266 



Throughout the West the indications of a good crop have never been 

 so general since the inauguration of official crop returns. " Never so 

 many acres of fine corn in the county," as rei)orted of McDonough, Illi- 

 nois, would be a fair report of many a county in all the great corn-pro- 

 ducing S:ates. A few exceptions are reported. The effects of drought 

 are lamented in Knox, Grundy, and Jo Daviess, Illinois; in Clay, Mis- 

 souri, and in Jefferson, where corn " is tasseling out, and not a foot high ;" 

 in Page, Benton, and Appanoose, Iowa. " A poor stand and unpromising 

 appearance " is reported in Riley, Kansas. In White, Indiana, the croj) 

 is represented as almost a total failure. Cat- worms, in Highland, Ohio, 

 have almost entirely destroyed many fields. 



COTTON. 



The increase of acreage of cotton, as indicated by the returns of 

 county correspondents, averages 12 per cent., and aggregates nearly 

 a million of acres. It is almost literally true that '• the people are devo- 

 ting all their energies to the culture of cotton." The condition of the 

 crop is so far favorable for a good yield — fully an average in Ceorgia, 

 Alabama, Louisiana, and Arkansas; slightly below an average in the 

 Carolinas, Florida, Mississippi, Texas, and Tennessee. Iforth Carolina 

 had a surplus of rain in June, which in places has occasioned injury, 

 especially in the counties of Martin, Carteret, Edgecomb, Hertford, 

 Beaufort, Greene, Eowan, and Mecklenburg. The r>lant is late and 

 small in parts of South Carolina, but thrifty, growing rapidly in recent 

 favorable weather. To defective seed or drought in iilanting time, a 

 bad stand is attributed in many places, and growth has been retarded 

 by excessive rain. Heavy rains in Georgia have done some damage. 

 In Clayton and SpauldiDg Counties fields have been badly infested with 

 lice, which threaten failure in some instances. To the influence of com- 

 mercial fertilizers is attributed the promising appearance of the plant 

 in many fields. In Alabama the crop is generally flourishing, though 

 local reports are quite variable. Complaint of injuries from hail or rain 

 storms are reported in Dallas, Macon, and Etowah, and from lice in 

 Sumter and Randolph. While the crop is reported as backward in some 

 counties, it is " two weeks in advance of last season " in Conecuh. In 

 Mississippi heavy rains and cool nights have proved unfavorable in 

 the counties of Neshoba, Washington, De Soto, Yalabusha, and La Fay- 

 ette. Lice are reported in De Soto and La Fayette. Heavy rains, 

 more favorable for the growth of grass than of cotton, and obstructive 

 of clean culture, have been injurious in Arkansas. In the lied River 

 region of Texas cotton is generally floiuishing, with some injury from 

 lice. 



Neither the caterpillar nor boll-worm has appeared, and there are 

 few drawbacks which a few weeks of favorable weather cannot repair. 

 With an average season the present acreage should give nearly three 

 and a half millions of bales ; with'one of the extraordinary length of tlie 

 last, the product would be little short of four millions — which was of so 

 remarkable a character for continued growth and late picking that our 

 October estimate, a reasonable one at the time, of 2,700,000 bales, was 

 advanced at the close of the season to 3,000,000. 



OATS. 



This crop is looking better than would be expected in view of the 

 heat and drought of the season. Its condition is a full aveiaga in about 



