March 5, 1862 Issue:
SEWING NEEDLES-The Iredell Express gives the following item of news. The Express is good authority, 
but we should like to see a paper of fine sewing needles manufactured in Wilkes County, N.C. The make 
should be encouraged by the State.
The Express says:
	"A blacksmith in Wilkes county has commenced the manufacture of ladies' sewing needles, and will 
soon be able to supply an required quantity. The sample which we have seen is for sewing cambric and 
fine linen, and to all appearance will answer every purpose, equal to the best imported, and 'warranted 
not to cut in the eye.'
	Sewing cotton and sewing needles are not being made in the Southern Confederacy-who will start a 
button factory?"

March 12, 1862 Issue:
SUGAR.-If the war last six months longer Virginia and North Carolina especially, will be without 
a pound of sugar. At present scarcely any sugar can be brought by rail road from Louisiana into 
these States; what there is, has been put up by the [extortionists] at such prices, that the poor 
will not be able to use it much longer. In six months, even if the Federals are driven back from 
Tennessee, the railroads will have ceased running, or will be so near run down, they cannot carry 
heavy freights upon them.
	What is to be done? Let the people in those Counties where the sugar maple grows, prepare to 
make sugar from it, and let the farmers plant the Chinese sugar cane. Perhaps it would pay, now 
while it can be done, to import the sugar cane from Louisiana for planting. Florida, South Alabama 
and Georgia could make sugar, and we doubt not it could be done in portions of this State.

March 12, 1862 Issue:
OUR MARKET.-If any of our country readers have on hand a surplus of market products for sale, we 
advise them to bring them to Raleigh. Pork, beef, poultry, eggs, butter, or vegetables of any kind, 
any thing to eat or wear-it will find a ready sale, at prices high enough to require a poor man to 
get on his tip-toe and his neck to be stretched almost to snapping, to reach. Bring them along, however, 
for one may as well die with the fever as with the chill.

March 26, 1862 Issue:
Lead is very scarce, and the Confederate government is anxious to obtain all that can be had, to 
make cartridges. There are hundreds and thousands of houses in the country in which there are from 
one to five hundred pounds of good lead in the shape of window weights, etc., which might be taken 
out and made to perform a more efficient service than they are now doing. The weights can easily be 
replaced with iron or something else, and the lead put to a much better use. If the people throughout 
the country would act upon the suggestion, thousands and tens of thousands of pounds might be turned 
over to the use of the Confederate soldiers, and the very supply thus obtained may have great influence 
in determining the issue of the contest. Will each householder constitute himself a committee of one 
to ascertain and report how much lead there is about his premises which he can possibly spare for the 
use of the Confederacy?-Charleston Mercury.

March 26, 1862 Issue:
COTTON.-It appears that the cotton planters South with one consent are resolving not to plant but 
a small portion of cotton the present year. We admire their good sense. It must be so, unless we 
would add to war, "pestilence and famine." Every farmer should plant largely of corn, peas, potatoes, 
beans, &c. 

April 02, 1862 Issue:
CORN! CORN! CORN!-- Now is the time to prepare the largest corn crop
That ever grew on Southern soil. With the last year's cotton crop in the gin-houses and sheds, and 
the certainty that a moderate crop of the "great staple" for this year will be amply sufficient to 
supply all demands, it is the part of wisdom for our planters and farmers to "spread themselves" for 
the biggest corn and provision crop ever made in this country. Therefore, let not a moment be lost. 
Now is the time to keep the plows steadily running, turning up the stiff clay lands to the sun and 
rain and air-burying under all grass, weeds, and other vegetable matter-throwing the wet soil up into 
broad "lands," with a deep and wide water furrow to carry off the surplus moisture, so that your 
ground will be dry for early planting. And if you avoid drought-the great enemy of corn-be sure and 
plough deep; and also lay off your drills so that you can plant deep; that is, so deep that when the 
tiny green shoots first break through the wide drill, they may be two or three inches below the surface 
of the middles. To plant thus you must open deep and wide drills, and throw the earth back so as not to 
fill the furrow within two or three inches. Use all the manure you can get; but remember that a deep 
ploughing without manure is better than a shallow scratching with ever so much, in our scorching climate.

