MONTHLY REPORT. 
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, 
STATISTICAL DIVISION, 
Washington, April 18, 1876. 
Sir: I submit herewith, for publication, a report of the condition of 
winter grain, and one upon the condition of farm animals at the open- 
ing of spring, and the diseases of animals during the past year; together 
with a paper on forestry, by the Commissioner, and various statistical 
facts and market records. 
J. R. DODGE, 
Statistician. 
Hon. FRED’K WATTS, 
Commissioner. 
DIGEST OF APRIL RETURNS. 
WINTER-WHEAT PROSPECTS. 
In the more northern States, the autumn prospects of the crop have 
been, to some extent, blighted by freezing out, and otherwise winter- 
killing, owing to extraordinary absence of snow, accompanied by fre- 
quent alternations of freezing and thawing, in the earlier part of the 
winter; but in the latter days of March it was too early to ascertain 
the extent of the injury. In New York, Seneca, Livingston, Oneida, 
Washington, and Schuyler specify such injuries, while thirteen coun- 
ties report a condition ranging from average to very promising, and 
others do not indicate the condition beyond the favorable fact that it 
was well covered with snow. Among the heavy winter-wheat counties, 
in which the condition is promising, are Niagara, Ontario, Erie, Onon- 
daga, and Yates. 
From Pennsylvania about two-thirds of the returns report more or 
less injury from winter-killing. The injury, of course, is greatest on 
clayey soils and others not well drained. The drilled grain stood 
the exposure better than that sown broadcast. In Indiana County, 
while the early sown stands well, the late sown does not promise half a 
crop; in Sullivan the condition is good on new ground, but 25 per cent. 
below average on old; in Adams, a heavy wheat county, many fields 
are almost ruined by alternate freezings and thawings; Washington, 
good on dry ground, but badly frozen out on wet; in Lancaster, 
producing over 2,000,000 bushels, or more than one-tenth of the 
crop of the State, the condition is good; in Fulton, better than for 
years. Among other counties producing large crops, which report from 
