and the causes making them, is essential to success. How much loss could have 

 been avoided in California, if it had been known that protracted drought is 

 incident to its climate, and how much can hereafter be avoided in western 

 Texas, Kansas, and California, from a recollection of what these States have 

 already suffered. 



Whilst the cattle of California have perished by thousands, its sheep have 

 not, and hence all the States just named will find their climate best adaj)ted to 

 wool-growing ; and in this adaptation to the growth of every variety of wool 

 our nation has the ability to become the greatest wool-manufacturing country of 

 the earth. As the progress of this manufacture, now rapid, determines the kind 

 of wool needed, the farmer can adapt his opei'ations to this demand, thus secur- 

 ing to both the farmer and manufacturer stability in supply and demand. For 

 the purpose of hastening this stability, I am now in correspondence with all of 

 our woollen manufacturers, and the results of this correspondence will appear in 

 these reports. 



But, independent of these local interests in understanding the nature of our 

 American climates, all persons being so absolutely dependent on heat and moist- 

 ure should have some knowledge of the means established by the Creator for 

 the diffusion of heat and the distribution of moisture. By the aid of the plates 

 in this article, the attentive reader can acquire a general idea of these means. 

 Details have been avoided as much as possible, that our farmers might be rather 

 enticed to, than repelled from, a further knowledge in meteorology. 



Another important article is that on the production of field seeds. The best 

 skill of the farm has long been devoted to perfecting breeding animals, and its 

 success exhibits the great good that is accomplished by a strict observance of the 

 aws governing reproduction. The nature of these laws assures us that not less 

 progress would be made by a like skill devoted to the production of field seeds. 

 To preserve them from a deteriorating crossing, and a still more deteriorating 

 want of proper cultivation, would seem to be so obvious a duty of the farmer, that 

 the wonder is how such inattention to the improvement of field seeds is so pre 

 valent. Greater attention has been given to the production of garden seeds, 

 and to flowering plants, and their great variety and excellence clearly point 

 to a like success in field seeds. 



The French decimal system of weights and measures has so much com- 

 mended itself to Great Britain, that it will probably be the received system of that 

 country. Congress has adopted the decimal system of value in its coinage to guard 

 the country against the evils of a mixture of foreign coins with our own. How 

 much more important is it to have a uniform system of weights and measures, 

 when every State is now exercising the power of establishing a system of its 

 own. The article on this subject in this report is timely, and explains the gen- 

 ei'al character of the French system. 



The comparison presented by the article on the agricultural statistics of Ohio 

 for 1863, between the mode of estimating the annual amount of our crops, 

 adopted by this department, and that of taking them by township assessors, will 

 commend to a still more favorable consideration the plan of this department- 



