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94 AGRICULTURAL. DANIEL LEE, M. Editor. SATUBDAT AUGUST 18, 1859. HINTS FOR THE GEORGIA LEGISLATURE. The Legislature of Massachusetts gives her agricultural societies $12,000 a year. That of New York gives SB,OOO in money, and prints the Transactions of the State Society at an equal expense, for the equal benefit of all the county societies. The Legislature of lowa appropriates to its county and State Societies $15,000 per annum. Many other Legislatures do likewise. Has not the Legislature of the ‘ Empire State of the South" treated similar associations for the advancement of agriculture rather shabbily ? FINE PEARS. We are indebted to our esteemed friend, the Hon. Yelverton' P. King, of Greensboro’ Ga., for a box of fine Pears, which were raised by him, and are sent to us as an evidence of what may be done in their cultivation at the South. They would convince the most skeptical that the fruit may be grown in the greatest perfection in this State. We have no hesitation in pronounc ing them the most delicious pears we have ever tasted. They are large, firm, and superior in flavor and succulence, to .those grown in the Northern States. Indeed, they are so full of juice that it literally streams from them when they are pared. We are much obliged to our friend for this present of fruit—which is more acceptable be cause the product of a “Southern Field”—as well as for the kind words of cheer and commen dation with which it is accompanied. m - . NOTES OF TRAVEL-AGRICULTURAL SUGGES TIONS. in the Editor's family having called him unexpectedly to the District of Columbia, where some of his children reside, his readers may be willing to hear something about the farming and crops between Augusta, Ga., and the federal metropolis. Corn has suffered less from the want of rain in South and North Carolina, and Southern Vir ginia, than in those parts of Georgia through which we have recently travelled. Cotton stands quiet unevenly on the ground, being thin, small and nearly worthless in some places, and good in others. Corn appears to be somewhat better than an average growth, although generally backward from late planting. Tobacco growing between Weldon, N. C., and the Potomac river, presents an excellent stand, and the plants are healthy and well cultivated. The production of this staple might be profitably extended farther South; and we suggest it as one whose grow ing consumption, from the equally expanding folly of the age, is likely to keep up the price of the article to a renumerating figure. It is a very exhausting crop, and should not be raised on any but manured land, or on land recuperated by nature through irrigation or other means. We never cross the. swamps on the Congaree, Wateree andPedee rivers, in the daytime, with out being struck with the great advantages which they present for making some of the finest pastures for cattle, horses, sheep, hogs and goats in the world. Their occasional inun dation, instead of being a detriment, is really a great benefit by adding fresh deposits of rich material for producing the most nutritious her bage. In some parts of these swamps, the water will stang long enough to kill grass, unless the rim of the basin at their natural outlets is cut down a few feet to hasten the fall of the overflow, and tlio appearance of dry land re cently covered with water. Cane and several wild grasses grow in spite of all the dams of logs, fallen trees, brush, leaves and mud that so much obstruct the natural and rapid discharge of the surplus water. Open all the natural chan nels, and cut down the rock or earth at the outlets of these swamps, and their drainage, suf ficiently for grazing purposes, would be as effectual and cheap as profitable. Thousands of acres of pastures equal to any in the world might thus be had, and become to the State of South Carolina mines of wealth more valuable than any in Australia or California. The ex pense of occasionally reseeding spots where the grass was killed by the deposition of too much mud, or by too long an overflow, would be a trifle as compared with the extreme fruitfulness of these flat bottom lands. It would be more expensive to clear the large timber and thick undergrowth from these wet flats, than to per form a similar labor on dry uplands ; but the axe, bush-hook, and fire in a dry time, would soon let in the sup sufficiently greatly to augment the evaporation of all surface water, and enough to dry the ground in most places so that grass would grow most luxuriantly. The important fact in all operations of this kind is this: quite moist ground favors, not injures, the growth of plants adapted by nature to the support of the whole bovine race; and it is worthy of remark that neat cattle and swine separate much more water from their blood through their kidneys than any other domestic animals. Swamp lands and half aquatic grasses and other herbage are congenial to the constitutions and habits of hogs and cattle, save only that miasam affects them injuriously. But swamps properly drained, and growing grasses only, are not unhealthy for stock; although it is best to have them not sleep in low grounds. They should spend their nights in lots on high upland which needs manuring. In traveling, we frequently notice farmers who carelessly permit their cows to remain in their pens