414 



REPORT OP THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



ing- .J'J per cent. Missifjsippi and Florida give 32, and the others not 

 mucli in excess of 31. This indicates a redaction of 2 or 3 per cent, in 

 the ultimate yield of cotton as compared with tbe quantity of seed- 

 cotton pithered, and may decrease the product to that extent below the 

 expectation nt picking time — a difference, possibly, of 75,000 bales. 



Tlie following is a tabulation of State averages, relating to quality, 

 quantity marketed, and ijrice of seed sold : 



Price <if 

 State. Lint. QnaUty. l,'"l'"f.""" «eed per 



bushel. 



Virginia 



North Carolina 

 South Carolina. 



Georgia 



Ploiida 



Alabama 



Missiflaippi .... 

 Louisiana . ..... 



Texas 



Arkansas 



Toimeseeo 



Cents. 



The average price of seed is less than formerly, scarcely 13 cents per 

 bushel. Planters are declining to sell at such a price, and many are 

 disposed to deprecate the practice of selling seed, because, as a rule, 

 nothing is returned in place of it, and the fear is expressed that the 

 fertility of the soil will suffer in consequence. The lint takes little 

 from the soil ; the seed is far more exhaustive. 



The quantity on the plantations February 1 is apparently about one- 

 sixth of the crop, five-sixths having gone forward, appearing at the 

 ports about February 5. The percentage of the cro]> marketed is as 

 Ibllows: Virginia, 82; Korth Carolina, 82; South Carolina, 84; Georgia, 

 85; Florida, 87 ; Alabama, 84 ; Mississippi, 83 J; Louisiana, 83i; Texas, 

 83 ; Arkansas, 83 ; Tennessee, 82. General average, nearly 83. 



The indications thus point to a crop ajiproximating the November 

 estimates of yield per acre, which looked to a product slightly exceed- 

 ing 6,600,000 bales. 



The returns of February 1, 1885, for the crop of 1884, were interpreted 

 to indicate a crop of 6,667,000 bales. The Financial Chronicle record of 

 the movement, up to September following, aggregated 6,660,020 bales, 

 and that of the National Cotton Exchange 5,706,165 bales. As 20,000 

 to 30,000 bales of the present crop were apparently included in this 

 movement, the figures of last February may as well stand as the per- 

 manent record of the actual crop of 1884. 



WINTER WHEAT. 



The area sown in winter wheat has been the subject of inquiry in tlic 

 ! I'lritory which produces it. It has been increasing in recent years, but 

 I lie low prices of the croiJS of 1884 and 1885 have naturally had a discour- 

 aging effect upon wheat growing, though the persistency of tiie habit of 

 the farmer's distribution of crop areas is too strong to admit of sudden 

 changes. Like the cotton-grower, the wheat-raiser may threaten reduc- 

 tion, and depend upon his neighbor to make it. There appears however 

 to have been some reduction in several States, mainly in the regions 

 from Illinois westward, which grow wheat largely in excess of the re- 

 quirements of local consumption. In the States which grow enough, or 



