MONTHLY REPORT. 
WASHINGTON, D. C., June 30, 1868. 
Sir: I herewith report for publication matter collated for May and June 
upon the following topics: Condition of the crops; protection against wool- 
buyers; special statistics of farm resources and products; wine-growing in 
California ; British agricultural statistics of 1867; seed wheat for the north- 
west; the cotton trade in 1868; American ploughs in Europe; encouragement 
of silk culture; and meteorology for April and May, together with a variety 
of extracts from letters of correspondents. 
J. R. DODGE, 
Statistician. 
Hon. Horace Capron, 
Commissioner of Agriculture. 
CONDITION OF THE CROPS. 
Wheat.—An increase of acreage is observed, in a greater or less degree, in 
nearly every State. ‘The eastern States show no increase of fall sowing, except 
4 per cent. in Vermont, but the enlarged area of spring crops, which are the 
main home reliance for bread supplies, is very marked in Maine and Vermont; 
the former showing an advance of 26 per cent., the latter of 16 per cent. A 
very slight movement in this direction is shown by New Hampshire and Mass- 
achusetts. New York indicates 5 per cent. increase in fall acreage, with no 
change in spring wheat. New Jersey shows an increase of 3 per cent. of winter 
wheat. In Pennsylvania the acreage is very slightly enlarged—3 per cent. for 
winter wheat. In Delaware a reduction of 7 per cent. appears; while an increase 
of 9 per cent. is shown in Maryland; 11 in Virginia; 17 in North Carolina; 21 
in South Carolina; 11 in Georgia; 10 in Alabama; 53 in Mississippi; 31 in 
Arkansas; 40 in Tennessee; 30 in West Virginia. In Texas a decrease is 
shown of 6 per cent., and in Kentucky of 1 per cent. Spring wheat is not 
grown in the south. 
The increased acreage in the west, where the great bulk of the wheat 
crop of the country is grown, is of peculiar significance. Of the States in 
which winter wheat is most largely cultivated, Ohio presents an increase of 5 
per cent. of that variety; Indiana 10 per cent., and Michigan 17 per cent. In 
portions of these States an unusual effort has been made to enlarge the area by 
spring sowing, showing respectively 11, 14, and 6 per cent. increase. In the 
States which rely mainly upon spring sown crops, Illinois indicates an increase 
in that variety of 12 per cent.; Wisconsin 4 per cent.; Minnesota 23 per cent.; 
Jowa 12 per cent.; an increase having been made also in winter wheat in the 
same States, with the exception of Wisconsin and Iowa, though in Minnesota 
the total product of fall sown wheat is too trifling to be much affected by it. 
The increase of winter wheat in Illinois is placed at 10 per cent.; in Missouri 50 
per cent.; in Kansas 265 per cent. 
