15 



Taking the proportions, tlien, as represented by this increase of Wisconsin 

 and Minnesota, we have given to the one au increase of 48 per cent., and to the 

 other an increase of 64 per cent. In the bi-monthly report for November and 

 December, 1864, it will be seen that our correspondents returned an average of 

 winter wheat sown for Wisconsin, 13 — that is, three-tenths, or 30 per cent, above 

 the amount sown in the fell of 1863 ; and for Minnesota 8, or two-tenths, or 20 

 per cent, below the amount sown in 1863. In the April and May report they 

 return for Wisconsin the amount of spring wheat sown at 9, and its appearance 

 at 10|, and for Minnesota the amount sown at 9.}, and the appearance at 9.}, both 

 being bulow the amount sown in the spring of 1864. Yet certain persons in 

 Minnesota claim that our return of the wheat crop should be nearly 200 per 

 cent greater than we ha%'e given it. They can with the same propriety claim 

 a like increase in all their other crops, so that Miiuiesota, with a population of 

 250,000, should be g ven nearly as ureat crops in 1865 as Wisconsin, with a 

 population of 775,881, raised in 1860, that year of such extraordinary produc- 

 tion in that State. Here again is an absurd. ty too ridiculous to be noticed 

 further. 



It is just as easy for persons in a State to magnify its production as it is for 

 speculators to di. cry it. It is the duty of this department to search after and 

 make known the facts, and in doing this we have been aide I by as competent 

 and faithful a body of local correspondents as the world has ever seen. They 

 follow the crops, from their sowing and planting, through all their changes, 

 uion h by mouth, until they are harvested and threshed. They are more to be 

 relied u[)()n th.m the dictum of an editor, whose ignorance of the subject on 

 which he writes is proportionally greater to the positiveness of his assertions. 



After the preparation of this article a letter was received by the Commis- 

 sioner of Agriculture, in which the writer claimed a population of 250,000, a 

 wheat crop of 12,000,000 bushels, and a yield per inhabi ant of 48 bushels. 

 Surely it is not necessary that such estimates should be further answered until 

 the facts upon which they are made are given. 



THE MOXTIILY REPORT A310XG THE FARMERS. 



The following is a sample of numerous letters received from various sections 

 of the Union, but which we have' generally forborne publishing from motives of 

 dt'licacy. We have long known that the publications of this department were 

 adding largely to the profits of producers, and we will not affect indifference at 

 finding our arduous and difficult labors appreciated by the mass of those whom they 

 benefit. We would gladly increase the copies of our monthly and extend its 

 circulation, but the fear of being deemed extravagant in increasing the expenses • 

 of our ht'avily burdened government has prevented. True, we know tliat every 

 dollar expended in spreading the knowledge of important facts among our firm- 

 ers will very shortly return ten and twenty fold to the resources of the nation. 

 But bow convince legislators and people generally of this truth ? We can only 

 trust that practical and far-seeing men among our readers everywhere will take 

 pains, each in his own circle, to point out the constantly recurring instances 

 where great benefits have (or might have) resulted to individuals by heeding 

 the infurmalion imparted in our annual and month y reports. Once comm.'uced, 

 be sure that the circle of spreading truth and influence will grow stronger and 

 enlarge itself. But to the letters of our correspondent : 



'Eavenxa, Portage Co., Oiuo. January 2, 1866. 

 , "Dr.ARSiR: Havino- received the niontli'.y and Iji-moutlily reports of your depaitment 

 during: tlieir entire publication, and having circulated as widely as possible much ot the 

 very valuable iuformatiou therein contained, and had numerous and extensive opportunities 



