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STATISTICS OF AGRICULTURE, &c.

AGRICULTURE OF PRUSSIA.

The value of land in Prussia was very low when Mr. JACOB visited it in 1825. He mentions a farm of 2,800 acres of good sandy loam, chiefly arable, which was sold during the time he was in the country for £5,300, or not quite 40s. per acre. Another farm of 4,200 acres of inferior quality had been mortgaged for £3,000. The mortgagee foreclosed, but upon the property being put up for sale it would not fetch the amount of the mortgage, and the creditor was obliged to take it. This cost him little more than 14s. per acre, and being a wealthy man he was able to expend £2,000 more upon it, and thus probably made it a more profitable concern than the previous owner had it in his power to do.

Such was the state of land in Prussia in 1825; since which time the system of subdivision has gone on rapidly without any change in the social or political condition of the country to relieve the peasant proprietors from the heavy tax upon their time and labor inflicted by the Landwehr. A striking example of the effect of this law occurred during the late war between the French and Austrians. The apprehensions entertained by the German States that the contest would be extended to the banks of the Rhine, induced the Prussian government to mobilize the Landwehr, or, in other words, to call out the whole of the male population, which was also done by the other States, members of the German Confederation. A friend of the writer's, residing at Bonn, described the effect upon industry as most destructive. "Commerce, manufactures, and agriculture were at a dead lock, and not hands enough were left in the rural districts to get in the harvest." The following was the distribution of the land in 1852 :

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The above statement is taken from the official papers of the Board of Trade. It exhibits an increase of more than four-and-a-half to one since Mr. JACOB'S time, in the number of farms under fifty acres, and of more than three-and-aquarter to one of those under two hundred and fifty acres. The land is occupied in the following manner :

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The following was the entire produce of the principal crops in the year 1851 :—

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It is evident from this latter table that wheaten bread forms no part of the common food of the population. Mr. JACOB states that from the time he left the Netherlands, in passing through Saxony, Prussia, Poland, Austria, Bavaria, Wurtemburg, &c., until he entered France, he saw neither in the bakers' shops, in the hotels, nor in private houses, a loaf of wheaten bread. The only form in which it could be purchased was that of small rolls, and they were only seen when foreigners were at table. We believe that since that period it has come more into use amongst the wealthy classes; but still the domestic consumption is very small, the quantity grown as above stated not allowing more than 1 bushel per head per annum. The wheat exported from Dantzic and other Prussian ports comes chiefly from the Polish provinces of Prussia and Russia, where the land is very good, and wheat is more extensively cultivated. Rye bread is universally eaten by all classes, and with potatoes constitutes the only food of the lower classes, meat being a luxury beyond their means of purchasing. The following was the number of live stock in Prussia in 1849 :

Horses Cattle Sheep

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16,296,928 Wool produced..........lbs. 35,852,343 Between the years 1849 and 1852 there were brought into cultivation 2,748,880 acres of new land, and applied as follows:

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The following is an approximate estimate of the distribution of the land into farms, exclusive of forests :

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The above is sufficiently near to give the reader an idea of the different grades of agriculturists, according to the extent of their holdings.

VINTAGE OF CALIFORNIA.

A stranger visiting this locality for the first time is not apt to be very favorably impressed with the Pueblo of Los Angeles; but a day or two devoted to inspecting its vinyards and wine cellars, and in familiar intercourse with its hospitable people, he can hardly fail to carry away with him pleasant and profitable recollections of his sojourn here. Such, at least, is the experience of a correspondent, who left San Francisco November 3d, and arrived there on the 5th. He writes, that the vinyards, of course, constitute the chief object of interest to a visitor here; and really I confess that I have seldom enjoyed anything more than I have my inspection of the important and rapidly improving wine-growing district of this section. A few facts in regard to this year's vintage may be valuable. I learn from authentic sources that the total production of wine will be about 340,000 gallons, divided as follows:-By Kohler, Frohling & Bauch-at Work

man's vinyard, 10,400 gallons; at Roland's, 12,000 gallons; at their own vinyard, 10,000 gallons; at Coronel's, 12,000 gallons; at Wolfskill's, 50,000 gallons; total, 94,000 gallons. By Sainsevain's, 60,000; by Sainsevain's per Wilson, near San Gabriel, 30,000; by Keller, 50,000; by Dr. White, 12,000; by Rains, (Cocomungo,) 8,000; by Clement, 8,000; by Barron, 7,000; by Huber, 5,000; by Laborie, 6,000; by Muloch, 5,000; by Wyse, 5,000; by Covitzi, 4,000; by Ballerino, 4,000; by Messer, 4,000; by Dr. Hoover, 3,000; by Proudhome, 3,000; by Barrows, 2,000; by others, 20,000 to 30,000.

In addition to the wine made, the Messrs. Sainsevain will make of brandy about 3,500 gallons. Messrs. Kohler & Co. will also make a considerable quantity of brandy; but I do not know how much. Many think there is not more than two-thirds of a grape crop this season, although there are considerably more bearing vines this year than last in the country. The season has been unfavorable, and many vinyards have been affected with iodium, and last spring many vines were seriously damaged by the cut-worm eating the buds. It is not often, however, that the vine here in Los Angeles suffers from either of these evils-only once in many years. Next year something like half a million of young vines will come into bearing. Comparatively few grapes were shipped to San Francisco this season. A full wine crop should have reached 400,000 or 500,000 gallons. The Wolfskill's vinyard, the largest in southern California, produces this year about 200 tons of grapes. This vinyard, and also Mr. Wilson's, yields something like a full crop, while others have not half a crop.

