interests of the State resulting from a general mixture of grains and other products.

The eastern portion of Costa Rica, except along the Caribbean Sea where it is low and marshy, consists of elevated plains, some two thousand feet above the level of the sea; the

If your journal, having a wide circulation and influence throughout the State, can, by argument or remonstrance, induce a more ti-western portion is mountainous and volcanic; dy system of agriculture, it will have done a great service to the people of Wisconsin.

M.

Central and South America at the World's Fair. 'Round and 'round the world have we been in our inspection of the products of the industry of its many nations. Several times it has seemed that we must have completed our journeyings. Not so. There remains a vast continent and more yet untouched. Α most interesting portion of the globe it is, too, -semi-enlightened, socially and politically, yet vast and varied in its resources and full of rich promise for the more or less distant future. As here represented in the well filled courts of Costa Rica, Venzuela, Brazil, Peru and Urugua, it would seem to demand a much longer time than we shall be able to give to it. It does, indeed, but circumstances compel us to make short work of these sever al nations.

CENTRAL AMERICA--

some of the mountain peaks reach an elevation of over 11,000 feet. The climate is considered more regular and salubrious than that of most of the Central American States; the soil is quite fertile, and the people have now enjoyed tranquility for many years.

If these petty republics would only consolidate into one grand republic, on the basis of the United States of North America, they might become one of the powers of the world. Some day-probably soon after we shall have demonstrated the stability of our own government-they will do it. God speed the day.

REPUBLIC OF VENZUELA.

Here we touch the great South American continent, and in one of the most varied, fertile and really magnificent parts. A republic of some magnitude-nearly a thousand miles long and over five hundred miles wide, with an area about equal to eight states like Wisconsin; population over one and a half millions, including creoles (of European descent), mestizoes, mulattoes, zamboes and other mixed races. The Oronoco, one of the great rivers of the world, courses directly through its cen

That cluster of republics peopled by strangely composite races, and, as yet, only half way on the road to established nationality, is represented by Costa Rica alone. A little repub-tre and contributes, by its own waters and lic, 80 miles wide and less than 200 long, shut in east and west by the waters of the sea, and containing a population, wild Indians included, about twice that of Milwaukee. see what they have sent to this great ing of the nations.

Let

those of a number of large tributaries, to make it a country of considerable agricultural importance, and would seem to insure to it us a future commercial greatness. Along the gather-northern border, on the Caribbean Sea, runs the Coast chain of mountains; on the south are the mountains of Panina, and on the west are the mighty Andes, lifting their heads far above the lower limit of perpetual snow; while, gathered from all these chains, the swelling grand river pours its flood of waters into the Atlantic Ocean. A country of large capabilities, but, as yet, but little developed.

Mahogany, Brazil wood, cedar, coffee, sugar, tobacco, pearls, pearl shells, gold and coal, these are chief; and a fine collection they are too. Perhaps the coffee and mahogany are, more strictly speaking, representative products than any other. The coal was sent by a New York mining company! from which it will appear that the universal, omnipresent Yankee has not overlooked this little strip of territory.

The coffee, cotton, tobacco, indigo, cochineal, sugar and cocoa, fitly represent its agriculture, still in a very primitive condition.

The pearl fisheries, once of considerable importance, have been pretty much abandoned, as have also the mines of gold and silver. Copper still holds a place of some importance in the list of her industries. The tropical plants, febrifuge barks, various drugs and

Manufactures are said to have made but fexquisite with a thousand hues, throw out little progress, and almost everything requir- their produce in endless prodigality. On their ing machinery for its making, is imported. summit are perched birds of gorgeous pluThe rude articles of various sorts made by the mage, which nestle in their dark and lofty untutored mestizoes and zamboes show this to recesses. Below, their base and trunks are be true. covered with brushwood, creeping plants, innumerable parasites, all swarming with life There, too, are myriads of insects of every variety; reptiles of strange and singular form; serpents and lizards, spotted with deadly beauty. And that nothing may be wanting to that land of marvels, the forests are skirted by numerous meadows, which, reeking with heat and moisture, supply nourishment to countless herds of wild cattle, that browse and fatten on their herbage; while the adjoining plains, rich in another form of life, the chosen abode of the subtlest and most ferocious animals, which prey on each other, but which it might almost seem no human power can hope to extirpate. Such is the flow and abundance of life by which Brazil is marked above all the other countries of the

some varieties of wood illustrate its flora.

