good flour as any in the Union; price, $1 per bushel; average yield, 10 bushels per acre. Our people are so engaged with raising cotton, that there is no improvement making in the wheat crops. They are so taken up in gathering cotton, that they do not sow wheat at the proper time to make a good crop.

Corn.-A very light crop has been raised this year. The drought has been so fatal to the corn crop, that there will be a general scarcity, and the price is at present 75 and 80 cents per bushel. I would say it is very far below an average crop-say about 15 bushels per acre, and a failure in every direction-as much so as in 1845. We are thankful for what little we have.

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Cotton. This crop this year has been about 600 pounds per acre. Cotton has been at a low price this winter-say from $7 to $8-a price that farmers can scarcely live at; but it is the great crop of this region. Upon it the planters depend for their money. Indeed, many of our farmers aim at nothing else to make money until they run out their ground, and are obliged to throw it out. But there is great improvement making in raising cotton; it is the only article to bring the cash. The staple was very good this year, and commanded as high a price as the South Carolina cotton. The cotton crop this year was backward by the spring being cold. In May and June it grew off finely; in July there came a drought, that checked the growth of the stalk, and finally stopped the growth of the cotton; short crops.

Oats, for the past year, were very light, owing to the drought; not half a crop that makes seed. Oats are scarce and dear.

Barley is but little cultivated in this region of country, although it turns out well, and would be well worth attending to. It makes excellent feed for horses; but the good land is all planted in cotton, and the barley left out.

Rye receives but little attention; very little raised in this section of country; left out to plant cotton.

Clover and Grasses.-Little has been made in the last two seasons; the drought having been so severe.

Negroes hire this year at $100 and $130 to work on the North Carolina and Central railroad, from Charlotte to Goldsborough. Your humble servant,

Hon. THOMAS EWBANK,

Commissioner of Patents.

JOSHUA HARRIS.

SOUTH CAROLINA.

MATANZA, PEE DEE, January 7, 1852.

SIR: The season for rice in 1851 was good, with the exception of the high winds in July and August.

Herewith I transmit a statement of meteorological observations for the year, as kept by our excellent neighbor and friend, the reverend rector of the parish in which my former residence is found-showing that 46.53

inches was the quantity of rain during the year; that during the crop season there were seventy days in which it rained more or less, namely, in the month of April nine (9) days, in May five (5) days, in June fourteen (14) days, in July seventeen (17) days, in August twelve (12) days, in September seven (7) days, and in October six (6) daysmeasuring, in the aggregate, thirty three and one-third inches, (33.) It is true that in the long rivers (the Pee Dee and the Santee) there was a freshet in the month of March; but this only impeded those planters who were not duly advanced in the preparation of the soil; otherwise it it was rather an advantage. As an evidence, it left a deposite uniformly distributed, which is one of the best dressings the land can have.

The tides fell out well in June. After long water" the fields were clean, and the promise of a full crop was very fair in this part of the country. Late in July, however, when the most forward rice was in bloom, we were visited by a gale which destroyed all the blossoms then

out.

The morning after, up to 8 o'clock, in some fields of my own (Waterford) there were no blossoms to be seen. By 11 o'clock the plants were covered with new blossoms, as if nothing had happened; but there were parts of the ear the pistils to which were dried up, and could no more be fructified by the pollen from the new blossoms. In every such instance the chaff is all that remains of the grain. In this way the product has been materially diminished of fields which, to the general observer, still looked promising. On the 24th of August another gale visited the coast from southeast, still more severe. The rice crop was then more generally in bloom; of course the damage was more general and severe, and the plant was affected in the same way as described above for the month of July. In addition, where there was very late rice, which happened to be then just in tight barrel," by the violence of the wind, the barrel was prematurely burst, the incomplete ear exposed, and in many instances the topmost grains were blasted. Owing to these causes, the crop in this district will barely be an average one. The harvest weather, happily, was fine, and the rice has been well cured. South of the Santees it is understood that the crop on several rivers has been diminished by the effects of salt water. On the whole, I cannot estimate the crop last harvested, and now going to market, to be as full as the one preceding it. In January last I ventured to esti mate the crop of 1850-'51 as likely to prove ten per cent. short of that of the previous year.

The following is a statement of that crop, as derived from a commercial friend in the city of Charleston, to wit:

·

Barrels.

Total receipts of rice for the year ending September 1, 1851 138,523 Less stock on September 1, 1850

1,555

The long-grain rice, when prime and well prepared, is still preferred by very choice purchasers. Up to the present time, several sales have been completed of this variety, at $3 87 per hundred weight, and two small ones at $4 and $4 25, respectively, when the market for prime of the small grain usually cultivated ranged from $3 to $3 50 per hundred weight.

Very respectfully,

ROBERT F. W. ALLSTON.

GEORGIA.

CLARKESVILLE, HABERSHAM COUNTY, GA.,
December 17, 1851.

SIR: Your Circular of interrogatories was handed to me to answer by the postmaster of this place.

I have called to my assistance Dr. George D. Phillips, who has long been a visitant of this county, and whose general experience and knowledge of several subjects of inquiry better qualify him to answer them than myself; and I give his answers entire in relation to corn, oats, barley, &c.; dairy husbandry; neat cattle; horses and mules; sheep and wool; hogs; rice, tobacco, hemp, and root crops; which are, without doubt, as near correct as it is possible to make them under present circum

stances.

