The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-11-26
COMMERCIAL MATTERS, Etc.

The new corn crop in some portions of
Northern Illinois is reported in not good con-
dition. 1t is shriveled and soft, the cold
weather in September affecting it.
The wine making season IN Los Angeles
county, CAL, is drawing to a close, distllleries
in some cases refusing further contracts for
grapes. The vintage will much exceed
500, 900 gallons.
The Land Office report for the last fiscal
year shows that seven millions of acres of the
public domain were disposed Of Of this
amount only 745, O6l acres were sold for cash,
the gross revenues of the government from
land sales amounting to less that So, 600, O00
The railroad companies obtained in grants
3,1O7, 643 acres; homestead entries took up
1855, 900 acres, and timber culture entries
were 400, OOO acres. The railroads, therefore,
got the lions share of the government land.
Silk culture is increasing so rapidly in
South America that the government of Brazil
contemplates offering subsidies for the scien-
titic cultivation of the worm. The climate is
well adapted to the industry, and the country
possesses an abundance of the Palma Christi,
plant upon which the worm feeds with
ayidity.
The American and East India Rice Trade
New York Bullstin, 22d inst.l
Attention has recently been called to the
progress of the sugar culture in Louisiana,
and its rapid strides towards the recovery of
the important position it held among South
ern industries previous to the war. The rice
trade, it is gratifying to see, is also IN aking
steady progress in the same direction. Not
only is this seasons yield materially in excess
of last year, but consumption is keeping pace
with increased production. Prices are not
SO high as they were some years ago, but
they are on sounder and surer basis than
that which not long since was supported only
by short-lived speculative excitement The
planters, the first to be pleased or dissatis-
fed, regard rice culture as profitable, and are
evidently bent now on developing it to the
fullest exent. The present indications are
that it will be but matter of time that the
importation of East India rice into the United
States will be to great extent, if not wholly,
discontinued. Even as it is, scarcely more
than half the trade in that description which
was formerly done is now transacted. Like
many other foreign products, it is being
gradually superseded by that of home growth.
The resources of the South for its culture are
great, especially in Louisiana, which is push
ing forward faster than the Carolinas.
AS regards the East Indian crop, it is much
greater than the casual reader would imagine
The quantity annually shipped from Indian
ports to Europe-mainly to London and
Liverpool-is enormous Yet. great as it is,
it is not so large as that consumed by the
nat;Ses of the Orient themselves. In India
and China, rice is looked upon as one OF the
nececsaries of life. The fact was terribly
illustrated several years ago, when, owing to
the failure Of the crop in some districts, and
the consequent famine in Bengal, thousands
of the natives persisted of starvation
In those Asiatic countries, where rice is
almost the sole means of subsistence, a failure
of the crop is even q greater calamity than
would be the destruction of the grain crop
here; for unlike our country, which constant
ly has a large surplus supply, and where a
failure of the harvest could do little more than
advance prices, the surplus of the East India
rice crop is constantly being exported to other
markets. This fact Was shown during the
Bengal famine, when, to relieve the miserable
plight of the natives, it was found necessary
to send to England for supplies. The mag
nitude of the trade is seen in the following
table, showing the exports from the principal
East India shipping ports during the past
four years: