292 



favorable for that grain, and it has recovered wonderfully, esfpecially where the 

 use of phosphates was resorted to. 



In Warren county, in northwestern Pennsylvania, it is reported : " Although 

 the winter was cold, with but little snow, I never saw winter wheat come out 

 better." Among these highlands, the uniform cold of the season protected 

 wheat from the calamities endured in the milder and more fickle climate of In- 

 diana and other western States. 



Correspondents in the west refer to the extraordinary vicissitudes of climate, 

 not only during the past winter, but through the spring np to the time of har- 

 vesting. In some localities it was claimed that the injury was done in the 

 spring by rough, cold, variable weather, which continued during April and May, 

 leaving the grain crop in a backward, unpromising condition, when June came 

 in with beautiful " growing weather," and all that was lost was rapidly regained, 

 and " wheat was harvested in splendid order, and will prove a full crop." 



Statements of this character come from all sections. Thus the burden of our 

 recent reports is a universal verdict, " better than we expected." 



Quality. — The testimony from all quarters renders it certain that the quality 

 will be excellent. An extract or two will show its general character. In Jer- 

 sey county, Illinois, " the grain is unusually fine and large, and will compare 

 favorably witli the grain of 1864." A correspondent in a blighted district, who 

 calculates upon a half crop in his county, acknowledges that its quality is supe- 

 rior, and admits that there will be a sufficiency for seed and bread for the home 

 population, with ordinary prices, but that, under the stimulus of extra high prices, 

 there will be some to send abroad. This superior excellence will not only 

 go far to make up the difference in quantity between the crop of this year and 

 that of 1865, (which difference is far less than was expected on the first of June,) 

 but it will, it is believed, make even more good bread and prove of greater 

 value than the crop of last year. Besides, there has been a saving in consump- 

 tion, which will help to swell the prospective supply. The poor quality of last 

 year's wheat, and the high price of floui*, in connexion with the superior quality 

 of last year's corn, has had its legitimate effect in causing a largely increased 

 use of corn bread, which has been for three years past in certain districts al- 

 most entirely unknotvn, wheat having been actually cheaper than corn. 



Winter barley. — This crop is in very nearly the same condition as the 

 wheat. Taken together, the average of the fall-sown will reach nearly nine- 

 tenths, and the spring-sown exceeds an average by nearly a tenth. 



Oats. — This crop has been unusually good, almost beyond precedent. In no 

 State will there be less than an average crop, and in one at least, (Kansas,) 

 the returns give promise of twenty-five per cent, more than an average. Rarely 

 is the country, in its length and breadth, blessed with a crop so uniformly lib- 

 eral in its yield, and so excellent in quality. A remarkable exemption from 

 disease is apparent, though a correspondent in Greene courfty, Kentucky, writes 

 of "an ordinary crop, quite low, with occasionally an appearance of rust." But 

 notes like this are rather the rule the present season : " During a residence in 

 this county, (Randolph, Indiana,) I have never seen a better prospect for oats, 

 flax and com." 



Pasture and clover. — The condition^of pastures is generally above the average. 

 Kansas and Nebraska are more than 'two tenths abpve ; Minnesota, Iowa, and 

 Missouri, from one to two tenths above ; Michigan and Wisconsin, between 

 ten and eleven tenths ; Vermont, Rhode Island, New York, and Ohio, an 

 average ; the other States slightly below. 



Clover suffered by winter-killing, except in the trans-Mississippi States. The 

 loss varies from one to four tenths, as will be disclosed by an examination of 

 the tables. A correspondent from Outagamie county, Wisconsin, says : "The 

 small white clover, our greatest dependence for milch cows, is entirely gone. 

 The month of May was the dryest and coldest ever known." 