Wheat.-No guano has been used for any purpose in this county. The yield per acre is probably about ten bushels; time of sowing, from the 15th September to the 1st December; time of harvesting, from the

15th June to 15th July; seed generally soaked in sulphate of copper to prevent smut; which process appears to prevent it almost uniformly. Our farmers usually sow about one bushel to the acre. Wheat is usually sown amongst the standing corn, or on land which has produced a crop of corn, and ploughed in with an ordinary southern plough. The best remedy for the Hessian fly that we are acquainted with is either to kill all the grass on the land before sowing or to sow late in the season-say middle to the last of October. Exposing the wheat from time to time in the open air and sunshine eradicates the weevil. The culture of wheat is conducted very carelessly and in a very slovenly manner. Should our farmers prepare their ground with as much care as is done in the States of New York and Pennsylvania, the yield would, without doubt, be as great as it is in those States.

The greater portion of the crop is consumed within the county, and is worth about $1 per bushel.

Corn. The manures used for the corn crop are made in the stable, cow yards, and hog-pens, by littering them freely with forest leaves, straw, &c. These are applied to the soil broadcast, or spread in the spring, previous to ploughing, and turned under by a one-horse turningplough; two would do better. The land is then laid off by ridging, with three furrows; crossed at right angles by one furrow, and planted. This is the common way of preparation and planting in upper Georgia, both on the uplands and bottoms; but our best and most successful planters plant mainly in the drill, and plough but one way; having protected their lands from washing by water furrows, or hill-side ditches.

On all lands we plough deep, particularly at the first and second ploughings. The old method of hilling corn is generally abandoned. We consider the best way in which corn can be fed to animals is in the form of meal, and the finer the better; and that it is more easily digested and nutritive, when cooked, for hogs and cattle, we fully believe.

We have no doubt but the manure resulting from ten bushels of corn, fed to hogs, if applied to an acre of land not too much worn, would increase the product one-fifth.

Oats, Barley, Rye, Peas, and Beans.—We have cultivated, to some extent, for many years, oats, barley, rye, peas, and beans; and consider them as exhausters, in the order in which the first three stand, but do not regard peas and beans as exhausters, provided the vines are not removed from the land; if ploughed in, more is returned to the soil than is abstracted from it.

The average yield of oats and barley is about 12 bushels per acre; rye, 8 bushels; peas, from 15 to 18 bushels; beans, say 12 bushels.

Much depends upon the season as to the last two crops, an early frost cutting them off short. Very few have cultivated peas as a renovating crop in this county; those that have done so find it equal to a crop of green clover when turned under.

Clover and Grasses.-Clover has been somewhat cultivated, for a few years past, and will, doubtless, be more extensively used in a few years; if properly cultivated, will yield about 4 tons per acre, and gives three mowings in a season. No fertilizers are used for meadows, except lime; and that to a small extent. Herdsgrass seed (red-top of the North) is preferred in laying down meadows. Two bushels per acre is about the

usual quantity of seed sown. The cost of growing and curing hay is, probably, about $4 per ton.

Dairy Husbandry.-So little attention is paid to dairy husbandry in northeastern Georgia, that our information is meagre. Only one individual, within our knowledge, has engaged in cheese-making; and, though he had extensive pasturage for cattle, and milked about 100 cows, he abandoned it at the end of the second year. He is a northern man, had some experience in the business, made fine cheese, which met with ready market; and, if it had been more profitable than other pursuits, would doubtless have continued it. Every farmer keeps as many cattle as he can carry through the winter, and makes his own supply of butter, at a trifling cost, and sells any surplus at 10 cents per pound.

Neat Cattle. The cost of raising cattle with us is trifling. In summer they feed on our native grasses, and in winter on corn husks, straw, pea vines, and hay. At 3 years old they cost us in value of labor in feeding, &c., $3 50 per head, and are worth about $7. A good cow is worth $12 in the spring, and $10 in the fall.

What would be the increase in weight from feeding 100 pounds of corn, would depend on many circumstances-the tendency to take on fat, the condition of the animal, &c.; but that it would not ordinarily fall short of 15 pounds if ground into meal, we fully believe. We have neither the pure blood nor crosses of the Devon or Hereford cattle; but our native breeds are as thrifty, and take on fat as readily as the Durhams. We break steers by securing them to a post or tree, where they are fed and watered until they can be handled safely, and then put them under the yoke with one older and well broken; work a pair alternately this way for a few days, when they will be sufficiently broken to work together or separately.

Horses and Mules.-We find horse and mule-raising profitable; particularly the latter, as the cost of raising a mule until he is fit for use and market, (say 3 years old,) does not exceed $30. That of the horse colt, at the same age, is not less than $50. Our brood mares do the work of the farm until they are near foaling, when they are more cared for, and taken from work. Two or three weeks after foaling, they are put to work again and highly fed; when at work, the colt follows or runs about the field, doing but little damage. The greatest difficulty in breaking a mule is to get him harnessed, and in place in the wagon. They never refuse to pull, and any simple contrivance, by which they are prevented from throwing down their head, will prevent their kicking. A few days' steady work will break either horse or mule when he cannot throw his head down.

Sheep and Wool.-We neither raise wool nor mutton sufficient for our own use, although we are in the finest sheep-raising region of the south; where, for 9 months in the year, they keep fat on the native wild grasses. The life of the animal has no protection from man or dogs, and the latter eat more mutton than the former.

Wool from our native breeds could be raised for 8 cents per pound, and we know no reason why there should be a difference in the cost of raising ordinary and fine wool. Those who attend to their flocks properly, raise 18 out of every 20 lambs.

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Hogs. Our best breeds of hogs are thought to be a cross of the grazier and Woburn; but some prefer the smaller hogs, crossing the grazier