THE BRAZILIAN COURT

Comes next in order. By a singular juxtaposition it stands side by side with that of Greece. Hardly any two countries contrast more widely. The one narrow and pent up by the sea, but yet once among the most powerful and, beyond all question, the most enlightened nation on the globe; the other a vast empire, scarcely less in magnitude than the whole known world when Greece was in her palmiest days, traversed by several chains of lofty mountains, watered by the greatest rivers of the world, and still, for the most part, in the wildness of her primeval state. In Greece everything is in miniature; in Brazil everything is on a scale of unexampled grandeur. The vegetable and the animal worlds are there represented as scarcely any where else on the globe; and even the elements seem to exert themselves there more

earth."

But does any one living in this wonderfully progressive present doubt that the time will come when the arts and sciences will have given to man the power of conquest over this great empire? When that day shall have come-when the Anglo-Saxon race, or a better race still, compounded of this with others, shall have entered upon and possessed-then Brazil will have a commanding place among the great nations. At present, her population, grandly. Indeed, everything is on so mag- all told, scarcely exceeds six millions, of whom

the majority are in a semi-civilized state.

No court

nificent a scale that man is overmatched and confounded. Agriculture is thwarted by imThis beautiful court shows, however, that passible forests, and the harvests are destroy- civilization is there, and the beginning of that ed by innumerable insects. The forests and great nation to be is already made. jungles are filled with ferocious beasts that in the Exhibition Palace presents so interestdefy the power of man. The mountains are ing a collection of seeds, especially of beans too high to scale and the rivers are too wide and the leguminous plants generally. Wool to bridge. In the language of Buckle, "Na- is also here; tobacco, wheat and the other ceture seems to riot in the wantonness of power. reals, manufactured articles, including cloths, A great part of this immense country-nearly cotton, silk and linen fabrics, hats, boots, sadas large as the whole of Europe-is covered dlery, and much else. Most of these were with dense and tangled forests, whose noble probably made by European or American trees, blossoming in unrivalled beauty, and hands. Gold, silver and diamonds also, the

last named being especially representative of Brazil, which has furnished more diamonds to the world than all other countries put together.

PERU AND URUGUA

kees say, raking as before; so continue till all your land is plowed and raked finely. You now have a nice mellow surface, without the mark of a hoof upon it.

LAYING OUT AND PLANTING.

We now use a marker with iron or wooden pins 1 inches broad, set in head of marker, fourteen inches asunder, and containing four rows of teeth. Stretch a line across your bed and draw the marker straight across it, thus Draw it back and forth making four rows. with one end tooth or pin in the last mark, and so continue till you have gone over the Now plant your seeds or small onions in these marks, from three to five inches apart. If you wish a large crop, plant closely, if fine specimens, give more room.

CULTIVATE THOROUGHLY.

Are but scantily represented. The name of Peru was once synonomous with a lavish wealth of silver and gold, and just Americans may be disposed to patiently consider its claims to favor. But since the comparative exhaustion of its mines, it is chiefly interest-bed. ing for the remarkable and dazzling history it has had as the greatest and most civilized of the South Ameriean States at a date anterior to the discovery of that continent in the Suffer not a weed to grow. To do this, don't 15th century. To the Agricultural world it wait for the weeds to show themselves-they possesses some interest on account of the gus-land when only sprouted as after they make are just as effectually killed by stirring the no it exports to all parts of the world. Neither of these countries seem to possess the elements of permanent greatness. eruments of both are republican, and it is probable that in the more favorable future they may attain to a respectable position among the lesser nations of the world. But here, as in the case of Brazil and of all the South American States, there must be an infusion of better blood. The poor representatives of an effete semi-civilization will never accomplish it.

The gov

[From the Ohio Fariner. Cultivation of Onions.

BY AN OLD MARKET GARDENER.

A subscriber to the Ohio Farmer wants to be informed about the cultivation of the onion,

SOIL.

The best soil for the onion is a black and dry sandy loam, with an eastern or southern exposure. If it was well manured last year, all the better. If not, apply well rotted manure bountifully. Land cannot be 100 rich for onions.

their appearance, and with about one-fourth of the labor. A top dressing of wood ashes after the last hoeing will often increase the crop from one-fourth to one-half.

Onions should be gathered, dried and spread under shelter, not more than twelve inches thick, as soon as they are well ripened.