late in the morning, which is a cmel and disgraceful prac tice. The writer was brought up to milk sever al cows night and morning, and always to have them in the field grazing by sunrise. It is bet ter to bring them up in the middle of the day and milk them, than to keep them late in the yard till the dew is off, the flies active and biting XKX gOtraJKKM IXKLD Ul J7IJUSBXBK. to annoy them. The mismanagement of stock yards is very common. Some are made on a side hill, where the dung and urine are washed into a ditch or branch and lost. Others are in the woods, where the earth, saturated w ith ma nure, cannot be cultivated. - The true way is to make a cattle-yard on level, or nearly level ground ; to plow it frequently, the better to ab sorb all fertilizing salts and gases, and when the land is sufficiently manured to produce a crop of turnips or wheat, to turn the stock into another small lot Movable fences are not expensive, and every farmer should learn to make the most of all the droppings of every animal that eats as much as a chicken, or more. One of the great est defects in Southern husbandry is the bad ar rangements for saving and using manure. Much is lost by exposing it to the direct rays of a hot sun ; but more, probably, by its being subjected to the washing and leaching of rains. There is, however, a still greater error committed by those who generally neglect to yard their stock at all. The amount of manure wasted in roads, swamps, woods or forests, involves an annual loss of many millions of dollars. Twenty head of cat tle, and even half that number, will soon enrich an acre of land, if kept thereon. All know the value of a rich soil, while but a few ever prac tice the art of making fertile fields with the greatest economy. There are some who shade their cows and their manure by the use of large cotton cloth sheds or tents, which are removed w’hen the land is cultivated. These temporary shades are better than trees, which draw the strength of the land when a crop of cottoni corn or wheat is to be grown. Sheep, in particular, need shade at the South, and even protection from dews at night and showers is an advan tage. Where boards are cheap, sufficient shade and shelters may be had at a moderate cost, with out cloth of any kind. We have been pleased to notice an increase of clover and timothy fields in Virginia, and an improvement in working animals and dairy stock. With an increase of clover is seen the use of lime and marl, and doubtless the latter enables the soil to grow these plants more suc cessfully. Careless farmers have left rye in fields standing in small stacks some six weeks after it was harvested, to be destroyed by birds and ver min, while a few good managers are plowing in clover, preparatory to seeding the land to wheat. It needs two good plowings to fit most ground for the seed, besides thorough harrowing. The clover had best be in full blossom when the first plowing is done. Few men plow deep enough or early enough to get a first rate seed bed ready for the young plants. It is only the best culti tivators that pretty uniformly raise superior crops of this grain ; for it requires strong, or well manured land, and almost perfect tillage to produce heavy yields of wheat from year to year on the same farm. We know those that average about thirty bushels per acre. Clover, lime, and manure stand out as prominent fea tures in the agriculture practiced on these mod el establishments. Their average is from fifteen to twenty barrels of corn to the acre. Sheep do better than cattle in the piney woods. 1 • ANIMAL HEAT. There is no subject connected with animal life and health more important than the laws which govern the production and degree of heat known to exist in the bodies of all animals.— Seamen visiting the polar regions, where a spirit thermometer indicates a temperature of ninety degrees below the freezing point, find their sys tems demanding in their daily food, more nutri ment than would suffice in a less severe climate, and that they crave very fat bacon, or pork, or oily fish, to obtain carbon and hydrogen in the most combustible and concentrated form. Ac cording to the experiments of Despretz, one ounce of carbon evolves, during combustion, as much heat as will raise the temperature of 105 ounces of water at 32° to 167"*, being a gain of 135°. If we multiply the 105 ounces of water by 135° elevation in each ounce, the aggregate heat evolved from the burning of a single ounce of carbon, is proved to be 14.207°. In the cli mate of Germany, it has been found by experi ment that an adult man consumes in his food, on an average, 13.9 ounces of carbon in 24 hours, which is converted into carbonic acid; and if we multiply 14,207° of heat evolved by one ounce of carbon by 13.9, we have 197.477.3° of heat as the quantity disengaged in the body of an adult in 24 hours. JThis amount of heat will cause 136.8 pounds of water at freezing point to boil; and it will raise 370 pounds of water at 32° to the temperature of the human body, or 98.3°. The constant combustion of so much fuel in the system would soon heat the bones and flesh red hot, if no heat was radiated, and none car ried off by insensible and sensible perspiration. Twenty-four pounds of water on the body, if converted into vapor, would absorb and render latent the whole of 197.477° of heat generated