Carp Culture in the Foothills.

Foothills Tidings, October 19th.

Last year Rev. J. W. Brier, whose "Glen Farm" is out beyond Ophir Hill, three miles from Grass Valley, procured several carp from the original importer into California from Germany, and has since been a close student of their habits and growth, with a view to their general introduction throughout the foothills.

Though young fish when he obtained them, his original stock have already spawned once, and he has a fine school of young carp at this time. As they are said to spawn twice or thrice a year, Mr. Brier expects to be able to supply carp for stocking ponds all through this county a year from now.

He finds them peculiarly and specially adapted to culture in the small ponds or reservoirs, such as farmers must have all through this region for the storage of water for irrigating purposes, if only for their gardens. They are perfectly at home and grow rapidly with little or no feeding—though, of course, when ponds are fully stocked they will require to be fed, but as they live on anything and everything, like the chicken or hog, the cost of feeding will be light.

Mr. Brier has made a computation, based upon experiments made the summer past, showing the comparative cost and profit of carp and hog-raising for the farm. He finds that 1,000 carp will live and grow finely upon what one hog will—in both cases from birth to two years old. At this age the carp will weigh 4,000 pounds the average lot, while the average porker will weigh 250 pounds. At present prices for the two articles here for food, the fish would bring $1,000, the hog $24. Though the prices per pound should become equal, through future production, the difference is wide enough in favor of the fish, and as we have before urged, every farmer in the foothills should page 44 stock a pond with carp as soon as they can he obtained.

As the United States Fish Commission did not introduce the carp from Germany till last year—the success of Mr. Poppe, of this State, having first called the attention of the Commission thereto—Mr. Brier will have a stock to supply those who wish to obtain them from as soon or sooner than they; and as the convenience and saving in cost to anyone in this country will be great, it is likely that the five or six thousand he will have for sale next year will be engaged in advance.

The following interesting statistics furnished the press by the Bureau of Agriculture, illustrates the constant westward movement of the centers of grain production. The product of wheat per capita in New England has fallen between 1849 and 1877 from four-tenths of a bushel to three-tenths. In the same period, in the Southern and South Atlantic States, the per capita has risen from 2.37 bushels to 6.11 bushels, so that these States from buyers have become sellers of wheat. In the Ohio and trans-Mississippi States, in the same period, the per capita produced has increased from 12.05 bushels to 30.94, and in the Pacific States from 2.16 bushels to 27.49 bushels. The wheat crop of 1849 was 100,485,944 bushels, divided into equal volume by the line of 81 degrees west from Greenwich. In 1877 the crop was 365,094,800 bushels, and the center of production the meridian of 89 degrees 0 minutes west. In 1849 the corn product was 592,-071,104 bushels, and the central line the 85th degree west longitude. In 1877 the corn product was 1,342,-558,000 bushels, and the central 89 degrees six minutes. In twenty-eight years the movement westward has been—for wheat, eight degrees and six minutes, about 500 miles, or from the eastern line of Oregon near to the center of Illinois; for corn four degrees and six minutes, 250, miles, or from the eastern line of the counties in Indiana nearly to the longitude of Cairo.

The Raisin Crop.—A representative of the San Francisco Journal of Commerce while in Sacramento, gathered the following estimates of the present raisin crop in this State: "If the weather keeps clear a few weeks longer, the raisin crop will be the largest ever raised in this State. Deitz & Co., of Sacramento, give 100,000 boxes as the probable quantity, but more conservative estimates by M. T. Brewer & Co., of the same city, agree on 70,000 boxes, of which 20,000 boxes will be A No. 1, and about 30,000 fair quality. Blowers will make about 4,500 boxes, and Briggs about 10,000 boxes A No. 1. It will soon become unprofitable to import any but the very best Malaga raisins for this market." This is the end to be aimed at until even the "very best Malaga" will be of no account here.

An Opinion of the Blue Gum.—It is dawning upon the minds of many residents of our town that the blue gum, as a shade and ornamental tree is not a success. They are a first rate tree to plant in spots of waste or alkili land on a farm, but grow altogether too large for planting in gardens or near buildings, upon which they are liable to come down sometime with a terriffic crash. For rapid growth we do not believe the blue gum has an equal, and therefore are especially adapted for cultivation in places where wood is difficult to obtain and expensive. Several parties in this town have cut down their blue gums to make room for other trees and shrubbery.—Ventura Free Press.

All men are not homeless, but some are home less than others.