28 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



late spriug, wbicli unfavorable conditions were aggravated by a general 

 absence of suitable shelter from the inclemency of the season. 



In Georgia the winter was one of great severity, the cold weather aud 

 excessive rains telling fearfully upon cattle. Troup County alone, out 

 of sixty three reporting, returned condition as " excellent," and but nine 

 others reported at all favorably ; while in the remainder the expressions 

 " deplorable," " worse than for many years," «&c., were so frequent as 

 TO become almost monotonous. In some parts of the State an unusual 

 amount of snow fell, and from all quarters the scarcity of provender was 

 complained of, resulting in mapy losses from starvation. 



From Florida came the same accounts of the unusual inclemency of 

 the season, with consequent suffering and many losses, although the 

 condition was improving on the 1st of April, and in Levy County the 

 increase of calves was reported at 100 per cent, greater than usual. But 

 two counties heard from (Jefferson and Volusia) made favorable re- 

 turns. 



Lack of food aud shelter, together with severity of winter and lateness 

 of spring, were the causes assigned by correspondents in Alabama for 

 the low condition of cattle generally, few counties breaking the uniformity 

 of the report, Lowndes, Lauderdale, and Morgan alone forming promi- 

 nent exceptions; in the first " better care," and in the last "the dry 

 winter," furnishing explanations of the favorable aspect of atfairs. 



From Mississippi the returns were hardly more cheering, containing 

 reiterations of the same depressing statements. The season throughout 

 the South was extremely trying to stock unprovided with shelter, and 

 depending almost entirely upon the range for subsistence. The reports 

 of heavy losses from actual starvation were frequent, amounting to 50 

 I)er cent, of some herds in Newton County. In Wayne, also, many losses 

 were reported, aud a rapid deterioration in the ranges has caused a de- 

 crease of 80 per cent, in some herds within the past eighteen years. 



Several reports from Louisiana w^ere favorable, but the majority rep- 

 resented cattle as suffering from the severity of the winter. The need 

 of care and shelter is repeatedly acknowledged. The La Fourche 

 reporter acknowledged that " cattle needed shelter, as in the North." 

 In some places the losses are heavy, especially on the Attakapas 

 prairies, where one stock-raiser lost four hundred to five hundred out 

 of three thousand, one hundred dying immediately after the snow- 

 storm of ]\Iarch 1. Thousands of cattle are estimated to have perished 

 in Louisiana from exi^osure. 



Three-fifths of the returns from Texas represented condition of cattle 

 below an average. Among the counties in which stock was in " good" 

 or superior condition are Ked Eiver, Fort Bend, Ellis, " better than for 

 many years," Colorado, " better than ever before," Grayson, Blanco, 

 Austin, Kendall, Williams, Hunt, '' better than for two years," Titus, 

 Collin, Galveston, Harris, Marion, Bell, and Anderson. The following 

 extracts present a less desirable aspect of the case : 



Medina, Texas. — Mauy losses, principally of old cows, from insufficient pasture on tlie 

 Xirairies, owing to the dry fall. 



limlc, Texas. — Poor ; no shelter but the forest, and no food bnt dry gi-ass and shrubs. 



Nueces, Texas. — Very poor. Unusually drj^ for the jiast year, and water scarce. 

 Cattle died by thousands in the winter, and if wo have no rain soon many cows will 

 be unable to raise their calves. 



Eefugio, Texas. — Wretched, aud the loss frightful, the result of the ruinous system of 

 turning the cattle out ui)on the jirairies with no provision for the contingencies of bad 

 weather. 



Bee, Texas. — Loss 2") per cent. Not less thau fifteen thousand cattle have died of 

 starvation and cold weather. Ten thousand hides saved. 



