The Lake County star. [volume] (Chase, Mich.) 1873-current, 1875-11-18
AGRICULTURAL ITEMS.

AUhlCULIOhAL lIEMSs
The report of the Department of Ag.
riculture on the condition of the cotton
crop for the past month says the reduc-
tion of condition is an undoubted fact,
though the depreciation is slight as
compared with the October returns OF
last year.
THE museum of the Illinois Industrial
University has received an old ox-yoke
made by Abraham Lincoln, and used by
him wlile living at New Salem, Menard
county. This relic was presented by
Hon. @. M. Smith, of Springfield, who is
brother-in-law of Mr.. Lincoln. Mr..
Smith says the yoke was presented to
him by Mr.. Lincoln, and he knows it to
have been made by him.
SEVERAL cheese dairies have recently
been started in LaPOrte county, Indiana.
Five or six of them are on compare
lively large scale, while there are a
larger number of smaller establishments
using the milk of ten to fourteen cows
each. All are doing we'll. There is GER
tainly no good reason why Indiana can
not produce as good butter and cheese as
| New York or Ohio. We trust that this
profitable branch of husbandry will in
| future receive more attention from In
diana farmers.
The London Farmer, in an article on
the cattle disease, says the number of
cases for the quarter ending the 10th Of
October was as follows: In Somerset
shire, $4,000; Cheshire, 10000; Dorset
shire, $4,000; Gloucestershire, $4,000 |;
Oxfordshire, $4,000; Warwickshire,
$4,000; Norfolk, 81 900, and Cumber-
land, $4,000. Throughout the rest of
England and Wales there were for the
same time over 0,000 cases. The money
damage is estimated at one million
dollars.
The Bulletin DIES Halles, of Paris, has
published a detailed statement of the
crops in France for 1875, according to
which that of wheat is estimated at
0,933, 900 hectolitres; rye, 23,544, 900
hectolitres; barley, 21,700,000 hecto-
litres; oats, "a, ,486,O00 hectolitres. The
wheat crop by this estimate is below an
average, about 100000 hectolitres,
and 100000 to 100000 less than
the estimated wheat crop of France in
1874. France, during the crop year
ended August 81, 1875, exported only a
comparatively small amount of wheat
more than she imported.
Not one farmer in twenty will buy
grapes or other fruit, except apples, for
himself and family; but grapes are so
easily and cheaply grown that no family
with square rod of ground should be
without a few grapevines. Grapes can
be got in bearing earlier than any other
fruit, excepting strawberries. The first
duty of settler on new land is to plant
half dozen grapevines, and after that as
many as he can afford. Fresh fruit is
necessary to the health of family, and
nothing is more quickly, easily or cheaply
grown than grapes.
ENGLISH fruit growers claim to have
discovered destructive enemy in the
bee, and correspondent of the London
Times writes that in the Argentine Re-
public the grapes were destroyed year
after year by the honey-gathering insects,
until at length the evil became unbeara.
BILE, and law was passed providing that
bees should not be kept within circuit
of six miles of town, which is still in
force. Another correspondent of the
Times, writing from France, says that
during six years that he occupied a
large garden at Caen, full of the best
fruit, and averaging three thousand
bunches of grapes, half the crop and
usually two-thirds was destroyed every
year by BEES
THERE have been severe and wide
spread storms in Great Britain, doing
much damage to agricultural interests.
The Marx Lane Eapress has the following
weekly review of the British corn trade:
Another week of storms and floods, with
great extent of damage, has further re-
tarded the autumnal sowings. Nothing
could have been much worse for the con-
dition of samples, and the abundance of
foreign old wheat seems to be the chief
security from wholesome dread. The
more we know of the crop of 1875 the
less satisfaction it gives. France about
maintains her rates. Belgium and Hol-
land are rather dearer. Germany is
generally very steady, but Dantzig is
higher. Prices at st. Petersburg, vi
emma and in Hungary are unchanged.
THE harvest in the United Kingdom
is not more favorably thought of than
earlier in the season, and if anything is
rather less so; neither has there been
any change for the better in the reports
of French crops. The imports and ex-
ports of France would seem to indicate
that the crop of 1874, on which the con-
sumption commenced with bare stocks
from the crop of 1878, was less than the
several estimates of $4,000, 900 to 140.-
100000 hectolitres, and consequently
the expected supplies from France this
year will turn out less than has been ex-
pected. The crop of Germany in 1875
has been uniformly represented as infe-
rior in quality to the more abundant
crop of 1874. In Austro-H Hungary the
wheat crop is far from being satis-
factory.