BI-MONTIILY REPORT. 



Department of Agriculture, 



Wasliington, August. 1S64, 



The recent widely extended and severe drought has given rise to serious 

 apprehensions of a failure in the fall crops. The great loss sustained by the 

 corn crop last year from destructive frosts, and the injury to the wheat crop by 

 freezing out during last winter, estimated at 30 per cent., presented just grounds 

 for alann, should the fall crops of corn and potatoes be cut short by the pre- 

 vailing drought. 



The want of old corn will render the farmers entirely dependent on the 

 new crop for fattening pui-poses, and the want of fruit in the western States 

 would have obliged that section of the country to rely still more on their wheat 

 for food, in the event of a short crop of corn and potatoes. Hence the anxiety 

 in regard to the drought. 



The tables found in this bi-monthly report show that of the entire number 

 of weeks in all the States reported, there were 441 weeks of favorable weather 

 and 1,138 of dry in the month of June, and a sti 1 greater disproportion in the 

 month of July. But these tables were made from the returns of the corres- 

 pondents on the 1st day of August. The rains which have so generally fallen 

 during this month have dissipated the fears previously existing, although their 

 effect and extent cannot yet be determined with certainty. 



The tables, therefore, do not represent any portion of the benefit of these 

 rains, but embrace only the dry months of June and July. As the xcJieat crop 

 has been harvested, the returns for it will not be materially changed, although 

 it is believed that the threshing will be more favorable than usual to the number 

 of sheaves. The grain is reported as very large, and the heads very full. No 

 rust shrivelled any portion of the crop, and it was unaffected by any other dis- 

 ease, except by smut in some localities. The chinch-bug injured many fields 

 in Iowa and Wisconsin of the spring wheat. But whilst the injury to the 

 winter wheat from freezing out was reported to the department at about 30 per 

 cent., the subsequent favorable weather, as will be seen from the table in this 

 report, reduced the total loss to about 1^ tenth, orbetweeu thirteen and fourteen 

 per cent, below the crop of 1863, one of the largest crops ever grown in the 

 country. The crop of spring wheat will be less than an ordinary crop by about 

 f of a tenth, or seven and a half per cent. It is believed that the amount of 

 old wheat on hand may make up these deficits, but what this amount is will 

 appear from the returns to circulars just issued. 