by 13.9 ounces of carbon. As all food contains combustible carbon, and all drinks, water, we see how the one warms, and the other cools the living machine; so that whether under the ver tical rays of the sun near the equator, or near the poles, a man is neither melted by the in tense heat of the one place, nor frozen by the intense cold of the other. Baron Leibig calculates that, under ordinary circumstances, an adult vaporizes about 48 ounces of water from the skin every 24 hours, which leaves heat sufficient to vaporize 21 pounds of water, or 336 ounces to be radiated from the surface of the body, and to escape in the warm air constantly expelled from the lungs, and in the warmth of the excrementitious mat ters. In this calculation, no account has been taken of the heat produced in the process of transforming the hydrogen in one’s daily foo'’ into water, by oxidation, within the body; anu it is also known that bones and flesh require less heat than water to raise any given weight .AUGUST 13, 1859. to any common and increased temperature. — To render the supply of oxygen in the limited quantity of air taken into the lungs in cold weather and in cold climates, adequate to burn carbon enough to prevent freezing from the ra diation of heat, the atmosphere contains in every cubic inch or foot of air the more of this vital gas as it is condensed by cold. Hence, a lung full 1 of atmospheric air in Greenland gives to the arterial blood more than twice as much oxygen 1 for the combustion of carbon and hydrogen, and the generation of animal heat, as the same lungs would supply in the State of Georgia. It is known that the oxygen which enters the blood through the organs of respiration, either remains in the system, or escapes as carbonic acid, or as water from its union with hydrogen. In com mon respiration, when the air enters the lungs, it contains only one part of carbonic acid in 2.500 ; but when it escapes from the lungs, j it has one part of carbonic acid in 25; or just 100 times more than it had before the blood from the veins had parted with its dark color and its carbon. This combustible substance is not burnt in the organs of respiration, nor in those of digestion to evolve heat locally, but in every part of the system where the arteries and veins approach each other so closely that the blood passes from the extremeties of the former into those of the latter. In this way, animal heat is uniformly and evenly distributed over the whole system. — — PEA HAY AND CLOVER HAY. As pea hay and clover hay are among the most nutritions forage substances known to scientific agriculture, we give an analysis of each made by Boussixgault : Pen Hay. Clover Hay, Carbon 46. SO 47.40 Hydrogen 5.00 5.00 Oxygen 85.57 87.80 Nitrogen 2.81 2.10 Ashes 11.82.. 7.70 100.00 100.00 It will be seen by the above figures that pea hay contains a fraction more nitrogen, and con sequently of flesh-forming pow T er, than clover hay. But the pea vine analysed was not our j dolichors, or cow pea, but the English pea. i which is probably a little richer in nitrogen.— Both clover and the hay made from pea leaves, stalks and vines, are nearly equal to wheat in their muscle-forming value, and six times more valuable than good wheat straw. We give the preference to clover and lucerne over the pea tribe of whatever species, mainly because the former do not require plowing and reseeding every year, as do the latter. It demands considerable skill in hay making to cut and cure either clover or peas in the best manner. The stems of these plants, when full grown, are large, a little waxy and full Os wa ter. To dry out most of this, and yet not in jure the hay by the loss of leaves, by dews nor rains, bleaching and leaching it, is quite an art. The art consists mostly in placing the clover or pea yines in a condition for the dry atmosphere to evaporate the excess of water rather than the direct rays of the sun. The green plants are cured in bunches, and in winrows, till half dry enough, when drying is completed in small cocks turned over morning and night to lessen the bad effects of dew. A luxuriant growth of peas or clover requires a week or more of favor able weather, if the plants are cut at the right time, to have the forage of the best quality.— Let the air circulate freely through the entire mass of green herbage, after it is mown, by lifting and opening the bunches with a fork, rake, or tedding stick. Keep the green side up at night to take the dew, and double and treble the bunches or cocks as the hay cures ; for in this way you lessen the outside surface to be damaged by the sun, dew, or rain. Where one stacks hay of any kind, or corn fodder, it is wise to make large rather than small stacks, to have as little outside, weather-beaten surface of damaged forage as possible. We have known 120,000 pounds of clover hay put into a single stack; and »rom ten to twenty thousand pounds are as s- .all as we care to make any liay stack. We g.eatly prefer barns, stables and sheds for all forage crops to any kind of hay or fodder stacking; so that neither rain, nor dew, nor sunshine can damage the plants after they are dried for long keeping. *•* SOWING WHEAT. Editors Genesee Farmer: —There is no ques tion in my mind, that drilling in seed wheat is on all soils better than broadcast sowing. So much greater a proportion of the seed is