AMERICA.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 701, 22 August 1870, Page 4

AMERICA.

♦ The following items are taken from the News of the World (San Francisco) : — ! The Attstbalasian Steam Line Subsidy. The Bill introduced into Congress, providing for a subsidy to an Austra- . lasian steam line, having been referred to the Committee on Commerce, was favourably reported back, with several amendments which we give below. It is right to mention that the number of round voyages per annum will be increased from twelve to thirteen, so j that the trips may be made alternately with those of the P. and O. Company's steamers: — ' Ist. Proposals for the service are to be published by the Postmasterr General in various newspapers in Washington, San Fiancisco and other cities for the period of thirty days. 2nd. The points at which the steamers shall touch at Honolulu and such other ports in the Pacific ocean as may become necessary for coaling purposes. 3rd. The number of round voyages per annum, between San Francisco and Australian ports Bhall be twelve. 4th. The President of the United States is directed to invite the Governments of the Sandwich, Fiji and Society Islands, New Caledonia, New . Zealand, and the Colonies of Australia, to unite with the Post-office Department in establishing mail communications between the United States and! their Governments, by means of the aforesaid monthly line of steamers. sth. No proposals shall be considered which shall amount to more than 300,000d015. for twelve voyages per annum; nor unless the same is from a citizen of the United States of undoubted character; nor unless the proposal accepted by the PostmasterGeneral shall be acceptable to a sufficient number of the aforementioned Governments, and that distinct and separate contracts, containing similar provisions, be made between such Governments by the accepted bidders for additional subsidies to said steamships. 6tb. Said steamships shall be constructed of the best material of either wood or iron, and upon improved models, with all the modern improvements adapted to seagoing steamships of the first-class. 7th. The Postmaster-General shall have power to terminate the contract at any time, in case of its being underlet or assigned, by giving two years"notice. The Siik Chop op Califobnia. " The demand in Europe for raw silk and silkworms' eggs is constantly on the increase, in the double ratio of a greater number of people and larger distribution of wealth, which allows a greater consumption of silk. Nevertheless, the damage done to the culture in the silk countries by disease among the worms, is Buch as to make manufacturers dependent, to a greater extent annually, upon foreign countries, for the raw material. Europe, collecj tively, now purchases annually, a value of 100,000,000d015. of raw silk, and . 10,000,000d015. worth of eggs. . This is the season for the purchase of the latter, and this year there is an unusually great^Jemand. We published, a few days 'since, a notice of a letter from Bersigeß, in France, directed to Mayor Selby, asking the price of silkr worms' eggs and yellow cocoons, in this State. r The railroad has now brought ? ; ujj a ntimber of agents for French, Ita—lian- and other ailkworm industries, ' who are on their way to Japan by the steamer of the Ist, to make purchases of the eggs, and their orders will reach some . 6,000,000d015., to be drawn in ! favour of Japan. These gentlemen have been very active in visiting the various companies of. this State, and have .express^^the greatest admiration for the prospects of that interest. : Among- others, they ha,ve visited the California Silk -Culture : Company, near Sacrairtentb, which is 1 exceedingly flourishing thra year. They have raised 3,000,000 worms. The. cocoons atjJjtracted vgreat attention. 1 ;. They have for sale some 4000 ounces of eggs, of the well known French variety. These are worth : the neighbourhood ojf 4dols per ounce, and, the raw silk 'lOdbE ; the 'silk e^tal . blishments: ■ „> \jp&:\t he. ..•• State have not done weli^ this year. From come • undefined- - causes failures have been • met : witlif? '■'' As a whole . ■ ••■ ■ ■•■ )■•--<(} '? ' i •

