 
producing region in the Mississippi Valley is be¬ 
lieved to lio in Northern Minnesota, especially 
along tho Rod River. 
A frozen climato is a groat promoter of a 
permanent fortuity of the soil. While States 
further south aro having their soils leached and 
washed by frequent rains, those of this State 
are resting in the embrace of frost. There is 
no unfavorable change from November nntil 
April. This is an item of no small consequence 
in our favor. Then again, for general health, 
no State is more celebrated. For grain-growing 
or dairying, the chances are unlimited. 
' Mlnneola. W. IL Gardner. 
hooters who have better facilities for propagat¬ 
ing than I possess. 
What say you to placing tho originator of a 
valuable now grape on an equality, under our 
patent code, with the author of a new book or 
tho iuventor of a new agricultural implement ? 
Eureka Place, N. Y. 8 . Folsom. 
[We have expressed our opinion Bovoral times 
in regard to patenting now fruits and plants, be¬ 
lieving it to bo entirely impracticable, and that it 
would do more to injure horticulture than it could 
possibly do to benefit it.—En. Rural ] 
NOTES FROM TENNESSEE 
TRAVELERS LIFE AND ACCIDENT IN¬ 
SURANCE COMPANY. 
The past fall months have been very favora¬ 
ble for plowing, gathering crops, and business 
generally. Very little rain, delightful spring 
weather through September, October and No¬ 
vember. Crops, a fair average, except cotton, 
which wo count a half crop for last year and the 
year before. This does not affect ns, however, 
so seriously as in former years. Wo have 
learned bow to do with very little money, when 
we have plenty of provisions and low pricos. 
Our peoplo, pretty generally, have found out 
that it will not do in Tennessee to raisecottou and 
tobacco to the exclusion of other crops. Corn, 
wheat, and all small grain, clover, and all tho 
grapes, fruits and all vegetables succeed well 
here with proper management. 
Wo aro pleased to report a decided improve¬ 
ment of late years—more economy, if not indus¬ 
try, practiced — and more diversified crops 
planted. We havo good land, fine timber 
and water , » healthy and mild climate, and 
are convenient to good markets, North 
and South, river and railroad for shipping, 
etc. It is true, business generally is dull, and 
money scarcer, perhaps, than ever before. 
Farms that have sold for $25 to $30 per acre, 
oould now be bought for $10 to $15. Perhaps 
the greatest tronble with our farmers is too 
much land and too few laborers; taxes, etc., 
take nearly all, Thoro never was a better time 
for enterprising and industrious men to invest in 
our flection. Such w*e would gladly welcome 
among us. As an agricultural class, our people 
might bo among the most independent. Vory 
few, if any, of the States possess superior advan¬ 
tages. Those advantages over many of tho 
older States, are beginning to be appreciated. 
We are having extremely cold weather. Once, 
before sunrise, the thermometer marked 5- below 
zero, colder than we ever saw it here in tho past 
forty yearB—freezing weather since Deo. 1st, and 
snow on tho ground for the past twelve days, 
and now over twelve inches deep. Remarkable 
for West Tennessee. Humboldt. 
In its usual place on the 52d page of a pre¬ 
coding issue appeared tho usual semi-annual 
statement of tho Travelers Life and Accident 
Insurance Company. Like all its twenty-five pre¬ 
decessors, it is a record of continuous growth, 
prosperity and success, unaffected and, indeed, 
seemingly promoted by tho financial string¬ 
ency. As usual, the Travelers has about twenty 
per cent, more assets and surplus than it had tho 
year preceding. In point of fact this twenty 
per cent, gain has boon going on so regularly 
that it begins to bo monotonous. Tho six years 
since 1871 have been the most disastrous known 
to this brunch of insuranco. Scores of com¬ 
panies havo gone to ruin, the business of many 
has practically ceased and tho end is uot yet. 
During these unprosperous years the Travelers 
has gained nearly two millions in assets, aud 
nearly doubled its resources. If it can present 
this good record as tho score of its business 
during tho season of hard times, what may it 
not achieve when general business becomes 
good? 
year. Assets. 
1872 .$2,230,756.00 
1873 . 2,003.8 e.Oll 
1874 . 3,107.555.00 
1875 . 3,078,033.00 
1876 . 4,053,150.00 
GRAPES AND GRAPE SEEDS, 
Tiie Rural New-Yorker of Jan. 13, 1877, in¬ 
troduces a needed point of improvement in 
American grapes. Tenderness of pulp i« asked 
for, not merely because hard pulp is indigesti¬ 
ble—and objectionable as requiring us to swallow 
the delicious fruit as a pill- but because in that 
pill we are forced to swallow indigestible seeds. 
