432 



REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



As the name Bohemian is becoming somewhat notorious, we begin 

 to hear of Australian and Russian oats; and other varieties, or the 

 old variety under other names, may be expected to appear. Cases 

 are also reported from a number of localities in Ohio, Indiana, and 

 other States in which "hulless barley" and pretended new varieties 

 of wheat, bearing such fancy names as "gold dust," "Seneca chief," 

 "red line," &c., are being offered for sale at high prices — the wheat 

 as high as $15 per bushel — and upon the same plan as has been fol- 

 lowed with Bohemian oats. It is not necessary to know anything of 

 the quality of the grain offered on that plan to understand that these 

 schemes are fraudulent, because a plan which presupposes that the 

 crop can be sold year after year at the same price as the seed, when 

 the latter is twenty or thirty times the ordinary market price of the 

 grain, manifests a palpable lack of common sense. 



AGRICULTURAL EXPORTS VS. IMPORTS. 



The exports of the agricultural surplus, commencing when these 

 States were colonies, have attracted the attention of the world, for 

 their volume, if not for their variety. First tobacco, then cotton, 

 wheat, and maize assuming prominence within two or three decades, 

 and meats subsequently, pork products quite early, and beef later, in 

 its "fresh" form, the growth of a single decade. Other exports of 

 agriculture amount to little. The bulk and main value of all come 

 from four crojos — cotton, corn, wheat, and tobacco; all except wheat 

 distinctively American in origin, or peculiar adaptation to local cli- 

 mate. The increase since 1860 is seen in the following figures, taken 

 from the official records of customs: 



Cotton has remained almost stationary, owing to increase of manu- 

 facturing in this country. The increase in breadstuffs has been more 

 than fourfold. The value of tobacco exports has almost doubled. 

 Provisions and farm animals show the largest rate of increase. 



Here follow tables showing what products of agriculture_ are ex- 

 ported and what imported, the difference between exportation and 

 importation slightly exceeding $200,000,000, or less than 7 per cent, 

 of the value of the products of agriculture, and with cotton excluded, 

 barely balancing surplus and deficiency. 



