garded as best. The To Kalon, Creveling, Adirondac and Ionia, new varieties, have also a fair reputation. The Clinton, a small grape, but prolific and of fair quality, has some good fruits. Loomis's honey grape, a remarkably sweet, large, black fruit, has begun to attract attention. The establishment of vineyards for wine making is increasing with extraordinary rapidity. For some years past the vineyards on the Ohio, in the vicinity of Cincinnati, have furnished considerable quantities of wine of fair quality, though not well calculated to replace foreign wines. The production of this wine, which was made mostly from the Catawba grape, has been constantly increasing. Within the past year or two, large quantities of wine from California have been brought into the Eastern markets. This was at first produced from the Los Angeles and Savanna, both called the mission grape, varieties cultivated by the Jesuit Fathers at their missions on the coast; but as the wine from these grapes was somewhat objectionable on account of an earthiness of taste, the Catawba, Isabella, and many European varieties have been introduced, and are now used in the making of wines. The interest in the subject in California is so great, that an agent (Col. A. Haraszthy) was sent to Europe to investigate the methods of cultivating the grape for wine, and the process of wine making, and has published, during the last year, an elaborate and very interesting report, entitled "Grape Culture and Wine Making" (N. Y., Harper and Brothers). The California wines are gaining a good reputation. Recently, also, Missouri has become largely engaged in the production of native wines. The vinegrowers in that State are for the most part, though not wholly, Germans, and the grapes most cultivated are Norton's Virginia, the Catawba, Concord, Herbemont, and Delaware. The cost of the investment for a first-class vineyard (aside from the value of land), including trenching, larger root planting, stakes, posts, &c., is about $400 per acre, and there are no returns till the third year, when the crop should be sufficient to pay the expenses of that year's cultivation, and after the third year, the average annual value of the crop should not be less than $500 per acre, and, in favorable years, will be nearly or quite double this.

Another region, in which the grape culture for wine has already attained a considerable prominence, is on the Lake shore and the islands of Lake Erie, where the soil is admirably adapted to its cultivation. A large proportion of the vine-growers are Canadians, and the grapes principally grown are the Delaware and Concord. At Croton Point, on the Hudson, and at Georgetown, D. C., are extensive vineyards, from which, of late years, wine of good quality has been made.

The scarcity of cotton led to the attempt to raise it in Southern Illinois, Indiana, and Missouri, as well as in Kentucky. The frosts, already noticed, affected this crop severely, and

the yield was not more than one half an average one. Lower down on the Mississippi, as well as on the coast of South Carolina and Florida, the abandoned plantations of persons who had joined their fortunes to the Confederates, were taken up, and cotton raised with considerable success. The desire to substitute some other textile material for cotton, led also to the greatly increased production of flax, and the introduction of machines for dressing it with greater facility and less labor, and for reducing it to a condition analogous to that of cotton. The Sanford and Mallory flax-dressing machine, invented the year before, but not introduced into market to any considerable extent till 1863, has already wrought a great revolution in the formerly difficult and laborious business of flax breaking, accomplishing as much in one day, with the aid of two boys, as could be done with far greater labor by four men in five days. The attempt to produce a flax cotton, suitable for use on cotton-spinning machinery, though greatly multiplied during the year, can hardly be regarded as successful on a large scale, probably from an erroneous view of the nature of the flax fibre.

The lack of cotton has stimulated the growth of wool, and the production of that staple has greatly increased, while its quality is somewhat improved. There are now nearly eight hundred woollen factories in the United States, employing 3,000 sets of cards. The heavier broadcloths, satinets, and cassimeres, and most varieties of woollen goods for female wear, shawls, blankets, under clothing, &c., are manufactured from American wool in American factories. The finest broadcloths are still imported, but the manufacture of woollen goods has received such an impulse from the great demand of the Government, that it cannot be long before the American goods will equal the foreign in the beauty and perfection of their manufacture. The great excellence attained in the breeding of sheep in this country received a striking illustration at the International Agricultural Fair, held at Hamburg, July 14th, 1863, where a flock of twelve merino sheep from the estate of George Campbell, Esq., of Vermont, took three of the highest prizes, viz.: the first prize for the buck of the best quality; the first prize for the buck yielding the greatest quantity of wool; and the second prize for the best ewe, considering both quantity and quality. These prizes were obtained in competition with 1,761 other sheep from all parts of Europe, sixty of them being from the flock of the Emperor of the French. At the close of the Exhibition, the twelve sheep were purchased by Count Sher Thoss for $5,000. At the same fair, eleven other American inventers or manufacturers received gold, silver, or bronze medals for agricultural implements, including McCormick's and other mowers and reapers, ploughs, harrows, cultivators, seed sowers, fanning mills, root cutters, horse powers, &c.

The Agricultural Fairs, National, State, Coun

ty, and Town, throughout the Northern States during the autumn of 1863, were largely attended, and gave, to some extent, an additional stimulus to the development of agriculture. The grants of land, by the Government, under the Agricultural College Act of 1862, have been accepted by all the Northern States, and arrangements made by most of them either to organize Agricultural Colleges, or to add an Agricultural Department to colleges already established. In New Hampshire, Dartmouth College receives the endowment, and is to organize an Agricultural School in connection with the Chandler Scientific School; in Massachusetts there is a vigorous competition between the prominent towns of the commonwealth, for the location of the Agricultural College; Rhode Island bestows the lands upon Brown University, which is to have an Agricultural Department; Connecticut donates them to the Agricultural Department of Yale College, connected with the Sheffield Scientific School; New York divides hers between the Agricultural College at Ovid, New York, and the People's College, at Havana. Pennsylvania bas handed over her share to her excellent Agricultural College in Central County, the most efficient institution of its class in the United States, and which, by this grant, will be placed in a condition of still greater efficiency. In most of the Western States, where Agricultural Colleges have been already chartered, the grant has been bestowed upon them, and will, in most instances, secure their speedy organization, or if already organized, aid in their rapid development.

