REPORT 



op 



TIE COMMISSIONER OE AGRICULTURE, 



Department of Agriculture, 



Washington, D. C, January 1, 1864. 

 Sir : I have the honor to submit my second Annual Report. Although the 

 year just closed has been a year of war on the part of the republic over a wider 

 field and on a grander scale than any recorded in history, yet, strange as it 

 may appear, the great interests of agriculture have not materially suffered in 

 the loyal States. With the exception of some fruitless incursions along the 

 border, and the invasion of Pennsylvania and defeat of the insurgents on the 

 now historic field of Gettysburg, the loyal people have everywhere enjoyed a 

 "broad and quiet land," with abundant health and prosperity, while a wider 

 territory has been cultivated and a larger yield realized, except where drought 

 and frost interfered, than during any previous year. Notwithstanding there 

 have been over one million men employed in the army and navy, withdrawn 

 chiefly from the producing classes, and liberally fed, clothed, and paid by the 

 government, yet the yield of the great staples of agriculture for 1863, as com- 

 pared with the previous year, has been as follows, viz : 



1862. 



1863. 



Wheat, in bushels . 



Oats do 



Corn do 



Hay, in tons 



Tobacco, in pounds 

 Wool do 



169,993,500 

 172,520,997 

 586, 704, 474 



20,000,000 

 208,807,078 



63,524, 172 



191,068,239 

 174,858,167 

 449, 163, 894 



18,500,000 

 258,462,413 



79,405,215 



The comparison, with the exception of corn and hay injured by drought 

 and frost, is even more favorable for 1863, if instituted in regard to the };eneral 

 products of the farm. This wonderful fact of history — a young republic, car- 

 rying on a gigantic war on its own territory and coasts, and at the same time 

 not only feeding itself and foreign nations, but furnishing vast quantities of 