Most European grapes, you tell us, have a 
pulp so tender that wo may reject tho seeds as 
easily as wo do the skiu; and yon urgo tho fact 
that grape skins aro not moro unhealthful, when 
taken into tho stomach, than are tho seeds, 
which gastric juice was powerless to dissolve and 
utilize as food. 
There aro grapes—perhaps not grown in En- 
ropo, and certainly not in America—that contain 
no seeds. Smyrna raisins are called seedloss, 
and thoy aro nearly so; and I think wo got seed¬ 
less raisins from other lands. Grapes that make 
good raisins by drying, usually havo tender pulp, 
though tho beat grapes for raisins arc not always 
the most juicy. For tho ‘’grape euro," or for 
invalids and persons with weak digestive organs, 
grapes with many goods and tough pulp are to 
be avoided; and. seeds or no seeds, sour and 
unripe grapes are unfit for food or medicine. 
Now, would not the production of a variety of 
grape, containing half the ordinary number or 
quantity of seeds, bo an improvement in the di¬ 
rection you suggest, well worthy of commenda¬ 
tion—not only for Invalids, but for all who raise 
this fruit for the million ? 
And then—if to this wo would add the merits 
of tho earliness and hardiness of tho Concord, 
the Btrong growth and prolific yield of the Hart¬ 
ford, the fine cluster of Isabella, with even bet¬ 
ter keeping and handling qualities than that old 
favorite, and rich aroma and fine bloom also_ 
What would you say to such an improvement ? 
And further—if at the loss, in some measure, 
of the keeping and handling qualities, reducing 
these to those of Delaware, we add spicy flavor, 
thinness of skin, aroma, bloom, and tenderness 
of pulp, all unequaled by any grape now known 
on the Atlantio slope—how would that he re¬ 
ceived with the foaturo of fewness of seeds re¬ 
tained? 
I am engaged in breeding up the grape. I use 
seed from pure native varieties—and only seed 
from the best I can find. Hybrids and crosses I 
studiously avoid. I started with Eureka—an 
Isabella seedling. Begmning with this grape 
and its large array of meritorious points over all 
its ancestors, if traced back to the native Fox, I 
have fruited nine seedlings from it. All theso 
retain and perpetuate the great feature in the 
parent —few tends. Seven of the nine excel the 
parent in flavor— I think 1 may say they all do. 
One is an Amber grape, for which I have a di¬ 
ploma as “ superior to Iona ” in flavor, and hard¬ 
ier and healthier in vine. None fall back to 
Isabella in tenderness or unhealthiness of vino 
or fruit, or in lateness of maturing. Three of 
Surplus. 
$747,136,00 
883,000,00 
4,110,140.00 
1,322,388.00 
1,415,205.00 
A VERY FAIR TEST, 
A few years ago when life insuranco was 
thriving as it may never again thrive, the com¬ 
panies had strong incentives to publish their 
annual statements early aud often, for there 
could bo no better advertisement than these 
annual records of rapid growth and continued 
prosperity. Now, however, thoro aro many 
companies that delay as long as possible to give 
the public the Information it is entitled to, and 
some—mutual companies at that -which wholly 
declito to publish any statement whatever. 
But one construction is placed upon such 
reticence. The only legitimate inference is, 
that their business is not prosperous and that 
there is something in their condition to conceal. 
Tho two companies that last failed pursued this 
course. They published no detailed or satis¬ 
factory statements, but only glittering generali¬ 
ties and thus concealed (heir real condition 
for years. The company that does not hasten 
to publish its balance-sheet has little to boaBt of, 
and possibly ranch to hide. 
235,201,715 
Revenue In 
1874. 
$17,540,080 
20,513,050 
5 019.005 
5,804,735 
740.300 
710.300 
Public Debt, 
1874. 
. .$52,581.855 
.. 02.127,160 
.. 14,680,750 
.. 20.206,430 
175,(00 
... 7,383,500 
ATTICA 
New South Wales 
Victoria. 
South Australia.. 
Queensland ....... 
West Australia.. 
Tasmania. 
Winter set in hero promptly on the 1st of 
December. Since then we have not had a thaw 
that raised even tho small streams. As the 
ground was not much frozen then, and it has 
been almost constantly clad in snow ever since, 
grass and grain have been thus far unusually 
favored. No bare fields are to be seen. The 
average depth of snow is more than two feet, 
and the feathers aro now flying for more. 
Should a sudden thaw sot in, much damage from 
flood would probably occur. But denuded pas¬ 
tures would show ample grass for cattle to bite, 
and fields of wheat would appear in the richest 
green. 
