Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1877-10-19
AGRICULTUnAL ITEMS.

The French harvest this year is only an
ordinary one, and the importation OF wheat
will he necessary.
1t is stated that all along Cape Cod the
cranberry crop of this season is very large,
and by far exceeds that of previous years.
The adulteration of olive-oil in the Med
iteranenn countries has turned California
planters to raising peanuts from which mn
oil as good as olive is made.
In Middle Tennessee and Northern Ala
bama this years cotton crop is better than
last years but generally in Alabama 1t is less
and in Mississippi it averages I per cent less.
Potatoes are rottng badly in the vicinity
of Colebrook N. H.. but the price at the
starch mills is only twenty cents bushel.
Lancaster is the only place in the State which
claims more than an average crop OF apples.
According to the Columbus (Ga.) En-
uuirer, one of the strangest things i'll the
world is to find Southern planters buying tons
of Northern hay, while the heavy and griev-
GUS task the whole year round is to keep the
fields clear of grass.
Jonathan Cilley of Andover, n. H., has
raised this season from 81 bushels of sowing,
g15 bushels of wheat In the same school
district this year there have been harvested
$50 bushels of wheat, as much rs the aggrc-
gate raising of the past ten years
Nebraska has had year of great plenty,
both of cereals and fruit Apples are 30 cents
a bushel, and the recent State fair Mt Lincoln
paradise of plenty. A great exhibition was
made from Franklin county, which was for
merly included in the great American des-
ert"
A Pennsylvania butter-maker tests his
salt by dissolving little in Il glass tumbler;
if the brine formed is clear and free from bit
ter taste, he pronounces the salt good If, on
the other hand, it presents milky appear
ance, leaves any sediment or throws scum to
the surface, he rejects it.
The Belfast journal says the Maine po-
tato crop will be quite up 10 the average. The
yield is not so great as last year, but the adj
dtional acreage planted will keep the quanti-
ty good. The price rules low, and when the
season opens will start at about thilty-tive or
forty cents per bushel.
According to the Northampton Gazette,
William S. Douglas of Greenwich. Mass, has
very remarkable COW. II is stated that she
gave in the month of June 1872 quarts of
milk the most she gave i'll any one day was
j2I quarts. She averaged through the month
40 20 quarts day: at six cents Il quart the
milk would bring SS3 -.
Miller & Lux, California firm, own 700,
600 acres in all, an area nearly equal to that
of Rhode Island. They own about 50, 600 cat
tie, and last year their newborn calves num-
bered $1,000. Of sheep they have II vast
number, as well as of hogs, and they furnish
! the largest share of fresh meat for the San
| Francisco market.
M Fautrat asserts that wooded land re-
| ceives more rain than bare land in its imme-
diate neighborhood. Pine forests attract
more moisture than other forests. Pine trees
| also retain in their branches more than half
| of the rain which falls on them, while leafy
| trees permit more than half of the rainfall to
reach the earth Immediately.
The cheap lands of the West and South
may not be altogether humbug. but they
are a deception to this extent. that they lure
people away from opportunities that are
equally good and can be made available right
at home. The service of pioneer is not the
most delightful in the world. To settle il
uncultivated acres-be they ever so expansive
and rich-and wait for civilization to creep NJ
to each fresh nucleus is u weary life. If one
wishes to be tiller of the soil it is better tC
get New England farm and settle down up
ON it. The old objection does not hold good
Lands are cheap here now ms anywhere
else, and society friends, schools, markets
and other advantages go with them. Let the
man of enterprise improve the waiting oppor
tunities in New England Boston Post,