8 



AGRICULTURE. 



Oats were also a smaller crop than in 1869, 

 the aggregate yield being estimated at about 

 275,000,000 bushels. The quality was better 

 than the average. 



Potatos suffered to some extent from drought, 

 and from the depredations of the Colorado po- 

 tato-bug, "the ten-line spearman " as it is called. 

 The product is believed to have been about 

 111,000,000 bushels less by about one-fifth 

 than that of 1869. 



The Sweet Potatoe, on the contrary, was far 

 more plentiful than usual in the States where 

 it is grown. "We have no means of estimating 

 the aggregate crop, but it was very large. 



The Hay crop was about fifteen per cent, be- 

 low that of 1869, probably not exceeding 22,- 

 000, 000 tons. The quality was excellent. The 

 protracted dry weather of the early summer 

 caused the reduction in quantity. 



Flax and Hemp were produced in rather 

 larger quantity than in 1869. 



Fruit was generally much in excess of the 

 previous year. Grapes were very abundant, 

 and of excellent quality. Notwithstanding the 

 great increase of wine production, the markets 

 were for nearly two months glutted with the 

 fruit. Apples were very plentiful in the At- 

 lantic and some of the Mississippi Valley States, 

 but deficient in quantity in the Northwest. 

 Pears and Plums were more abundant than 

 usual, especially on the Atlantic coast. 



The Tobacco crop was materially above the 

 average, and will probably aggregate not fur 

 from 310,000,000 pounds. 



Sugar from the sugar-cane was a better crop 

 than for several years past, the yield being 

 above 120,000 hogsheads of 1,000 pounds each. 

 The Sorghum sugar and syrup were produced 

 in larger quantity than in previous years. 



The Cotton crop is probably the largest 

 since 1859. Careful estimates from full re- 

 turns from all parts of the States in which it 

 is cultivated, up to December 1, 1870, give an 

 aggregate of 3,800,000 commercial bales, or 

 1,767,000,000 pounds, being eighty-two per 

 cent, of the great crop of 1859. Of this 

 amount probably not more than 30,000 bales 

 were Sea Island or long-staple cotton. 



The following table gives a detailed esti- 

 mate of the number of acres in each of the 

 cotton States devoted to that crop, the num- 

 ber of bales produced in each State (in round 

 numbers), the percentage of increase over the 

 crop of 1869, and the yield per acre: 



The market prices of farm produce differ of 

 course very greatly at different points in our 

 widely-extended country, and it has seemed 

 to us that a record of the prices which were 

 current in December, 1870, and January, 1871, 

 of the principal articles of the products of our 

 farms in New York, Chicago, Cincinnati, St. 

 Louis, New Orleans, and San Francisco, would 

 not only be interesting but instructive and 

 profitable to our readers. They are compiled 

 very carefully (see tables on pages 6 and 7), 

 and, as near the first of each of these months 

 as practicable, from the prices-current of the 

 respective cities. 



It has been often urged that the " Plains," 

 as the region extending from the eastern slope 

 of the Rocky Mountains to the central portions 

 of Kansas, Nebraska, the Indian Territory, and 

 Northern Texas, is now designated (the old 

 name the Great American Desert having 

 been proved a misnomer), could never become 

 an agricultural region from its constant lia- 

 bility to drought, and the supposed impossi- 

 bility of obtaining, without excessive cost, the 

 means of irrigating it. But in the spring of 

 1870 a colony was- planted at Greeley, Colorado, 

 in the very heart of these "Plains," and very 

 little difficulty and but moderate expense were 

 found necessary to establish a permanent sys- 

 tem of irrigation, under the influence of which 

 the soil has given evidence of almost miracu- 

 lous fertility. There are very few portions of 

 this wide, arid tract, a region large enough to 

 cut up into a dozen large States, where irriga- 

 tion is not possible, and at moderate cost. But 

 recent experiments seem to indicate that the 

 irrigation can be dispensed with. Mr. R. S. 

 Elliott, of the Kansas Pacific Railway, dur- 

 the year 1870, made several experiments, 

 which were attended with triumphant suc- 

 cess, in the cultivation of the unirrigated 

 plains at Wilson, 236 miles west of the State 

 line of Missouri, and 1,586 feet above the 

 level of the sea; at Ellis, 302 miles west of 

 the State line, and 2,019 feet above the sea- 

 level ; and at Pond Creek, 422 miles west 

 of the State line, and 3,175 feet above the sea. 

 The last-named point is on the extreme western 

 border of Kaasas, near the 102 of west lon- 

 gitude, four degrees west of the limit of arable 

 effort without irrigation, heretofore assigned 

 by eminent meteorologists. At these points 

 were sown wheat, rye, barley, timothy, lucern, 

 alsike, clover, sanfoin, vetches, etc., and the 

 seeds and nuts of the burr-oak, pecan, chestnut, 

 peach, and ailantus. All vegetated promptly, 

 and grew rapidly and successfully. 



Relative to tree-growth on the plains, Mr. 

 Elliott lays down these propositions : 1. For- 

 ests can be established in all parts of the plains, 

 even without artificial irrigation. 2. Much 

 deeper ploughing will be required than for 

 winter grains or forage plants. 3. The most 

 rapid growers are the beech-trees for first 

 planting. 4. Planting seed is better than 

 transplanting young trees. 



