345 



ties are being consumed. You are aware that the crops of last year were de- 

 stroyed by them iu Colorado, and that the crops of this spring were destroyed 

 in Montana, the grasshoppers in each case having made their appearance in the 

 fall previously. In the month of May, or 1st of June, these grasshoppers were 

 at ' Junction,' about 300 miles west of Fort Kearney. About four weeks ago 

 they reached Fort Kearney. On the first day of this month they were iu Riley 

 county, one hundred miles west of Atchison. They move iu a direction south 

 of east." 



EXTRAVAGANT ESTIMATES OF AVERAGE YIELDS 



OF COTTON. 



The extravagant calculations and expectations of newly -fledged cotton-plant- 

 ers, indulged last autumn and winter in advance of actual experiment, have 

 doubtless been materially modified by the experience of this summer. These 

 planters have learned ere this that the production jf two bales, or even one 

 bale, per acre, depends first upon the selection of a soil of the best quality, 

 and afterwards upon a multitude of contingencies like those in which all our 

 southern correspondence abounds, and from which no season or place is ever 

 entirely exempt. A few instances will suffice : 



Morgan county, Georgia. — " The spring was backward and wet. The sum- 

 mer has been remarkably warm and dry. It is the general verdict of old 

 planters that there has not been such an unpropitious season for crops since 

 1S38. Corn has been a complete failure in places where the drought was 

 severe ; in other sections it is an average crop. Cotton almost failed in the 

 spring on account of poor seed and the heavy rains. Now the drought has 

 almost finished it. We lack a good supply of seed ; the old kinds have de- 

 generated to such an extent that it is folly to use them." 



Macon county, Georgia. — " Up to the 17th of June we had heavy and almost 

 coutinuous rains, succeeded by a drought of three weeks and three days ; theu 

 two or three heavy rains, succeeded by another drought of three weeks and 

 three days ; then rain almost every day since. The recent heavy rains have 

 given the cotton the rust, and it is rapidly spreading over the fields, with few 

 exceptions." 



Kem2)er county, 3Iiss!.isij)pi. — "The corn crop was seriously injured by the 

 late rains in the early part of June, and the cotton crop from the same cause, 

 together with bad seed. An excessive drought set in after that time, and con- 

 tinued until the latter part of August, with the exception of partial showers. 

 There are great fears entertained that many families will actually suffer," 



Issaquena county, Mississippi. — "Up to the 20th of this month (August) we 

 had no rain. From the 20th to the 2Sth we have been almost flooded. Con- 

 sequently our cotton must shed off all the squares, and it is too late for others 

 to form and make." 



Lancaster county. South Carolina. — " We have had a continued drought of 

 nine weeks. Our grain crop, and also cotton, is exhausted beyond recovery. 

 The spring was wet, and the crops were small in consequence when the drought 

 set in." 



De Kalb county, Alabama. — "From the 20th of June until the 19th of Au- 

 gust there was not enough rain to wet the parched earth to the depth of an 

 inch, making it the most withering drought that we have had for a number of 

 years." 



New Cartilage, Madison parish, Louisiana. — "Crop promises poorly. The 

 army worm has made its appearance in the parish. It commenced raining on 



