ments made by the French authorities in the imperial dock-yard at Toulon are cited as showing that masts from Vancouver's Island, and, by similarity of circumstances, those from Puget Sound, are superior to the best class of Riga spars.

Lumber in California.-The report of the surveyor general of California for 1867 makes exhibit for that State of 220,991,213 feet of lumber sawed, and 108,007,000 shingles made, of which Mendocino sawed 50,000,000 feet of lumber and made 1,000,000 shingles. The report, however, is imperfect, on account of deficiencies in county returns.

Premiums for tree planting.-Among the premiums for 1868, offered by the Worcester North Agricultural Society, Massachusetts, are three: $25, $15, and $10, for the best plantations of any kind of forest trees, suitable for fuel or timber, raised from seed, not less than five hundred in number, which shall be in the most flourishing condition in the fall of 1868. The Plymouth County (Massachusetts) Agricultural Society offer two premiums, $40 and $20, for a similar purpose; the trees to be over three years old in September, 1872. The society also offer premiums for the planting and cultivation of ornamental trees on or near the highways and public squares of the county towns.

Profit of planting.-Mr. T. B. Coursey, writing on the propriety of growing timber, speaks of a man who bought a poor farm in Delaware, about twenty years ago, and concluded to plant pine-seed and chestnut. on one side of his farm near the banks of a creek, where his land was gullied by heavy rains. The outlay did not amount to twenty dollars, and he now has hundreds of cords of wood, and abundance of logs from which to make boards for temporary uses.

The government of Greece is now spending about £3,570 annually for the preservation of forests, and derives from them an annual revenue of about £13,400.

FLORIDA ITEMS.

A committee of one of the Florida "Boards of Trade" remarks in respect to Duval county in that State: "Potatoes and cucumbers can be made ready for transportation by the first of May, and, with proper care, tomatoes can be easily made ready for shipment by the first of June, and thus placed in the northern markets before they can be furnished by the hot-beds of the farm gardeners of Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, or Long Island."

An abridged statement of the values of exports from the port of Jacksonville, Florida, from January 1, 1868, to June 30, 1868: Foreign exports, $23,949 87; of which amount $22,938 were in pitch-pine lumber, the remainder being chiefly in cypress shingles and spirits of turpentine. Coastwise exports, $669,724; in which are included cotton to the value of $416,492, pitch-pine lumber to the value of $165,465 78, vegetables, &c., $24,900, oranges $10,925.

ILLUSTRATIVE FACTS.

From a volume by T. F. Cronise, on the "Natural Wealth of California," published in San Francisco during the present year, the following statement is abstracted: The village of Anaheim, in Los Angeles County, California, situated on a level plain eight miles from the sea-coast, was originated by a company of Germans, acquainted with the culture of the grape in the "Fatherland." The site of the village was, in 1857, a barren, dry, sandy plain. In the summer of that year the foregoing

company purchased the land, amounting to 1,265 acres, at $2 per acre. This was divided into lots, which were fenced with willows, sycamores, and poplars. A large proportion of the area was planted with vines. A ditch, seven miles in length, was cut to bring water from the Santa Ana River. The land was cultivated for two years, at the expense of the company, by hired labor. At the end of that time the lots were distributed to the shareholders. After all the expenses were paid, each share of twenty acres fenced, partly planted in vines two years old, together with a building lot one hundred by two hundred feet, situated in the center of the village and appertaining to the share, cost $1,400. There are, at the present time, near 1,000,000 vines growing in the village, of which about 750,000 bear fruit. There are also 10,000 fruit trees of various kinds. The whole place resembles a forest and flower garden, divided into squares with fences of willow, poplar, and sycamore, which shelter the vines from every wind.

In striking contrast with the prosperity of Anaheim is exhibited the condition of the town of San Juan Capistrano, situated about thirty miles distant from the preceding village, on the main road between Los Angeles and San Diego. The valley in which the town of San Juan Capistrano is placed is about nine miles in length, and nearly a mile wide. The San Juan, a never-failing stream, passes through its entire length, furnishing an abundant supply of water. The soil is rich, but almost wholly uncultivated. The population of the town numbers about six hundred, of whom four hundred are Mexicans and native Californians, and about two hundred Indians. There are not more than half a dozen Americans or Europeans in the place, but these are generally thrifty and prosperous. This is the most thoroughly Mexican town in the State. * The only apparent employment of the men is horse racing or practicing with the reata. The women are rarely seen, except at the fandango or church. The children literally swarm in the streets, and are of all hues except that of the lily; they wear little or no clothing.

