MONTHLY REPORT. 



Department of Agriculture, 



Statistical Uivinion, December IG, 1874:. 

 Sir: I report herewith, for publication, the digest of returns of pro- 

 duction of corn, cotton, tobacco, haj", and other crops in comparison 

 with the quantities produced in 1873, with various extracts from corre- 

 spondence, reguLar and special ; also a communication relative to inter- 

 national statistics of agriculture from the Austrian minister of agricul- 

 ture; a letter from the United States consul at Tampico upon the 

 agriculture of Tuspau, in Mexico ; a translation and condensation of 

 reports of foreign co-operative farming ; and the usual work of the 

 departmental divisipus, and minor facts mainly from ofilicial sources. 



J. IJ. DODGE, 



Statistician. 

 Hon. Fredk. Watts, 



CommissiGner. 



DIGEST OF CROP RETURNS. 



CORN. 



There bas been an increase in area of corn the present season, but a 

 decrease of aggregate product. The enlargement of breadth planted was 

 confined to the Gulf coast and the region north of the Ohio and west 

 of the Mississippi. 



The early reports of condition were quite favorable in Pennsylvania 

 and Maryland, South Carolina and Georgia, Texas, and in most of the 

 Western States. Cold storms on the Northern Atlantic coast caused 

 late planting and unthrifty appearance. Inundations, soaking rains, 

 and consequent replantings gave an unpromising start to corn from 

 Alabama to Arkansas, Cut-worms were quite injarious in the West.. 

 Chinch-bugs, after devastating wheat-fields, attacked corn vigorously 

 in many localities; and not content with the abundance of this great 

 Ameiicau cereal, are reported in some instances as addicted to apotato- 

 diet, and even to tobacco-chewing. As the season advanced, returns 

 were less favorable. The night-temperature was too low, as far south 

 as Pennsylv^ania, for the best growth. Drought reduced condition in 

 Maryland and Virginia, in the Gulf States west of Georgia, and in the 

 Mississippi and Ohio Valleys generally. West of the Mississippi, the 

 crop encountered disasters of great severity from drought, drying 

 winds, and chinch-bugs. In October, there appeared only a slight im- 

 XJrovement in condition upon the previous months. The absence of in- 

 jurious frosts up to the first of November was very favorable, and served 

 to mitigate the severity of the anticipated reduction in yield and value. 

 Kansas, Nebraska, and Missouri, in addition to the above-mentioned 



