MONTHLY REPORT. 



1 )3:pae,tment or AcaiicuLTUES, 



Statistical Division, April 20, 1S72. 

 Sir: I submit herewith, tor publicatioii, a digest of the reports of our 

 statistical corps, relative to the couditiou of wiutcr- wheat and other ce- 

 reals, the condition of farm animals, and the comparative prevalence of 

 disease among them during the past year, with a communication giv- 

 ing an account of the progress of the beet-root sugar manutucture in 

 Sweden, and records of the operations of the several Divisions of the 

 Department. 



J. Iv. DODGJi, miktician. 



Hon. FllEDEllICJI VVATTt5, 



CoDiDiisdoner. 



CONDITION OF WINTER GRAIN. 



The low temperature of the month of March, and the accumulations 

 of whiter snow and ice, have retarded the springing of vegetable life, 

 and tinged with gloom the view- s of local reporters. Over a large area, 

 at the date of returns, snow still covered deeply the grain-lields, and 

 only conjecture, founded on the forwardness and vigor of plants at the 

 opening of v/inter, and on the mechanical condition of the soil and the 

 severity of the season, could point to the i)robable status of tire vv'inter 

 grain. " The general tenor of reports carries tlie idea, not of sweeping 

 destruction by freezing, but of injury by thinning out, by killing in 

 spots and patches, and especially by retarding an early start and 

 vigorous growth. In many cases the plants, apparently dead, were only 

 sleeping, unpromising in appearance but tirnily rooted, and ready, with 

 favoring v/armth and sunshine, to start into sure and steady if not rapid 

 growth. Where the fields were drained, the soil deep and mellow, the 

 casualties of winter have been unknown ; where the seeding was done 

 with the drill, on land having any fair degree of suitable preparation, 

 almost absolute immunity from loss by freezing has been secured. It 

 is strange thiit the use of the drill has not become universal. The fact 

 remains that nearly all the Avheat of the Eastern States, almost all in the 

 South, much in the Middle States, and no little in. ail portions of the 

 Western, is seeded by hand. The use of drills enough to supersede all 

 the broadcast sowing of the country would secure in a single year in- 

 creased yield suhicieut to pay for them. 



The April returns, as a whole, indicate stunted appearastice, retarded 

 grov/th, and rather more than an average amount of destruction by win- 

 ter-killing, but a sound condition of the roots of plants in. suitable soil 

 or that covered uniformly with snow, vrhich v/ith favoring weather may 



