528 
drought and chinch-bugs. Carroll: Not feeding well; light and chaffy ; requires 50 
per cent. more than last year. Cass: Injured by drought. Franklin: Bottom crops 
good ; upland below average. Morris : Damaged by chinch-bugs after severe drought. 
Laclede: About 50 per ceut. short. Dallas: Cut short by drought and chinches. New- 
ton: Shortened by drought and chinch-bugs. Cole: Shortened by drought and 
chinches, in some cases one-half. Pemiscot: Neglected for cotton. Pennsylvania 
Yellow from the Department was very early, but the ears were too small for field-corn. 
. KANSAS.— Miami : Drought following spring rains greatly shortened the crop. Ne- 
maha: Shortened by drought, but with 30 per cent. of last year’s crop on hand there 
will be asurplus. Clay: Much injured by drought; early frosts. Bourbon: Less than 
was expected. Shawnee: Early bottom-crops good; late hill-crops a failure. Jeffer- 
son: Shortened by drought following excessive rains; fodder unusually good and 
abundant. JLabette: Increased acreage, but crop shortened by drought and chinches. 
Tinn: Forepart of the season wet, preventing the working of crop; much late planted. 
Montgomery : Badly damaged by chinch-bugs. JH oodson: Injured by chinches. Cof- 
fey: Light but sound; much old corn on hand; price 30 to 35 cents per bushel. e- 
public: Good and sound, with thorough cultivation. Cowley: Early plantings sound, 
firm, and solid; late plantings light and chaffy. Osage: Quantity deficient; quality 
good; nearly all plantings after May 1 are worthless. Smith: Damaged by grass- 
hoppers. Wilson: Nearly destroyed by chinches on the uplands. Ailey: Severely 
shortened by drought. Neosho: Injured by drought and chinches. Cherokee: Acre- 
age decreased 10 per cent.; yield 25 per cent. ; quality 15 per cent. below average. 
NeBRASKA.—Johuson: Half average. Wayne: Late through wet spring, and short- 
ened by drought. Pawnee: Shortened three-fifths by drought. Webster: Injured by 
rain in planting time. Antelope: Harvesting very fair; acreage largely increased, 
but early frosts reduced the quality 20 per cent. Nemaha: Seriously affected by drought 
in the eastern part of the State, and by grasshoppers in the western part. Cass: 
Much lighter than was expected. Otoe: Drought since June; corn greatly reduced in 
quantity and quality. 
CALIFORNIA.— Alameda: Ripened finely - 
OREGON.—Curry : Adams Early corn ripened six weeks before any other; promises 
to be the most valuable variety on the Pacific coast. 
CoLtorapo.—El Paso: Matured well; produced 40 bushels per acre at an elevation 
of 6,000 feet above sea-level; one field in Pueblo County averaged 78.26 bushels per 
acre, , 
Uran.—Kane: Larger crop than last year, but more injured by grub in the ear, 
especially late crop. Weber: Excellent. San Pete: Season too cold for ripening ; 
Pennsylvania Yellow frostéd in the milk. 
DaxotTa.—Clay : Very light; grasshoppers. 
IpaHo.—dAda : Injured by September frosts. 
ARIZONA.— Yavapai : Increased by late rains, 
New Mexico.— Mero: Crop backward through drought; some frosted. Dona Ana: 
Shortened by lack of moisture. Santa dia: Much of this crop yet green. 
COTTON. 
The following answer to an inquiry frequently made by persons who 
have not examined carefully the wording of our schedules, may serve 
to eorrect any misapprehension that may have arisen from a superficial 
reading of these reports: 
Iv answer to yours asking “ what constitutes an average cotton-crop according to 
the reports of the Agricultural Bureau,” I suppose you refer to the returns by our sta- 
tistical corps of the condition of the growing crop, for example, “average condition 
October 1” for each State respectively. It is not an estimate of the quantity of fiber 
that will be gathered, but it is simply a report of the comparative “condition,” the 
state of development, ‘vitality, and healthfalness of the plant, the standard of com- 
parison being 100, the unit representing a normal or “average” development. It is 
the universal and only practicable mode of reporting the status of a growing crop not 
yet fruited, and subject to a thousand vicissitudes. As a farmer remarks of his wheat, 
that it will be one-third short of a fair crop; of his corn, that it will be 10 per cent. 
better than usual; as a newspaper reporter says of the hay-crop of a neighborhood, 
that it will only average three-fourths of a crop, so our correspondents, writing from 
different points which have soils of differing capacities, report the comparative vigor 
and development of a crop, with reference to a normal or average condition of health 
and yigor, which, if continued, would give ultimately an average crop. 
In November our returns are not of condition, but a direct estimate of the total 
quantity produced in each county in comparison with the crop of last year. 
The insatiate desire of Americans to discount the future and calculate from the 
