MONTHLY K, EPORT. 



Department of Agriculture, Statistical Division, 



Washington, B. C, June 22, 1870. 



Sir : I herewith present for publication a condensed statement of the 

 condition of the crops for May and June, together with a variety of ex- 

 tracts from the correspondence of the Department, followed by a report 

 of the Botanist on his recent botanical explorations of East Tennessee, 

 an account of the short-horn cattle sale at Xenia, Ohio, a letter on the 

 Ehcea fiber, notice of trials of harvesting machinery in Missouri and 

 Ohio, with brief articles on West Newbury Farmers' Ckib, how to kill 

 the curculio, the State of Oregon, the reclamation of tide-lands in Xew 

 Jersey, tables of imports and exports, the Kew Gardens, facts from va- 

 rious sources, meteorological tables and notes for April and May, &c. 



J. R. DODGE, 



Statistician. 



Hon. Horace Capron, Commissioner of Agriculture. 



CONDITION OF THE CROPS. 



The season, thus far, has been very favorable to vegetable growth, 

 except in the single element of moisture. The avei^age heat has been 

 greater in nearly all the States than in April and May of 18(39, (in the 

 West by a difference of 6° to 7°.) There has been a due proportion of 

 sunlight, with few occurrences of destructive storms, but the rain-fall 

 has been deficient in New England, in New York, betweau the Ohio 

 River and the northern lakes as far west as Lake Michigan, on the west 

 side of the Mississippi south of Iowa, and in the cotton States from 

 South Carolina to Louisiana. A moderate amount, three to four inches 

 in May, is noted in Texas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Kansas, Iowa, and 

 Wisconsin ; and four to six inches in May, a very good supply, in the 

 seaboard States from New Jersey to North Carolina, and in Minnesota 

 and Nebraska. The rain in May was mostly in the latter portion of the 

 month. 



The heat of April in the West was remarkable. Minnesota exhibited 

 an excess of 10° over the mean temperature of April, 1869. The aver- 

 age increase of 7° is shown for the entire district west of Ohio, north of 

 the Ohio River, and east of the Missouri. Ohio and Kentucky were 

 only 2° warmer, while Tennessee and the Gulf Coast States were cooler 

 than last year by about 2°. In the rainy district south of New York 

 and north of South Carolina, the mean temperature was about thesarne 

 as last year ; while in New England and New York it was higher — in 

 New York by 4°. In May nearly the same excess above the mean tern- 



