459 



matured best. This was the case in the West, and even on the southern 

 Atlantic coast ; yet the dry uphiuds of the South and Southwest ma- 

 tured better the earlier planting. 



Insects appeared as hindrances to full success in isolated fields. In 

 Ourrituck County, North Carolina, the " shatter worm," (in local par- 

 lance,) probably the larva of one of the species of Spherwphorm^ working 

 in the stalk, caused some damage. Worms in the ear, i>resumed to be 

 ffeliothis armigera., have been troublesome in Cowley County, Kansas. 

 The corn weevil, Sitophilm oryzfv, is reported in Caswell, Korth Carolina, 

 and Austin, Texas. The chinch bug, Microims leiicopterus, has been 

 injurious in Macon County, Illinois, and Nemaha, Kansas. 



The local yield is relatively very large in many of the returns. The 

 crop is declared " the best since 1862" in Saratoga County, New York; 

 '^' the best in thirty years" in Indiana County, Pennsylvania; ^'150 per 

 cent, better than last year" in Buckingham County, Virginia ; " the best 

 in ten years" in GranvHle, North Carolina ; " the largest since the war" 

 in Spartansburg, South Carolina; "fifty per cent, above an average" in 

 Randolph, Alabama ; a similar increase in other counties of Alabama, 

 and in parishes of Louisiana; " the heaviest croj) for years" in Marion, 

 Texas; "the largest in fifteen years" in Butler, Kentucky; "the best 

 €ver raised" in Warren, Kentucky ; " never better in quality " in Wil- 

 liams, Ohio ; " some fields 150 bushels of ears per acre" in Montcalm, 

 Michigan. 



This analysis of returns, exhibit of their averages, and presentation 

 of their worst as well as their best features, will give a fair interpreta- 

 tion of the aggregate judgment of reliable farmers, each reporting only 

 his own county, without undertaking to guess for the whole State or 

 section. 



Cotton. — A combination of the elements of acreage and condition in 

 the October report, without allowing for possible drawbacks from 

 weather, pointed to a "crop exceeding three and a half million of bales." 

 None of the contingencies so liable to reduce production have occurred 

 since that date to vitiate a favorable comparison with the remarkably 

 favorable season of 1809; and as the early summer was more propitious 

 than that of last year, the November returns indicate eighteen per cent, 

 advance' in quantity upon an acreage increased by twelve per cent. 

 The total aggregate result, as figured from returns to December 1st, 

 makes an estimate of 3,800,000 commercial bales, 1,767,000,000 pounds, 

 or eighty-two per cent, of the crop of 1859, which was 2,154,820,800 

 l)0unds. 



The following statement presents the estimate in detail, including the 

 percentage of increase over the previous crop, and the yield per acre, 

 with the number of acres cultivated in each State. 



