mo:n^thly report. 



Department of Agriculture, Statistical Division, 



WasMngton, B. C, April 30, 1870. 

 Sir: I herewitli submit for pnblicatiou tlie monthly report of this 

 division for the months of March and April, including a digest of the 

 returns on the condition of winter grains, the condition of farm stock, 

 and the diseases of farm stock during the past year, with extracts from 

 correspondence and articles upon the following topics: agricultural im- 

 ports of Great Britain; Beet-root sugar; profits of steam-plowing; farm- 

 ing in Aroostook County, Maine; fat steers in New York; the Upper 

 Arkansas Valley; commercial fertilizers in Connecticut; agricultural 

 imports of 1869 ; exports of Odessa; pomology of Wurtemburg; inter- 

 national exhibition in the Netherlands; cattle plague in Europe; scien- 

 tific notes on natural history; meteorological tables and notes for Feb- 

 ruary and March, &c. 



J. E. DODGE, 



Statisticia7i. 

 Hon. Horace Capron, 



Commissioner. 



CONDITION OF WINTER GRAIN. 



The April returns relative to the appearance of winter wheat and rye 

 and other cereals are very complete, and represent every section of the 

 country in wiiich the crops are grown. They picture a small and slow 

 growth, thinned in places by winter-killing, weak and unthrifty in spots 

 from loss of vitality by long exposure under ice or to freezing winds; 

 but, with these exceptions, vigorous, of good color, and ready to start, 

 under the influence of a genial spring, into luxuriant and healthful 

 growth. These blemishes are neither general nor very marked in locali- 

 ties where they appear, with occasional exceptions of severe freezing. 

 While the appearance of wheat is by no means as promising as it was 

 last year, the difl'erence is due more to backwardness of growth, caused 

 by late planting followed by an early winter, which allowed of little more 

 than germination before cold weather set in, than to injuries from freez- 

 ing. The mild weather and light snows of the winter- wheat region were 

 accompanied with few sudden changes in the earlier winter months, 

 while the colder and rougher weather of later winter was attended with 

 heavier snows, which furnished valuable protection at a critical season. 



The regular returns were prepared about the first of April. The tenor 

 of later information gives assurance of a general and rapid amelioration, 

 which may yet result, the season favoring, in a fine crop of winter wheat. 



