MONTHLY REPORT. 
Wasuineton, D. C., February —, 1867. 
A variety of Statistics of the agriculture of the United States and Great Britain 
will be found in this Report. A careful study of these facts will furnish abundant 
food for reflection, and start many a suggestion of practical value. 
The statement concerning the famous dairies of Ayrshire, in Scotland, shows 
an average annual yield of four hundred and twenty-five gallons of milk per 
cow. Hon. Zadock Pratt, of New York, reports the yield per cow in his dairy 
of eighty cows at five hundred and eighty-four gallons per cow in a season of 
eight months. The Ayrshire product of cheese, on this basis, is four hundred 
and twenty-nine and a quarter pounds per cow, realizing fifty dollars and sixty- 
two cents per cow; the butter product of Mr. Pratt is sixty dollars and sixty- 
six cents per cow. 
The experiments in manuring, so long and systematically conducted by Mr. 
Lawes, show, in the comparison of wields of successive years, the fact that the 
last three years have been characterized by a successive decline, by nearly uni- 
form gradations, in the wheat product. And the rate and proportion of the 
decline differ little from the experience of wheat-growers in this country and in 
France in the same period. Whether there may be cycles of varying production, 
and a periodicity in maximum yields that may be defined or determined, remains 
to be proven. 
The attention of Congress is respectfully called to the resolution of the Kansas 
legislature, praying for the passage of some law for the protection of the western 
cattle-growers against the ravages of the Spanish fever. I am making efforts 
to obtain facts relative to this singular and fatal disease, which may result in 
great loss to the people of Kentucky, Missouri, Kansas, and possibly to other 
States, if Texas cattle shall be allowed unrestricted passage through those 
regions, 
The tables showing the average yield per acre, and average prices of cereals 
and other prominent farm products, for 1866, indicate a year of average produc- 
tion and prosperity. . 
ISAAC NEWTON, 
Commissioner. 