Corn makes bread, and bacon and poultry, and beef, and fat horses and mules. It is the "all-in-all-the 
staff of life" for the South-It is the great food crop of this continent, and one of the greatest 
blessings of the earth; therefore prepare now to cover a larger surface than ever before; to plant 
and cultivate in a better style, and, with God's blessing, to harvest a large crop-Southern Cultivator

April 02, 1862 Issue:
Pea Nuts and Pea Nut Oil.-Experience having demonstrated that pea nut oil, for lubricating purposes, 
is almost the only vegetable oil which will not "gum" and befoul machinery, there is now a great demand 
in the Confederate States both for the old and the nuts. We are earnestly requested to direct the 
attention of planters to the cultivation of pea nuts, and urge all who have any to sell to bring them 
in at once. They will meet an active demand at fair prices.-Macon Telegraph

April 02, 1862 Issue:
As lead is in great demand, it is suggested that old tea chests contain each from two to five pounds, 
which, cleaned with little trouble and melted, makes a fair article of lead. Every pound helps.

April 09, 1862 Issue:
In our Confederacy hay is at this time a scarce article. It is much needed for the horses in 
our armies, and, if they do not get plenty of feed, the severe work they have to perform soon 
reduces them to a worthless condition. It is also wanted in the cities and towns, as well as on 
the plantations. To obtain an early supply, planters should sow oats. It can be cut before it is 
ripe, and cured as hay is cured, then baled and sent to market. Do not be afraid of having too 
much of it. There will be sale for all you have, and it will bring you the money cotton will not.

April 09, 1862 Issue:
We learn that parties from other States are coming into North Carolina and buying up bacon, flour &c 
and carrying it off. We ask Gov. Clark's attention to the matter. Many persons among us will take the 
largest price offered them, if their next door neighbors starve to death.

April 09, 1862 Issue:
The Railroads-All freights of produce or other articles not for the government, we learn, are forbidden 
to be carried on the railroads at present-We beg the people to get up their wagons and bring to market 
flour, corn, bacon &c.

April 16, 1862 Issue:
Salt Peter-At the request of the authorities here, we very cheerfully give place to the article in today's 
issue, in relation to the production of salt peter. It is an essential article to the government in carrying 
on the war. Every person who can manufacture one or five pounds of it, ought to do so, and sell it to the 
government. Both the State and Confederate governments are paying a high price for the article. Our regret 
is that earlier and more stringent efforts were not made for procuring this essential article abroad, as well 
as at home.

April 16, 1862 Issue:
Arms-A writer in the Raleigh Register who signs himself "Foresight," gives the following important suggestions. 
We think he is mistaken as to the number of rifles in this State:
	"Let those having the authority, appoint men in each country in the State, to hunt up and purchase 
all the rifles that will do for service, and set our gunsmiths throughout the State to altering them so 
as to carry the Minnie ball. Many of them are long enough to make two guns, each two feet long."

April 16, 1862 Issue:
A Gentleman who has just returned from extensive rambles in Louisiana and Texas, says the sugar planters 
are feeding their molasses to their hogs, and are going to raise meat from their cane, and that none of 
them are making any attempt to raise crops of cotton. Very few plantations have overseers. Most of them 
have gone to the war, while their salaries are continued and paid to their families. The farmers have 
sent their sons to the war, and are attending to their plantations themselves.

April 23, 1862 Issue:
One of our volunteers at Goldsboro, North Carolina, writes that the chief want of the troops is newspapers 
and soap, and the greatest fear is snakes.

April 23, 1862 Issue:
Mustard-The supplies of this article, of which immense quantities are generally used in the South, have 
heretofore been mostly supplied from the Western States, although it can be raised here much more easily 
and abundantly. It is another example of the shameful dependence upon our enemies, we have hitherto lived 
in. In this, as well as in many other matters, we are at last happily compelled to depend on ourselves. 
Aside from the necessity we are under now of providing a large supply of mustard for medical and other uses, 
in the point of profit there is no crop a farmer can raise more remunerative. We have seen in some of the 
Patent Office Reports, a report from an Illinois farmer of his experience in raising mustard for market, 
and he estimated his profit at (we think) $300 per acre-much better than making cotton at nothing per pound. 
It should be planted early in the spring, in drills 18 inches or two feel apart and thinned, to six inches 
in the drill.