REPORT OF THE STATISTICIAN. 27 



paratively poor in Wasliingtoii, but excellent in Bristol on account of 

 better care and more abundant food supplies. 



Favorable reports come from Connecticut, except from the counties 

 of Middlesex and Xew London, where a scarcity of hay existed, maxi- 

 mum prices being quoted at $40. 



Cattle were wintered successfully in NewYork ; reports from thirty-six 

 counties representing condition from average up to excellent, (in iS^iag- 

 ara,) and " never better," (in Saratoga; ) while a few counties, as On- 

 tario, Eensselaer, and Suftblk, where hay sold at $20 to $30, made less 

 favorable returns. In Genesee cattle were housed about six months. 

 In Onondaga there was some complaint of cows not doiug well when 

 "coming in.*' 



The only counties in New Jersey where the short crop of hay, supple- 

 mented with sown corn fodder and other special forage, failed to teep 

 cattle in fair order, were Cumberland, Salem, and Cape Mnj. 



Of thirty-iive counties in Peunsylvania reporting, the most unfavor- 

 able accounts came from Butler, where forage was very deficient ; Clear- 

 field, Luzerne, Union, Forest, Adams, Cameron, and IMcKean suffered 

 from short supplies ; in the remaining counties there was little cause for 

 unfavorable comparison. The Sullivan coi*respondent said : " Improved 

 buildings and accommodations have told favorably upon the condition 

 of cattle ; and the fear of insufficiency in the supply of provender pre- 

 vented selling of grain and induced farmers to take more than usual 

 care of their hay. Tlie result is that cattle look well and will not sutfer 

 for provender." 



The condition of cattle in Delaware was a full average. 



In Maryland a scarcity of feed existed, but the feeding of an unusual 

 amount of grain in Harford, Cecil, Carroll, Montgomery, (Jueen Anne, 

 Calvert, and Anne Arundel, made good the deficiency; but all extra 

 supplies proved insufficient in Washington, Kent, and Baltimore. 



Nearly all of the sixty-three county reports in Virginia told of com- 

 paratively poor stock, owing to the " severe winter and insufficient 

 food." The poverty of supplies is indicated by the report for Mecklen- 

 burgh: " The utter failure of the wheat and oat crops compelled the use 

 of straw and corn fodder for teams, leaving only what could be picked 

 up in the fields, and corn-stubble, for the cattle, and many have starved 

 in consequence." The only counties giving anything like a favorable 

 report were Amelia, Highland, Henry, Pulaski, Montgomery, Botetourt, 

 and Alexandria. 



In more than three-fourths of the counties of North Carolina cattle 

 were represented to be in sorry plight after passing through an unusu- 

 ally trying ordeal. In fact, the winter was not over on the 1st of April 

 in some parts of the State, and fears were freely expressed of serious 

 losses from exhaustion of in-ovender before the appearance of spring 

 pasture, such losses actually occurring in many places. Very few 

 county reporters failed to note the severity Of the season, the " oldest 

 inhabitant '' taxing his memory in vain for a parallel, while the scarcity 

 of food of all kinds seems to have been almost as general, caused, in 

 part, by the unusual demand upon it, and also by the drought of the 

 preceding summer. In Hertford County the exceedingly bad condition 

 is accounted for by the fact that the young reeds, upon which the cattle 

 depend for winter food, were killed by the cold. 



Greenville and Fairfield Counties alone, in South Carolina, made 

 favorable returns, scarcitj^ or entire exhaustion of provender being gen- 

 erally complained of, and superlatively bad reports being the rule, based 

 upon the lack of food and the rigors of an exceptionally cold winter and 



