590 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



difficulties, (the first of which shouhl not have occurred, and the last will cease 

 with the restoration of peace,) the labor of estimating the amount of the crops 

 in bushels and pounds is very great. It involves an examination of the 

 general progress of the agriculture of each State for a series of years, which is 

 shown chiefly by the census returns of 1840, 1850, and 1860. The per cent. 

 increase must be ascertained of the progress made by each State in each crop, 

 at diiferent periods of this progress, also special causes acting on production, as 

 railways, or other improvements in transportation, or on prices, as unusual 

 commercicJ demand, or in change of products by the growth of manufactures. 

 The duration, extent, and intensity of their action must be considered. At this 

 time the points of government supplies must not be overlooked. How far each 

 section of the country will be influenced by these causes must be judged of 

 from a personal knowledge of the general agricultural condition of the country 

 and of much of its local peculiarities. National and State censuses must be 

 compared, and from every source of information must be derived the means of 

 correcting the returns of correspondents, who, under the circumstances in which 

 the country and they themselves are placed, cannot be regarded as always cor- 

 rect. In ordinary times none of these disarranging causes are at work, and 

 hence, when once the plan is fairly in operation, the annually published esti- 

 mates of the production of counties will sufficiently guide the judgment of cor 

 respondents, especially when greater experience shall have familiarized them 

 with their duties. But with all these extraordinary difficulties to contend against, 

 the returns of correspondents are far more reliable than most of those made by 

 township and county assessors, who collect agricultural statistics for several of 

 the States. The omissions of these assessors are so many, their indifference 

 and carelessness so great, the reluctance of the people so general to render an 

 account of their annual products, lest they may be subjected to taxes, that the 

 collected returns present most unreliable results. 



5. The utility of these statistics. — The statistics of the amount of the crops 

 compiled in this manner have had their utility fully tested during the present 

 year. That year was one of a most extraordinary character. To the disturbing 

 causes from civil war were added the injuries to fall crops from frosts of unex- 

 ampled destructiveness. The corn crop was lessened by them 135,548,018 

 bushels, and when this fact was made known through the monthly report of 

 the department, an advance of twenty cents a bushel for corn was at once 

 established. The decrease in the weight and number of hogs was shown in the 

 report for October, which subsequent returns from the packing houses coiTobo- 

 rated, and this statement exerted its legitimate influence on the market prices. 

 The farmer received an advance that Avas justly due to him under the operation 

 of the law of supply and demand. The large advance in the prices of the pro- 

 ducts of the hog is occasioned, not only by the difference in the values of gold 

 and currency, but also by the decrease of hogs since the packing season, as. 

 shown in the report of March and April. 



Most of the statements made of the amounts of the crops and of the farm stock 

 have been tested by time and by commercial transactions, and they have been 

 sustained in a most gratifying manner. In none of them has there been any 

 material error. If, then, the plan of estimating these amounts has successfully 

 stood the test in a time so extraordinary, it cannot fail when, with peace, our 

 agricultural industry returns to its accustomed directions, and with ordinary 

 seasons our usual abundant crops are realized. 



6. Having stated the objects sought to be accomplished by estimates of the 

 amount of the annual crops and of the farm stock, the plan of making such 

 estimates, and the results so far accomplished by it, I proceed to embody, in 

 the following tables, the amount of our crops for 1863, as thus ascertained, the 

 average yield per acre, the number of acres under cultivation of each crop, 

 the average value per bushel or pound, and the average total value of each 

 crop for the States, individually and collectively. 