Until about 1833 the agriculture of North Germany was in a decidedly backward state. But since that time a very great advance has taken place. The amount of live stock has enormously increased, and the soil has grown more productive. M. de Laveleye, in an article in the Revue des Deux Mondes, speaking on these points, shows that, reducing the live stock to equivalents of horned cattle, in 1865 Prussia had 100 head for every 138 of the population; France, only 100 for every 185 of the population. Forty years ago, these proportions were reversed. M. de Laveleye states as the chief causes of this great advance, first, the complete extension of general education throughout the rural districts of Prussian Germany; second, the wide spread diffusion of technical agricultural instruction. Prussia maintains four Royal Agricultural Societies, and nineteen provincial schools of agriculture, subsidized by the state. There are also numerous special schools for instruction in particular branches, such as market-gardening, &c. The system of paid instruction is completed by the curious institution of itinerating teachers, who travel from village to village, criticising the cultiva tion, and giving advice about rotation of crops, and the most suitable kinds of manure. Institutions of organic and agricultural chemistry are also maintained by the state. There are, besides these, more than five hundred voluntary agricultural associations contributing to the general advancement by conferences, exhibitions, and prizes.

The actual territory of the Papal states includes an area of 4,247 English square miles. This area, now so impoverished by long ages of

desolation and wasteful exhaustion, was in ancient times especially celebrated for its mineral wealth and productive soil. The elaborate memoir of Signor David Silvagni, of Rome, presented at the sixth session of the International Statistical Congress, at Florence, shows that the industry of the country has made very little progress during the last half century. The woolen, cotton, and silk manufactures, remain in the same state as in 1826. Agriculture languishes. No improvement takes place in methods of cultivation. The exports are insignificant when compared with the imports. The latter are valued at 38,000,000 francs; the former at less than 9,000,000 francs. Says the mémorialist: "Our only export of importance is that of objects of the fine arts, which increases yearly; but the fine arts have gained nothing by becoming a branch of trade. Roman art is reduced to a mean condition of mere mechanical labor, except in the case of a few distinguished artists." And he adds that this country, capable of being transformed into a garden, and which might be the richest in the world, would see its population die of hunger, were it not for the visits of multitudes of travelers, and for the pilgrimages of fervent Catholics who resort there to receive the benediction of the Pope.

The State geologist of New Jersey, in his report for 1868, after speaking of the considerable increase of population since 1860, taking the State as a whole, says: "It is a remarkable circumstance that, in the older settled counties, there is a rapid increase in taxable property and in the value of agricultural products, and not much increase in population. This is undoubtedly due to the improvements in management, to the use of fertilizers in larger quantity, and to the introduction of laborsaving implements. Farms without number can be shown which produce from two to four times as much as formerly, and on which there is no increase in the amount of labor employed."

A Sacramento paper states that in the counties of Santa Clara, Napa, and Solano, comprising the oldest wheat-raising districts of California, the average yield of this crop has declined from thirty-five bushels per acre, as in the early years of wheat culture, to eighteen bushels per acre, at the present time.

Mr. Latham, the English civil engineer, states that since the construction of sanitary works, as sewerage, &c., at Croydon, England, the average mortality of the town has decreased twenty-two per cent.; and exhibits figures as proving that the town has, in the space of thirteen years, received, in consequence of the construction, a pecuniary benefit amounting to an excess of twenty-five per cent. over the total expendi ture incurred upon the works..

MISCELLANEOUS.

On one of the islands within the limits of St. Mary's Parish, Louisiana, Petit Anse or Salt Island, there exists an immense bed of salt. By boring, parties have proved that the bed is half a mile square, and it may extend a mile or more. They have gone thirty-eight feet into the solid salt, and find no signs of the bottom of the stratum. The surface of the salt is on a level with the surface of the Gulf water, and is covered by earth to the depth of thirty feet.

The president of the Oregon State Agricultural Society, in his address before the society in September, 1868, says, speaking with special reference to wheat culture, that during the careful observation of almost ten years' residence, "not in one instance have I known a failure in any crops in Oregon where the crop has been well prepared, judiciously

planted or sown, and properly cared for. And in many instances I have seen fields of wheat in Oregon that, for quality and quantity, far surpassed any crops I ever knew raised in Northern Wisconsin or on the fertile fields of the Genesee Valley. Oregon is pre-eminently a graingrowing State, and for the sure production of wheat is not surpassed by any country inhabited by civilized man."

