MONTHLY EEPOET. 



Department of Ageicultuee, Statistical Biytsiox, 



July 11, 1871. 

 SiE: I present lierewitli, for publication, a summary of reports on the 

 condition of the crops, with extracts from regular statistical returns and 

 from casual correspondence f also, a brief history of the Department of 

 Agriculture, and a notice of the resignation of Commissioner Cai)ron ; a 

 chapter of recent scientific notes, a record of market prices, meteorologi- 

 cal tables, &c. 



J. E. DODGE, Statistician. 

 Hon. HoEACE Oapeon, 



Commissioner. 



COXDITIOX OF THE CEOPS IX JULY. 



An average amount of rain fell during the past mouth, but its distri- 

 bution was quite unequal. Wiiile one locality suffered from drought, 

 another was deluged with rain. One station in Georgia returned a rain- 

 fall of nearly sixteen inches, while another reported but three and one- 

 half inches; in Galveston, Texas, it was almost nine inches, and in San 

 Antonio less than a third of an inch. Inequalities in amount of precipi- 

 tated moisture always exist, but not always in a degree so marked. 

 There is also reported a wide daily range of temperature in some of the 

 most fertile sections, with summer heats by day and low temperatures 

 and sometimes frosts by night — atmospheric conditions unfavorable to 

 the growth of corn and some other crops. 



COEN. 



The returns of July show an increase of acreage, slight in some States, 

 large in others; the ISTew England States and Xew York, California, and 

 Oregon failing to make an extension of the corn area. Tl)e area of the 

 past year, assumed to be above thirty-nine millions of acres, appears to 

 Lave been increased by fully three millions, of which two millions are in 

 the Southern States. The increase of acreage in the United States is 

 larger than eve% before reported to this ofHoe, the average for all the 

 States being above 8 per cent. This increase will not make a correspond- 

 ing enlargement of the aggregate product, the average yield of the 

 Southern States being less than the general average. The acreage in 

 corn in eleven Southern States exceeds four-tenths of the total area of 

 this crop, but fails to produce so large a proportion of the aggregate 

 yield. The percentage of increase is calculated as follows : Xew Jersey, 

 2; Pennsjdvania, 1; Delaware, 3; Maryland, 1; Virginia, 5; Korth Car- 

 olina, 9 ; South Carolina, 12 ; Georgia, 10 ; Florida, 7 ; Alabama, 11 j 

 Mississippi, 14; Louisiana, 15; Texas, 15; Arkansas, 24; Tennessee, 7j 

 West Yirgiuia, 5 ; Kentucky, 3 ; Missouri, 10 ; Illinois, 6 ; Indiana, 4 j 



