103 



are others that report no saving whatever or attempt at co-operatiou. 

 In some cases it is asserted that losses have occurred from attempts of 

 farmers to do business iu the sale of their suri)lus and purchase of their 

 supplies. Many business enterprises have been undertaken by granges 

 and other associations, sometimes with positive advantage, and occa- 

 sionally at a loss. In some cases the capital employed has been wasted, 

 and additional assessments have been required. Probably the greatest 

 advantage derived from these attempts to avoid the services of middle- 

 men as much as possible has been the habit formed of purchasing for cash 

 and avoiding debt. Among the many examples given of these enter- 

 prises, some in California are most prominent. The farmers of San Joa- 

 quin, connected with the Patrons of Husbandry, have an incorporated 

 company ; have their own warehouses to store their grain ; and an agri- 

 cultural warehouse where they sell all kinds of agricultural implements. 

 By this means they have reduced the price of implements from 10 to 15 

 per cent. They have also reduced the price of storage on grain about 30 

 percent. They have a Grangers' Bank in San Francisco that will ad- 

 vance money on warehouse-receipts for grain at a low rate of interest, 

 thereby enal3ling the farmer to hold his grain for a remunerative price. 

 There is also another advantage in storing grain in the grange-warehouse. 

 It is this: the farmer receives the same number of sacks he delivered to 

 be stored. Formerly he only received the same number of pounds that 

 lie delivered, and as the wheat is generally stored immediately after har- 

 vest, when it is very dry, the gain (if left in the warehouse any length of 

 time) is very considerable. Sometimes the gain in weight between Stock- 

 ton and San Francisco is equivalent to the cost of transportation between 

 those points. By co-operation these farmers claim to have saved the 

 past year in purchasing sacks for grain, agricultural implements, ad- 

 Tantage in storing, procuring supplies, &c., not less than $50,000. 



THE TOBACCO-CROP OF LAST YEAR. 



The crop of 1874 was known to be exceptionally small and poor, from 

 seeding to curing, and in nearly all of the tobacco-districts the de- 

 struction of seed-beds by insects, and the drought which dried out the 

 plants before setting or burned them afterward, caused the reduction 

 of the reported area in July more than half. One county iu Kentucky, 

 Adair, which grew 2,500 acres in 1873, had scarcely 25 acres planted on 

 the 25th of last June. Low prices also discouraged planting in some 

 sections. The average condition of the crop in Kentucky was 42 per 

 cent, in July, 31 in August, 31 in September, 44 in October, and the 

 indicated product iu l!fovember was 40 per cent. In Virginia the 

 monthly reports of condition were respectively, 79, 72, 55, and 65, and 

 the product in IsTovember averaged 58 per cent. In November our- 

 summary said, ''The reduced yield of tobacco was sufficiently foreshad- 

 owed in our previous monthly reports ; all the large tobacco States show 

 results indicating a disastrous year to the tobacco interest f and a 

 special report, from a careful census of the principal counties, was 

 promised, which is herein presented. It will include the quantity grown, 

 the acreage, the price and total value, the quality, kinds, and uses, mode 

 -of culture and curing, and other information. 



There are 211 counties in the United States producing more than 

 100,000 pounds each ; and all others combined contributed but 12,000,000 

 grounds, or little more than 5 per cent, of the crop. Of these 211, there 