San Francisco receipts and exports of the articles named for the year ending December 31, 1868, were as follows:

In the year ending July 1, 1863, the exports of wheat and flour were: flour, 144,883 barrels; wheat, 1,043,652 sacks.

The report of J. Ross Browne on the mineral resources of States and Territories west of the Rocky Mountains, says that "Camus, as an article of food for the Indians, is probably the most important of all the wild plants, and is abundant in all the northern parts of the Pacific coast. It is a bulbous root, about an inch and a half in diameter, and grows in low, swampy lands, having a sweet, gummy taste, and is very nutritious. Besides using it largely when fresh, the Indians boil and afterward dry it, so as to preserve it for years. If cultivated, it might become a valuable culinary vegetable." The plant is otherwise known as the eastern quamash, or wild hyacinth, and in botanical nomenclature is Scilla Fraseri.

In England, as well as in this country, the adulteration of seeds, especially the mixing of old with new, is carried on to a very great and injurious extent. In France any one guilty of the adulteration of agricultural seeds is liable to punishment as a criminal.

In respect to the effects of stormy autumn weather on cattle fattening for market, Mr. McCombie, the celebrated Aberdeenshire cattle-feeder, states that he has found a difference of £5 per head between cattle put up on the first of September and others put up exactly a month later, although the animals originally formed one lot equal in all respects, and those left out were kept "on fine land and beautiful grass.”

An ox slaughtered near London weighed, when alive, 2,588 pounds; slaughtered and dressed, 1,963 pounds. As it was sold at one shilling per pound, the amount realized was about $490. The ox was bred by Mr. McCombie.

In India, the use of American cotton-seed for planting is gaining increased favor. The Bombay authorities report that the New Orleans variety is much more productive than the India cotton.

The secretary of the Michigan State Board of Agriculture, in referring to the great damage done by the midge to the wheat crop of 1867 in that State, indicates the probability that millions of dollars might have been saved to the farmers had the Treadwell and the Diehl variety of wheat been sown instead of the Soule.

The number of mulberry trees in California, in 1868, is unofficially estimated at about 1,175,000, of which 425,000 are allotted to Sacramento County. There appears to have been a very rapid increase of the number of trees in the State since the previous year, only 356,053 having then been reported by the assessors for the entire State. The sale of silk-worm eggs promises to become a large business for California.

The "Canada Farmer" mentions a horse owned by M. Yoder, of Springfield, Ontario, which is believed to be over thirty years old, and is still fat, plump, and handsome. The same journal suggests that prizes should be given at agricultural fairs for the best old horses, as only a good, kind horseman can show an active old horse.

It has until recently been a generally accepted doctrine among entomologists, that the females of the Cicada septemdecim never deposit their eggs in evergreens. But R. H. Warder has recently proved by actual exhibition that they do deposit in three of our most common evergreens, Thuja occidentalis, Juniperus Virginiana, and Abies Canadensis.

In Hudson County, New Jersey, a rent of $100 per acre has been paid for land for market gardening.

The subjoined table indicates the variations in the value of hops, in New York, during a course of nine years. First, is presented the currency value of gold in January of each year from 1861 to 1869 inclusive; second, the wholesale currency price of hops per pound; third, the wholesale price converted into gold rates:

Mr. J. J. Mechi, the English agriculturist, keeps three hundred head of poultry, which have free access to the fields near the homestead. He says: "Poultry are the farmers' best friends, consuming no end of insects, and utilizing and economizing all waste grain. It costs no more to pro- . duce one pound of poultry than one pound of beef."

Mr. George Manning, in his statements before the food committee of the Society of Arts (England,) gave the following, among other reasons, accounting for the frequent failures to make poultry-keeping profitable: want of attention to choice and management of stock, irregular and wasteful administration of food, want of attention to the roosting, and particularly to the laying-place of hens. He also remarks: "Our system of leaving chickens to shift for themselves until such time as they are ready or wanted for the coop is all wrong. No attempt at after-fattening will increase the frame, if the feeding of infancy has been neglected." Chickens and weaker birds should not be suffered to starve while the powerful are gorged.