MONTHLY REPORT. 



Department of Agriculture, 



Washington, January, 1865. 



Tlie present report is tlie first of the year, and since the return to its monthly 

 issue. In making this change, it becomes necessary to say something of the 

 times of its publication. 



The return day of the circulars, by which information of the condition of the 

 crops, stock, &c., is communicated, is the 1st day of the month, but it is usually 

 the 18th or 20th before all of them are received. It requires from fifteen to 

 twenty days to have the reports printed, folded, stitched, and trimmed. This 

 time cannot be shortened until the war is over. A monthly report cannot, there- 

 fore, be published, with this delay, each mouth, for the circulars. It often, too, 

 requires a week or more to prepare the tables that are based on the circulars. 

 This time will be required to make up the tables from the general one published 

 in this report relative to the yield per acre of the different crops, and their prices. 

 Hence, often the subject-matter of one report must be extended to the subse- 

 quent one, and by not delaying for the returns of circulars in the preparation 

 of the latter, it may be so far hastened as to allow the publication of the two 

 reports within the two months. The time of the publication of the one will be 

 at the end of the month, ns this one for January, and of the succeeding one as 

 for February, about the 20th of that month. 



The present report may be regarded as indicating the general character of the 

 monthly reports for the present year. The leading article will be strictly an 

 agricultural one, and on that subject, the immediate notice of which circum- 

 stances render necessary, so that the farmer, at the present season, may immedi- 

 ately apply the information communicated in the practical operations of the farm. 

 Subjects so considered will not have that completeness found in the essays of 

 the annual report, and, therefoi'e, will not preclude their consideration in the 

 annual volume. Besides the leading article, there will be shorter ones on topics 

 more general, but still connected witli the interests of agriculture. There will 

 also be the usual statistical matter, but fuller and more methodically presented 

 than heretofore. The meteorological reports from the Smithsonian Institution 

 will be continued. 



The principal article in the present report is on the cultivation of the hop 

 plant, a subject that has attracted much attention on account of the high price 

 hops have commanded during the fall and winter. The statistical information 

 in this article will be interesting to the hop-grower, and to those about to engage 

 in its cultivation there is other information of interest. 



