MONTHLY REPORT. 



Department of Agkicultuke, 



Statistical Division, January 18, 1872. 

 SiE: I herewith jH^esent for publication the results of a statistical in- 

 vestigation of the rate of yield and home values of the principal pro- 

 iucts of agriculture, together with articles upon rice production, the 

 progress of the beet-sugar manufacture in the United States, swamp- 

 land reclamation, and the Potomac lands ; also data from the divisions 

 of chemistry and entomology, scientific notes, facts from foreign sources, 

 and meteorological records for the month of December. 



J. R. DODGE, Statistician. 

 Hon. Fred'k Watts, Commissioner. 



YIELD AND PRICES OF FARM CROPS. 



The January returns of statistical correspondence give the estimated 

 yield, by counties, of each principal crop, and the actual prices at which 

 an average quality of each product is sold in the home markets. These 

 averages are combined in oV)taiuing the rate of yield and prices (in home 

 markets) of each State. The accompanying tables give these State 

 averages of yield and price, for corn, wheat, rye, oats, barley, buck- 

 wheat, potatoes, tobacco, hay, and sorghum molasses. 



Yield of corn. — An increase in the amount produced, per acre, is 

 shown in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, IsTew Jersey, 

 Maryland, Virginia, South Caroliua, Missouri, Illinois, Minnesota, Iowa, 

 Nebraska, Kansas, and California. The section west of the Mississippi 

 River gives the highest averages, Iowa standing at the head of the list, 

 at 42.5. bushels per acre; Nebraska following, at 41.5; Kansas, 40; 

 Ohio, 38.5; Illinois, 38.3; Missouri, 38; Wisconsin, 37.7; Minnesota, 

 37.3 ; New Jersey, 36 ; Indiana, 35.7 ; New Hampshire, 35.7 ; Vermont, 

 35.6; Pennsylvania, 35.5; Massachusetts, 34.3; New York, 33; Con- 

 necticut, 31.4; the remaining States running below 30, down to 10 in 

 South Caroliua. The highest yield in the South is 26.7 bushels in 

 Arkansas. 



Yield of wheat. — The yield, per acre, of .wheat is reported greater 

 than last year in New Hampshire, in all the Middle States, in Maryland, 

 Mississippi, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Kansas. The States 

 reporting yields above 10 bushels per acre are Oregon, 19.2 bushels; 

 Massachusetts, 18.2; New Jersey,18; California, 17.5 (possibly inaccu- 

 rate, on account of non-receipt of returns from several wheat-growing 

 counties;) New York, 17.2; Connecticut, 17; Vermont, 16.6; Pennsyl- 

 vania, 16.2; Kansas, 15.9; New Hampshire, 15.2 ; Michigan, 14; Ohio, 

 13.9; Missouri, 13.4; Maine, 13; Illinois, 12.3; Wisconsin, 12.2; In- 



