Jasper County Democrat, Volume 5, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 October 1902 — AGRICULTURAL NEWS. [ARTICLE]

AGRICULTURAL NEWS.

It is reported that one-hnlf of the potato crop of New York State will be ruined by blight, caused by wet weather. Consul General Mason at Berlin reports that the wet weather has modern impending calnmity to the cereal harvest of the yenr. Especial injury has been done to the beet crop. Official statistics from India report a marked improvement in crop conditions nnd a falling off of the number of famine victims. The threatened drouth has been relieved by general rains. Th einjury to the Texas cotton crop this year from the Mexican weevils is estimated at 100,000 bales. Several remedies are being experimented with by State and federal authorities, nmong them the use of the Lipscomb bug, said to be the natural enemy of the weevil The Agricultural Department is experimenting with Egyptian cotton to determine whether it can bo grown here. It is said to be proof against the weevil pest. The disense known ns “little t>eaeh," which appeared In the rich Michigan fruit belt, is spreading rapidly in spite of nil efforts to arrest It. No remsdy is known. Tables recently published show that Louisiana is now the chief rice State in the Union, raising more Of this staple than all the other States put together. South Carolina and Georgia have fallen off one-third in their rice production since the Civil War. Artificial Irrigation by scientific methods Is the rssson of Louisiana's increase. The United States now imports about as mnch rice as it grow* tt home.