Take time by the forelock. Manure well; plant as early as the land can be worked; tend well; gather as soon as ripe, and you cannot well fail of having a good-nay, a large crop. G. S. INNIS.

What shall be done with our Surplus of Straw?

MR. EDITOR:-You solicit communications from your subscribers on agricultural subjects. There is one subject I would like to have discussed in the FARMER more thoroughly. The barbarous practice of burning straw I think you have done justice to. Now, how can we dispose of our straw to best advantage? and what is the best method af applying manure?

It is not always convenient to stack our wheat and other grain so that we can feed all the straw to cattle. I have observed the effect of manure applied in all ways, and have come to the conclusion that the nearer we folWe prepare our land and plant as follows; low nature the more successful we shall be in Strike out lands sixteen steps or forty-eight all our farming operations. No where in na. feet wide; throw three furrows together in

PREPARING THE GROUND.

the centre, thus forming a ridge. Next rake, ture do we see fertilizers turned under the (with a common garden rake,) the suface of soil. They are all applied to the surface. I this ridge smooth and nice, allowing the clods

and other rubbish to remain in the furrow. have seen the best barnyard manure plowed Go two more rounds, or "bouts," as the Yan-in, when side by side in the same field, where

Wool Matters that need righting.

FRIEND HOYT:—I have not forgotten my promise to you, yet I have been detained in one way and another, and have not given the subject the attention which it demanded; and in truth the people of Wisconsin are very slow to learn facts, but ready to adopt any amount of theories.

The Wool trade has occupied my attention more or less for the last ten years in this State, and I am sorry to state that the grower and manufacturer are as far apart to-day as when I first took hold of purchasing wool. The manufacturer keeps away, and allows speculators to occupy the ground; and if the speculator would only act wisely in the matter it would not be so bad, but they put inexperienced men in the field and tell them to purchase wool at 40 to 50 cents per pound. Now they want the commission, and they go on and buy, and, instead of paying every man according to the quality and condition of his wool, they often pay all alike. For example; here is Mr. A., a careful farmer, right in all his plans and arrangements, and who has a pride in doing everything he does on and about his farm in the best possible manner; his sheep are taken the best care of; before washing, they are all well tagged, and when washed they are taken to a clear running stream and thoroughly washed. They are only allowed to run in a clean pasture a proper time until sheared, and when sheared, every lock that is in any way unfit for market is clipped and taken from the fleece.

The

at all, for I took my sheep to the pond, and some of them only run through it, and some jumped out and were never washed at all. Yet I can get as much for it as my neighbor A., who has taken all the pains with his, so that when he gets 50 cents for clean wool, I get 50 cents for manure and dirt.

Mr. A. sees and knows this, and the consequence is, that next year, he exclaims: it is no use for me to take pains with my wool, as neighbor B. gets as much for his dirty wool as I do for my clean. I will do as neighbor B. does, until my wool can be appreciated and cared for.

This is no fancy sketch, but plain facts, and buyers have been placed in the market who could not tell washed from unwashed wool, if they got the entire sample.

ers.

From these evils Wisconsin wools have been despised and not sought after by manufacturFarmers have sought to get their wool heavy, and the sole aim has been by many to make the fleece weigh, let the condition take care of itself.

I have endeavored to persuade the manufacturers that it was for their interest to come into direct contact with the grower, assist them by counsel and advice how they wanted the wool done up and cared for, and pay every man according to the quality and condition of his wool. And, by so doing, they could afford to pay even 15 cents a pound for wool done up, and well washed and cared for as it should be, over and above even wool of the tag same grade, that was not well washed, and in The bad condition.

locks are washed and kept separate.
fleeces are done up in the best possible way,
with as little twine as possible, and kept ready
for market with all care and protection.

Mr. B. is quite another man; he is bound to get the best price he can, but takes no pains whatever with his sheep and wool. Says he to himself, if I can sell my wool to some one who don't know much about wool, and get nearly as much as Mr. A., I can beat him a long way, for my sheep were never tagged, my wool not half washed, and some of it not

The manufacturers will take hold of this matter, and the day is not far distant when clean, light and fine wools will be sought and bought, and these distinctions made.

I would advise farmers, therefore, to adopt the rule to take good care of their wool, keep out all tags and clippings, and save them by themselves, and when they sell to have them go with the wool and at the same price, and sell to those buyers who will pay according to the quality and condition of their wool.