likely to germinate, that a much less quantity of grain is required to sow an acre. The use of a drill also saves all the labor of harrowing where the soil is well prepared before-hand. In fact, it is better not to harrow'the land after drilling in the wheat, as the slight ridges left by the drill are gradually crumbled down by the rain and frost, and form a protective covering to the young and tender plants in autumn and winter. But every farmer can not afford to buy so ex pensive an article as a drill-machine, and some soils are too stony and cloddy to allow of its use. Others again are of a light sandy descrip tion. On such soils, broadcast sowing answers very well, if followed by the roller to crush the clods or render a light soil more compact and prevent its washing by heavy rains. But on all well prepared loams, it is of no advantage to use the roller, the frosts of winter performing the operation more gradually and beneficially; and on such soils the roller is of most benefit when used in the spring; it then compresses the roots of the plant into the soil, after the disinte grating effects of the frost are over. Wheat grown on a loamy soil, the surface of which is left very smooth and compact in the fall, is lia ble to be winter-killed by being heaved out in the winter and early spring by the frost, which on a more ridgy and uneven surface breaks down and crumbles the projecting Soil. But on sandy soils, however compact they may be, who ever heard of wheat being winter-killed ? The surface moisture that falls on such soil is too qujpkly absorbed for the frost to have time to produce any evil effect. A. B. Charlotteville, C. W. [Written for the Southern FieUl and Fireside.] AGRICULTURAL LETTERS FROM HANCOCK BY AX C»LI> MKMIiF.It OF THF. PLANTERS* CLVB. The Turnip—As a field crop — lts analysts — Product per Acre—Stock liaising—Value of their Manure. Mr. Editor : We are pleased to find that Southern agriculturalists are beginning to pay more attention to the turnip crop than heretofore. You still find among them, however, many old fogies, who denounce it as very poor food for stock, having but little nutriment in it, and being composed mainly of water. Now, how are we to estimate the value of a crop ? Not by the per centage of nutrition it contains, but by the amount of nutritive matter made per acre and per hand. In other words, the cost of its pro duction. Taken by this rule, we may find the turnip crop of as much value as any other that can be raised in this country, particularly as it is now becoming an important consideration to ob tain a winter supply of food for stock. This will become more and more apparent, as people are convinced that without stock they cannot im prove their lands. All will admit that “tattle can be well kept in this country during at least eight months of the year. The three winter and first spring months require more attention and more food than cotton planters can generally allow a large stock. Now this very item is filled by the turnip crop, and it can be demonstrated that no other root can be raised at the South with as lit tle labor, and produce so much nutriment per acre. Hardy C. Culver, Esq., of this county, raised a field the last season—not a patch—which he estimated at near one thousand bushels per acre as the product. We never saw such turnips grow before, and they were Ruta Bagas mainly, at that; and on thin land, that would not have produced over ten bushels of corn per acre with out manure. He prepared his land well, and sowed in the drill, putting in guano at the rate of about 100 pounds per acre. One hoeing and thinning, and one plowing with a sweeper, was all the work they received. Mr. David Dickson has raised them in considerable quantities in the ' same way for several years. Stable manure and | super-phosphate of lime will answer a better ; purpose than the guano we doubt not, and should be tried the present season. Nothing answers a better end than bone dust applied to this crop, and we doubt not, that phosphatic guano, if a reliable article, would do even better than this. Messrs. Culver and Dickson have demonstra | ted, at least, that large turnip crops can be pro j dueed in Georgia, as well as in Old or New England. And we have this advantage over all northern countries, that the hardier varieties, such as the Swedish or Ruta Baga. need not be housed; but will remain in the field during the winter, to be gathered whenever needed. A better plan would be doubtless to let the stock gather them themselves, upon the plan of the Norfolk farmers. Having fences with move able pannels, cows, hogs or sheep, might be enclosed on a small area at a time, and when the turnips were exhausted, remove to another, and thus the cattle would not only be fattened but the land much improved. A good plan would be to let the sheep enter first and eat oflf the tops and stubble, then the cows which could eat the bulbs above ground, and the hogs could make a finish of all below the ground. At the same time, all the food which would be fed to them in the Stalls could be hauled out at but little cost and fed in these hurdles, greatly to the advantage of the soi 1. But we are digres sing. An analysis of the turnip shows from 88 to 92 per cent, of water, the remainder consisting ot dry nutritive matter. The Ruta Baga con tains from 12 to 14 per cent, of