MONTHLY REPORT 



>^ Department of ActIiiculture, 



Statistical Division, June 22, 1872. 



Sir : I respectfully i)reseut, for publication, a report of the condition 

 of crops for the month of June, with collections of statistics anil records 

 of the condition of agriculture, from home and foreign sources ; articles 

 upon Northern farming and Southern planting, the deterioration of cot- 

 ton and sugar-cane, and the epizootic diseases of swine ; and notes of 

 current work of the entomologist, chemist, and botanist, a record of 

 scientific discovery in the direction of rural arts, and miscellaneous 

 facts from original sources. 



Hon. Frederick Watts, 



Commissioner. 



J. E. DODGE, 



Statistician. 



CONDITION OF THE CROPS IN JUNE. 



WHEAT. 



The returns for June have been carefully examined^ percentages of 

 area and condition have been tabulated, and averages calculated with 

 reference to the comparative wheat area of each county. This compound 

 method — and only true one of obtaining a State average — involves an 

 immense amount of labor, which cannot be done in a day; yet the re- 

 sult is a reliable and satisfactory expression of the deliberate views of 

 the county statistical boards, and may be received as the only complete 

 and approximately accurate review of the wheat prospects of the coun- 

 try in the first week of June, 1872. 



The following tabular statement of the general character of the re- 

 turns from nine hundred and three counties, including a large proportion 

 of the wheat area of the country, shows that 48 per cent, are unfavora- 

 ble, 22 i)resent an average condition, and 30 i^er cent, are above average. 