Should winter weather hold as it now does, an 
early spring must follow. But with “ January 
thaw " and naked earth for February and March, 
the winds and cold, would kill back pastures and 
wheat fields, and our spring prospects would be 
bad for this dairy region. s. f, 
Attica, N. Y., Jan. 13,18TT, 
.$■163,520 095 
Imports 
in 1874. 
$55,108,095 
81.763.925 
19,867.27.1 
, 14,100,070 
1,821.310 
6.388.925 
$51,287,745 
Exports 
in 1874. 
$61,728,015 
77.205 515 
19.311.380 
18,750.340 
2.141,180 
4,620,625 
Total 
New South Wales 
Victoria.. 
South Australia.. 
Queensland. 
West Australia.... 
Tasrauuia . 
Total. 
Australia has 1,000 miles of railroad and 19,000 
miles of telegraph. The land under tillage is 
3,258.236 acres, less than one-third that of the 
State of Ohio alone, twenty-five years ago; but 
Australia is eminently a pastoral country, having 
47,000,000 sheep, against 27,000,000 in the 
United States. Her publio debt, incurred mainly 
for railroads and publio works, is $86 per head, 
against $52 per head in the United States. The 
revenue is $28 per head, against $7 in the 
United States, The imports and Exports are 
$100 each per head, against $14 each in the 
United StateB, approximately. A population 
considerably less than one-half that of the State 
of New York, occupying a territory as large as 
the United States, much of it never trodden by 
white men, has a commerce nearly one-third as 
great as that of our forty millions of people; 
measured Jjer capita, the inhabitants of that 
extraordinary island pay four times as much to 
public revenue, aud consume seven times as 
much of imported goods, as do the people of 
this country. 
The oommerce of Australia is mainly with 
Great Britain and with the other Australian 
colonies. The imports from Great Britain are 
about $75,000,000, and the exports about $68,- 
000,000, the former consisting mainly of textile 
manufactures and iron. In New South Wales 
ad valorem duties have been abolished. Victoria, 
Queensland, aud South Australia have a long 
free-list, in which are steam-engines, and manu¬ 
facturing, sewing, agricultural and mining ma¬ 
chinery; gutta-percha goods, kerosene, boots 
and shoes, skins, glass, hats, hardware, and a 
number of forms of manufactured iron. So far 
AN ARMY OF WATER RATS. 
Dr. Van Der Hork, the German traveler to 
the Arctic circle, aavs: On ono occasion we had 
a curious adventure. While crossing a lacustrine 
part of the river called Kjoalmejanro, in tho 
early part of the night, we were suddenly sur¬ 
rounded by swarms of lemming (Myodes torqua- 
tus), an animal like tho mountain rat. They 
swarmed about the boat aud tried to clamber 
into it, so that it was with the greatest difficulty 
we could keeo the fierce little creatures from 
boarding us by beating about with the oars, at 
which they would set up sharp shrill screams 
similar to those of a muskrat. After some time 
we succeeded in passing them. Those little ani¬ 
mals como unexpectedly down from tho moun¬ 
tains—no one knowing exactly whence—and ap¬ 
pear in millions, swarming over the whole coun¬ 
try, eating ap almost everything that comes in 
their way. , 
Neither rivers nor lakes seem to deter them, 
both of which they swim with easo, usually 
keeping on their destructive path until reaching 
the open sea, which they vainly endeavor to 
cross, never swerving from the direction once 
taken until they sink exhausted beneath the 
waves. ThUB perish countless numbers. They 
commit, great ravages, and are as dreaded in the 
North as tho locusts aro in Egypt. Years, how¬ 
ever, elapse between then- reappearance, or until 
they suddenly descend from tin lr rooky retreats. 
The Lapps tell as that they ram from the sky, 
many of them stating that they have actually 
seen them fall. 
A GOOD WORD FROM MINNESOTA, 
I address you as au old friend and for thir¬ 
teen years a constant reader. The Rural is 
recognized everywhere I go as a family friend. 
Other papers may be more thoroughly agricul¬ 
tural, more devoted to one purpose, object, or 
idea, but the Rural is the family paper. I am 
glad to see that it is regaining its olden tone and 
ring, and heartily wish it success. 
Minnesota bolds out strong inducements to 
other than grain-growing fannera. There is no 
mistaking the fact that the dairy can b« made as 
profitable here upon land at 31 to $10 per acre 
as in the older States, where it is much higher. 
Then, again, no farmer thinks of supplying 
grazing for cattle, sheep, or hogs here, letting 
them run outside. 
There is now a movement in this State to 
utilize the large ranges by means of Club Farm¬ 
ing. Any young man may join, if of good, tem¬ 
perate habits, and secure the advantages of a 
butter factory, cheese factory, sheep or cattle 
ranche, and have “ free range ” for all the stock 
he can raise, The plan promises well, and it is 
