MONTHLY REPORT. 
WASHINGTON, April, 1867. 
The present number of the Monthly Report contains a digest of an immense 
mass of valuable information, from careful and practical farmers of all sections 
of the country, relative to the condition of farm stock at the close of the late 
long and hard winter. It illustrates forcibly the improvidence and cruelty of 
farmers in neglecting to provide food and shelter for animals in climates where 
stock can ordinarily support life through the winter without aid from man. 
The promising prospect for an unusually heavy crop of wheat continues to be 
very favorable. 
After the preparation of the matter for this Report, and too late for a record of 
facts obtained, I commissioned J. R. Dodge, the statistician and editor of the 
Report, to represent the Department at the fair of the New York Wool Growers 
and Sheep Breeders’ Associations at Auburn, New York, deeming the effort of 
breeders there represented of the highest value to practical agriculture, and 
adding millions to the value of the wool of the country. Animals bearing a 
fleece of twenty to thirty pounds of fine wool in the grease, and nineteen to 
twenty pounds of lustrous long wool, are worthy of the high prices which they 
command; and breeders of such sheep are worthy of the gratitude and honor of 
their countrymen. 
Interesting tables of crop estimates of the several States, in convenient aggre- 
gates, will be fonnd worthy of particular examination. 
For all details of such statistics, and a great variety of other valuable matter 
I refer the reader to the body of the Report. 
I. NEWTON, Com’r. 