the interest is very . growing. The French variety generally propagated, is the best known and most admired in Europe. It is larger' and more marketable, and it is that which in Europe has most suffered from disease in the last few years. The outlet for the sale of the eggs is immense, and the development of the interests here will lead to great results. For instance, the California Silk Culture Company, from this present stock, will, with a fair season' next year, have 170,000' ounces of eggs disposable, which is a value of 700,000d015., and in five years' tfhey may raise 1,500,000 eggs^ The causes of failures in some places will be constantly discovered and removed, until a uniformly large crop may be obtained, and there is- no reason why we should not at least rival Japan in the sales. Industbiaii Condition of Califobnia. The wheat harvest is still in progress, and there is a general complaint of lack of labourers. Chinamen are extensively employed as harvesters. Both reapers and headers are used in cutting the grain, the former being preferred near the coast, and the latter in the Sacramento basin. In some places the grain shells out to such an extent that more than enough for an ordinary seeding is already on the ground. Some of the farmers will harrow in the seed thus fallen, and let it volunteer. A number of fires have occurred in the grain, so many that they suggest the importance of devising some means for preventing and punishing the careless use of fire in the harvest fields. The San Joaquin Valley Railroad Company has offered to put down a temporary track on the bank of the Stanielaua river in the Paradise District, and to carry wheat from there to San Francisco, at the rate of 2dols 70 cents per ton by the car-load. This is less than three cents per ton per mile. A correspondent of the Contra Costa Gazette^ writing from Antioch, says: — " "We have put ourselves to some trouble to ascertain the direct good effects of sowing crops last season on fallowed land, but have not been much encouraged. There was but little land in fallow, because the seasons for three or four years had been so good that crops matured sown late, on the most miserably cultivated land. But so far as we can learn anything, the fallow land is about all that did any good, and that made one-third and one-half crops. We cannnot say how well the fallowing was done, but we do know that much of the fallowing that we have seen was the merest excuse for ploughing, and the wonder is that it did anything at all • and only for the freshness of the land and the abundance of rain it would not have done anything any Beason. Deep, close ploughing, and thorough pulverising so late in the spring that a crop of weeds and grass shall not grow upon the land, is the only kind of fallowing worth much anywhere, and here it will prove absolutely necessary, though we think it had as well be admitted, that the rain fall was too short this last season for crops by any mode now in use in this valley^ The Toulumne City JYervs urges the construction of canals to irrigate the plain and lower hills between the Sierra Nevada and San Joaquin river and Bays : ~ A neighbouring stream (Kings river) could, with much less cost than many of our mountain ditches in the gold mines, be turned upon this^ valley. The area that could thus be irrigated would contain not Jess than a half million of acres of the richest agricultural lands ot the State The canal would traverse and afford water, for parts of Fresno, Merced, Stanislaus, San Joaquin, Alanieda, and Contra Costa counties. At the low estimate of ten dollars an acre for these? land?, we find that from the effects ,of th,e drought 5,000,000 dole worth of property , this year has been non-productive. ? A canal coating less than .a quarter: of ,ai million of dollars ,woul4 have saved^tjhis' 1055,.; besides trebling .the value of the, property -named. '■'-■ • i ' . • -'■' -■■. .-••;■ ■ •'•..■ . ' ; Sixty acres of land near Pacheco |>aid 33d01s per acre this year in hay and pasturage, the wheat hay alone amounting to 30 dols net. The .first cargb. 0f this year's wheat has been t lalde^/^('^^ o^f? r ..'T4 v - er P n ' o^ an 4. it wsaii that tHe mercharits engaged in shipping jfirom that place will pay San Francisco prices. The Pajaronian say b

a farmer near Watsonville grew a paton of sugar beets, and found that they weighed eight pounds to the square foot of land, or at the rate of 174 tons to the acre. The San Mateo Gazette says : — The sample of fibre flax brought us by Mr Weeks is of extraordinary growth, and is also well laden with boles. The stalks are fully four feet in length, which is double that of the other variety, and, in fact, is nearly twice the height of any flax we ever saw in the Eastern States. It will evidently yield a large quantity of . fibre, for a single stalk is almost as hard to break as a piece of bailing rope. Mr Weeks has about Beventy acres of the two 'varieties [the Australian and the common] and he says that if there is a market for the straw, or fibre, at a fair price, he don't want a better kind of crop than flax. Contracts have been let for making ten miles more of wagon road on the Tuolumne or Hardin trail to Yosei mite, and before the end of this month i stages are to be run to Tamarack Plat, only eleven miles from Hutching's l hotel. The new road is to run through ; the Tuolumne Big Tree Grove, and is • to pass through a beautiful forest and i over a ridge commanding a view of the i high peaks of the Sierra Nevada, both : to the northward and southward, i The shortening of the distance to be made on horseback will reduce the ; time, expense, and tiresomeness of the i journey, and induce many who would ; otherwise stay away to visit the natural wonders collected together in the great canon of the Merced, i The Confidence quartz mine, in Tuolumne county, has produced 175,000d015. in the last nine months, an i average of 19,000d015. a month, running i twenty stamps before February and ; thirty since. Ten more stamps are soon i to be added. Thirty-five tons of quartz i are crushed daily, and the average yield i is 25d015. per ton. The veinis in granite, ; is over twenty feet wide, shews no ; faults so far, and the entire width of ; the lode is worked. There are two i pay chutes, in one of which the gold ; is 850, and in the other 920 fine. I The mine has been worked for many i years, but never with profit until i lately. Under the old management . the rock was hoisted and spalled by hand, the mill had only ten stamps and was far from the mine, yield was so small, and the expenses so high re- , latively, that there was no surplus for improvements. The present owners paid in 50,000d015. or more before they began to reap their harvest. Several tons of scrap tin or tinned iron have lately been sent from this city to Copperopolis, to be there used, it is reported, in the reduction of copper ore. A bill passed at the last session of the Legislature, giving a bounty to B. I\ Myfes and others, for iron to be produced in Placer county, was sent with a veto to the Capitol on the tenth day after the passage, after the adjournment of the Legislature, and under the decision rendered in the Montgomery street south case it is now law ; so we may expect to soon have some iron of native production.