sugar, starch, fatty matter, Ac. Notwithstanding this fact, however, Prof. Johnston states, in his agricul tural chemistry, that “the piece of ground, which, when sown with wheat, will maintain one man, would support one and a quarter if sown with barley or oats, four with potatoes and eight with turnips, in so far as the nutritive power of those crops, depends upon the starch, sugar and gum they contain.” The amount of glutin and albumen produced in an acre of tur nips, according to the same authority, would be as four to one compared with wheat, Indian corn, &c. These references are founded upon the assumption that in England, an acre of land that would produce 25 bushels of wheat and 30 of Indian corn would produce 30 tons of turnips, in which there would be 6,000 lbs. of starch, sugar, Ac., one thousand lbs. of glutin albumen, Ac., two hundred of oil or fat, and 450 of saline matter. Even admitting that in this country turnips will produce only half as well as in England, it leaves a large margin for profit in their cultivation, compared with the cereals. We would not rely upon turnips alone for fattening hogs, but combined with com or peas in moderate quantities, they will answer an excellent purpose. They will, however, with out any other food, keep hogs in a good growing condition. As a food for milch cows, there is nothing that can equal them in the production of milk. Taken in any view, we regard the much neglected turnip as a crop that will pay for the labor and expense of production, equal to any other grown in this country. In some parts of Europe, the wary farmer expends SSO per acre on the preparation of land manure, Ac., for a single crop of turnips. And one of Eng land’s greatest statesman has said that she could do better without her Navy, than her tur nip crop. It will not do, then, for our wiseacres to denounce in such unmeasured terms, a crop they have never tried to cultivate systematically, or if they have, in such a small way as to be capable of no great results. In one of your late numbers, Mr. Editor, you notice the fact that in the six New England States, the four middle, and Maryland and Virginia, there has, between 1840 and 1850, been a falling off in horses, mules, neat cattle, swine, and sheep, of 8,383,385. The no less startling fact has also been announced that during the same period, there has been a great depreciation of the production of the land per acre. Has the stock failed because the land has ceased to produce food sufficient for them, or has the land failed because there is not, and has not been, a sufficiency of stock to resupply the waste that is constantly going on ? This pre sents truly a foreboding picture to the American who is wont to dwell so eloquently on the future glory of his country, and but for a fact which history teaches, would be absolutely paralyzing, viz: that in England there is land which has been in cultivation a thousand years, far more fertile now than when in its virgin State. This gives us hope that when a dire ncessity drives us to it, we will begin to look around with phil osophic eyes, and remedy the evils which now threaten us. Till then, the few who foresee these evils and hide themselves, will have to cast about them for the best means within their reach, to improve their soils, and make remuner ating crops. In this, more than any other profession, knowledge is power, and money too. We believe that by a judicious policy, the planters of the South can make as much cotton as they do, and improve their lands, instead of wearing them out. From the best estimate we ' can make, not far from $50,000 will be spent by ; the people of Hancock the present year, for for eign manures. A much larger sum will be ex pended for mules, horses, bacon, wool, cheese, and even hay, for a portion of these articles and animals are purchased annually from abroad.— Now we are just as certain as we are of any fixed principle in domestic economy, that this great outlay for foreign manures, and animal pro ducts is injudicious, impolitic, and ruinous in its tendency to the agricultural interests of the South; because, not only are the profits of cot ton culture greatly depreciated by the money it takes to supply this immense waste, but the lands are depreciating and becoming less able to stand the draught made upon them. Our policy con templates an increased attention to stock hus bandry, to supply the demand of our own coun try, at least in all their animal products, and at the same time, and from the same source, raise our own guano, which is another term for ammo nia, instead of purchasing it at such high rates, from the Chincha Isles. We recently noticed, on the farm of Mr. Bird song, a rich plat of land in a most luxuriant growth of corn. The stalks were large and vig orous, the blades dark, and the ears large, and generally two to a stalk. We supposed, from its appearance, that it would produce four or five times as much corn and fodder as the land around it. We had noticed this fact in several previous years, of cotton as well as corn. Upon enquiry, Mr. Birdsong told us that seven years ago he kept his cows penned on this place, and every year since, a most remarkable crop had been the result. It is known that the urine of the cow is more valuable than most other ani mals, and more lasting in its effects. It is esti mated in Germany