Foreign agriculture offers but little of special interest at the present time. The crops of cereals in 1863, in Great Britain and on the continent, were generally good, and were for the most part successfully harvested. The price of wheat, in England, which, in September, 1830, had been $1.62 per American bushel, in 1861, $1.45, and, in 1862, $1.40, was in September, 1863, $1.16-a very marked reduction; and the potato crop was generally good in Great Britain, though almost a failure in Ireland. In France, the crop, though injured in some quarters by the drought, was on the whole a fair average. The practice of holding regional agricultural expositions in the different departments of France, annually, is coming rapidly into favor. For the most part these have been confined thus far to the exhibition

of horses, cattle and sheep, and agricultural implements, but in some, lately, fruits have been exhibited with advantage. A few particulars concerning the agricultural products of Sweden, a country which has furnished so large a body of farmers to the Northwestern States, may be of interest to the readers of the Cyclopædia. They were collected by the United States consul at Gottenburg.

The crop of 1863, which at one time promised to be unusually large, was damaged by rainy weather during harvest time, and thus reduced to an average amount, of which the figures in the table below may be taken as a fair statement.

About 1,500,000 Swedish acres, equal to 48,600,000 English acres, are devoted to growing grain, and 100,000 Swedish acres, or 3,200,000 English acres, to potatoes; yet the yield of potatoes is so large, that it stands in the ratio of 3 to 5. The potato can be raised in the short summer of these high latitudes, when no grain, save barley, can live, and thus becomes the "staff of life" to the Swedish peasants. Fine crops of potatoes, and occasionally of barley, are raised far within the arctic circle, and even above 70° north latitude, the highest cultivated land in the world.

The Alsike clover is the most productive clover in Sweden; cuts about five tons to the Swedish acre, can be made to yield two crops in the short Swedish summer, and has been introduced into Scotland to great advantage.

There is a kind of egg plant called "Gula. Plummon," which is produced in the middle and southern districts of Sweden in considerable quantities. This plant is of a light straw color, firm, juicy, and of a peachy flavor. It is thought it would flourish in the northern counties of New England and New York.

This table is the average yearly product of Sweden, taking the figures for five years to 1861:

85,219

ernment.

The changes which took place in the State of Alabama during 1863 present no new aspect. Immediately after the occupation of the peninsula, opposite Vicksburg, by General Grant's army, in January, measures were taken to cut off the communication between the inhabitants in the east and west sides of the Mississippi through Red River. From that stream the inhabitants on the east side of the Mississippi had access to vast supplies, particularly of salt, sugar, and molasses. A large portion of the Confederate army was supplied from the same source. This communication was destroyed by the gunboats of Admiral Porter, which were below the batteries at Vicksburg, and by vessels of Admiral Farragut's fleet at New Orleans. In April a scarcity of provisions prevailed in the southern part of the State, which created an advance in prices. This was attended with a depreciation of the currency, and food soon advanced almost beyond the reach of the poor. About the 15th of April a scene occurred in, Mobile, which was thus described:

"A number of ladies, perhaps a dozen, composed of the wives and daughters of soldiers' families, who represented themselves and their families to have been deprived of anything to eat in the last few days, save a small portion of corn bread, were seen perambulating our streets until they came up to a provision store on Whitehall street. They all entered it, being preceded by a tall lady, on whose countenance rested care and determination. She asked the merchant the price of bacon. He replied, stating that it was $1.10 per pound. She remonstrated with him as to the impossibility of females in their condition paying such prices for the necessaries of life. He remaining inexorable in his demand, the tall lady proceeded to draw from her bosom a long navy repeater, and at the same time ordered the others in the

6.478

crowd to help themselves to what they liked, which they did accordingly, giving preference to the bacon, until they had taken about $200 worth. They went out, and on being questioned by some gentlemen as to what they meant, they related their suffering condition.

"Seeing what was going on, and feeling a deep sympathy for these ladies, a number of gentlemen, of very moderate means, who themselves have families to support, set to work to raise a subscription in their behalf."

This was one of several instances of distress which occurred at Mobile. The famine existed chiefly in the families of absent soldiers.

The scarcity of provisions was such as to induce all the authorities to wisely prepare for the ensuing winter. The Confederate Congress urged the people to plant less cotton and more corn; and the Governors of the States repeated the request.

Governor Shorter issued an appeal to the planters of the State at this time, urging the importance of raising articles necessary to keep the people from starving. He said:-"Failing to accomplish our subjugation by the force of arms and the power of numbers, the enemy has called to his aid the terrible appliances of want and starvation, and is carrying out this savage and inhuman policy by the wholesale larceny of slaves, the seizure of provisions, and even the destruction of agricultural implements. Are you, the planters of Alabama, prepared to aid in this policy by pursuing a course which may tend to its accomplishment? Look around you this moment, when the crop upon which the poor must mainly depend is not yet planted, and behold the want and destitution which, notwithstanding the munificent provision madé by public and private benevolence, are to be found at the hearthstones of many whose legitimate protectors have fallen in battle, or are now fighting in defence of your homes and property. Let us not deceive ourselves. The failure to raise the largest possible quantity of supplies in the present year may bring disaster