MONTHLY REPORT. 
STATISTICAL DIVISION, 
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, 
Washington, D. C., December 26, 1876. 
Srrz: I present herewith, for publication, a digest of current statistical 
returns; a statistical argument showing that production is not declin- 
ing; areport upon the work of European experiment-stations; notes 
on the work of the Chemist and Microscopist; and miscellaneous sta- 
tistics and domestic and foreign market-reports. 
Respectfully, 
J. KR. DODGE, 
Statistician. 
Hon. FREDERICK WATTS, 
Commissioner. 
CORN. 
The returns of November make the corn crop only 2 per cent. short 
of the great crop of last year, and fully 50 per cent. greater than the 
crop of 1874. The aggregate is 1,295,000,000 bushels. Less than 1 per 
cent. of the crop is raised in New England, scarcely 6 in the Middle 
States, 20 in the Southern, 44 in the Ohio basin, and 29 west of the 
Mississippi. 
The product of the South is 10,090,000 bushels greater than last year, 
that of New England is 300,000 greater, and there is less in the Middle 
and Western States. It is 73, 000,000 greater than in 1870, and yet the 
percentage of the total crop of these States i is only 20 against 23 in the 
census-year, because the increase has been still greater in the West. In 
1850, the proportion of these States was 42 per cent. of the aggregate, 
and, in 1860, 32. Thus, while the South is increasing its corn product, 
there is profitable opportunity for a much larger increase. 
The States of the Ohio basin, seven in number, including Michigan 
and Wisconsin, increased their proportion from 39 per cent. in 1850 to 
41 in 1860, and since that date continue to advance their proportions, 
the percentage being 44 in 1870 and at the present time, notwithstand- 
ing the more rapid progress of corn-growing in the States of the Mis- 
souri Valley. 