RICE CROPS.

Comparative statement of the total rice crop of South Carolina and Georgia

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The city consumption and stock on hand on the 1st September at Savannah

are not included in the above.

HOW TO TELL THE CHARACTER OF PAST SEASONS.

From a meteorological article recently published in the Zeitung, at Galveston, Texas, it appears that the people in some parts of Texas have lately been visited with a series of five dry seasons, which have greatly discouraged the farmers, and an opinion seems to have gained some prominence, that the climate has changed, and that for want of rains that country would become unproductive and barren. In previous years an abundance of rains and moisture had been furnished to produce the most luxuriant crops; but the late dry years had led many persons to regard the former favorable seasons as the exceptions, and the late barren one as the rule. The article to which we have been referred settles this question in a most satisfactory manner, by a very ingenious theory laid down and tested by its author, J. KUECHLER, of Gillespie County. He states that the records of Texas are of two recent date in regard to past seasons, to form a correct opinion of their general character, whether they are more often very dry or wet; and going to nature as the most uncompromising and correct witness for testimony, he says:

A tree bears its own history written in itself, and this is most intimately connected with the yearly fall of rain. Water is a main element in the development of plants; without it, their growth is impossible. With a sufficiency of moisture they arrive at their maximum of growth; that wanting the growth is relatively retarded. We can accurately follow the growth of a tree from its earliest state to its present perfect condition. We trace its yearly growth by annual rings, whose size mainly depends upon the supply of water, so that the broad rings indicate wet years, and the thin rings, which can scarcely be distinguished by the naked eye, denote dry ones. This theory should govern our researches into the past. Great care is necessary in the selection of trees for this experiment. We may be misled by trees upon which abnormal conditions have been developed. In my experiments I demanded two requisites: first, a high, isolated position, so that the drouth has an early effect upon the trees; and secondly, sound, healthy trees. I felled three post-oaks-two somewhat over 130 years old. I took from each, at the thick end, a vertical section, planed the surface very smooth, and then varnished it over, which made the annual rings distinctly visible, (fat has the same effect,) and I prepared from each section à table of the relative order and position of those rings. Upon comparing these three tables, they were found to correspond exactly-a proof that moisture is the only cause of this difference in the size of these annual rings.

His tables of these rings go back to 1725, and from the size of each ring he judges whether the season in which it was formed was dry or moist; the small rings being set down for the dry, and the larger ones for the moist seasons. By this test there have been 67 wet summers during the past 133 years, in western Texas, and the rest of the years are divided into dry, very dry, and average sea

sons.

AFRICAN FIBROUS PLANTS.

The Agricultural Bureau received some time since a number of specimens of the numerous plants growing near the Cape of Good Hope, which, having a fibrous texture, are suitable for cordage, &c. These specimens have lately been deposited in the gallery of the Patent-office, and merit the attention of persons engaged in the manufacture of cordage, paper, &c. It is said that some of the species of which these plants are representatives will grow in the Southern States of this Union.

SILK-WORMS.

One of the most active and distinguished of the members of the Society of Acclimation, M. Guerin Meneville, who has been especially interested in the introduction of new silk-worms into France, has just succeeded in acclimating one from China, where it lives in the varnish tree, (Aylanthus Glandulosa.) The species is the true Bombyx Cynthia, known for centuries in China, where its silk clothes the people. The color of the silk made by this worm is a fine flax-gray; and clothes made of it are not injured by the rain, or oil, and wear long.

Now that the introduction of the silk-worm into France is accomplished, attention is turned to the extension of it industrially; and GUERIN MENEVILLE proposes for this end the making of plantations of Aylanthus, a tree that is easily produced on poor soil; then to place the worms upon them in the spring that were hatched in the month of May, and let them eat the leaves. Care is required to preserve them from the birds, and this is proposed, according to the custom in China, by invalid workmen incapable of other work. At the end of June the first crop may be gathered, and a second in August. The cocoons for reproduction should be preserved until the next May, which requires, as with other species of silk-worm, special care in the winter.

THE SPICE CROP.

From our new contemporary at Penang, the Argus, says a Singapore paper, we regret to learn that the death of nutmeg trees "is still going on to such an alarming extent, that it is calculated there will not be a single nutmeg tree left in the island in the course of ten years hence." We much regret to observe that this painful conclusion coincides with that we expressed with reference to Singapore some weeks since. On the part of the government, everything has been done that suggested itself, to avert the evil of which the Straits planters complain. Dr. OXLEY was deputed to proceed to the Moluccas in order to procure seedlings and nuts of the true stock, the expense of his mission being chiefly borne by the government of India, the new stock being supplied at the lowest possible rate. Unfortunately, notwithstanding Dr. OXLEY's mission, the disease has widely increased, to such an extent as to threaten the annihilation of the important spices, nutmegs and mace, so that speculators are not much disposed to enter upon the culture in the face of certain loss. The large nutmeg plantations belonging to Dr. OXLEY and Mr. PRINSEP exist only in the name, the ground being laid out for building purposes, and such nutmeg trees as remain being retained as ornamental trees. Singapore, like Penang, will in a few years be without nutmeg trees, leaving this branch of the spice trade almost entirely in the hands of our Dutch neighbors.

THE SYRIAN GRAIN.

The Agricultural Bureau of the United States Patent-office have sent off a number of the specimens of grain obtained from Syrian products to eight southern agricultural societies for trial. The grains sent were such as would not grow in northern latitudes.

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