MGR LY. BE. ORT. 
WasuineTon, D. C., October, 1867. 
Sir: I beg leave respectfully to report for the month of October a brief digest 
of the operations of my division, with articles containing suggestions from the 
entomological and horticultural divisions of the department, as indicated by the 
following titles, viz: Condition of farm crops for October, with tables; Western 
wheat growing ruinous; Extracts from correspondence; American wines and 
wine grapes ; Entomological; Is Crotalaria poison; Mildew on the grape; The 
wool prospect; Imports for seven months of 1867; Agricultural statistics of 
Ireland; Prices of English sheep, &c., &c. é 
Respectfully, 
J. R. DODGE. 
Hon. J. W. SToxKes, 
Acting Commissioner of Agriculture. 
CONDITION OF FARM CROPS FOR OCTOBER. 
Wheat—Our returns for October contain local estimates of the amount of 
wheat yielded, in comparison with the crop of last year. They are made with 
due consideration of differences in acreage, in appearance at the time of har- 
vesting, and in condition and yield of grain in threshing. Full returns from 
the Pacific coast, the Territories, and from some of the youngest of the border 
States have not yet come in; a final, definite estimate in bushels, thereforé, will 
not be made until the issue of the next number. The result is gratifying to 
the farmers of the nation, and to consumers of flour generally. While few 
localities have exhibited large yields per acre, and some have caused compara- 
tive disappointment by an average product less than was confidently expected 
at harvesting, the sum total in bushels will exceed that of any harvest hitherto 
gathered in this country. It will surmount the figures of last year by forty to 
fifty millions ; but will not reach the amount which should have been attained, 
upon the ratio of increase made between 1850 and 1860, by twenty millions. 
As an approximate estimate, upon present data, 220,000,000 to 225,000,000 
bushels may be received as the crop of the entire country for 1867. 
In some of the eastern States, in Texas. and Kansas, the figures scarcely 
equal those of last year; in Texas the reduction is fully half. In the north- 
western the increase is variable and moderate, as follows: Illinois, 7 per cent. ; 
Minnesota, 8 per cent.; Michigan, 13; Iowa, 15; Wisconsin, 16. The belt 
of States in the Ohio valley which suffered so unusually last year, and made but 
four, five, six, or eight-tenths of a crop respectively, and averaged together but 
half a crop, have made a heavy increase upon those figures. The largest is 
made by Ohio, 130 per cent., as might be expected, the deficiency having been 
greatest there; Indiana is placed at 85 per cent. increase, West Virginia, 51 ;- 
Kentucky, 38. In the Atlantic States, the greatest deficiency last year was in 
Pennsylvania, and the increase there this year is 57 per cent. 