that one large ox will ma nure one and one fourth acre of land thoroughly, and a cow one acre. But suppose a man has a hundred cows, and pastures them in the day, and pens them at night on twenty-fire acres of land on the folding system, and this land lasts half as well as Mr. Birdsong's—his would be one hun dred acres in four years, which would produce more cotton and corn during that time, we have no doubt, than $2,000 worth of guano, and leave the land in much better heart, to say nothing of the beef and leather resulting from the same source. P. Sparta, Ga. — WONDERS OF THE MISSISSIPPI. The difference of level between high and low water mark at Cairo is fifty feet. The width and depth of the river from Cairo and Memphis to New Orleans is not materially increased, yet immense additions are made to the quantity of water in the channel by large streams from both the eastern and western sides of the Mississippi. The question naturally arises, what becomes of this vast added volume of water? It certainly never reaches New Orleans, and as certainly does not evaporate; and of course it is not con fined to the channel of the river, for it w’ould rise far above the entire region south of us. If a well is sunk any where in the Arkansas bottom, water is found as soon as the ■water-level of the Mississippi is reached. When the Miss issippi goes down, the water sinks accordingly in the well. The owner of a saw-mill, some twenty miles from the Mississippi, in Arkansas, dug a well to supply the boilers of his engine, during the late flood. When the waters re ceded his well went down, till his hose would no longer reach the water, and finally his well was dry. He dug a ditch to an adjacent lake to let water into his well; the lake was drained, and the well w r as dry again, having literally drank ten acres of water in less than a week. The inference is that the whole valley of the Mississippi, from its banks to the highlands on either side, rests on a porous substratum which absorbs the redundant waters, and thus pre vents that degree of accumulation which would long since have swept New Orleans into the Gulf but for this provision of Nature, to which alone her safety is attributable. In fact, if the alluvial bottoms of the Mississippi were like the shores of the Ohio, the vast plain from Cairo to New Orleans would to-day be part and parcel of the Gulf of Mexico, and the whole valley a fresh water arm of the sea. 'Were the geologi cal character of the valley different, the con struction of levees, confining the water of the Mississippi to its channel, would cause the rise in the river to become so great at the South that not sufficient levees could be built. The current w r ould be stronger and accumulation of water greater as the levees are extended north of us. Such results were reasonably enough antici pated ; but the water, instead of breaking the levees, permeates the porous soil, and the over flow is really beneath the surface of the swamps. Such, it seems to us, are the wise provisions of natural laws for the safety and ultimate recla mation of the rich country south of us. 'We believe that the levee system will be successful, and that the object of its adoption will be at tained. The porousness of the material used in making them lias caused most if not all the cre vasses. Men may deem it a super-human task to wall in the Mississippi from Cairo to New Orleans, but our levees are the work of pigmies when contrasted with the dykes of Holland.— The flood-tide of the Mississippi is but a *ripple on the surface of a glassy pool compared with the ocean billows that dash against the artificial shores of Holland. The country to be reclaimed by our levees—all of which will not for fifty yoars cost the people as much as those of the Dutch when originally built—would make one hundred such kingdoms as that over which a Bonaparte once wielded the sceptre. Memphis Avalanche. i» i ' Our interior exchanges continue to record the extremely high temperature of last week. Du ring that period, at Placerville, “the thermome ter usually indicated from 98 deg. to 106 deg. at mid-day, and at Upper Placerville on Wednes day last it actually rose to 115 deg. in the shade.” At Columbia “the thermometer ranged from 105 deg. to 111 deg. in the shade.” At Lonora, “ the thermometer has ranged from 102 deg. to 113 deg. in the shade.” In Shasta county, “in some places, in brick buildings, the mercury rose to 118 deg.” In Mariposa, on the 22d and 23d of June, “the thermometer ranged in the middle of the day, from 110 deg. to 118 deg.” On the 23d “the heat between the Stanislaus and Tuolumme rivers was excessive; the thermome ter was 119 deg. in the shade. The wand was avoided, as it was heated so that it felt as if ac tually burning the flesh, as if it were rushing from a hot oven. In one team of ten horses, three fell in the road from heat. Two died, but the other recovered by pourihg sweet oil in his throat. At Burton’s public house, at Loving’s Ferry, birds flew into the bar-room to get wa ter, so tame wore they made by the thirst caused by the extreme heat. Birds were seen to fall dead off the limbs of the trees in the mid le of the day from heat, as if they were shot. The wind was of that burning heat never be fore experienced by the settlers there since their arrival in the State.” San Francisco Papers, July Gth.