AGRICULTUKE. 



11 



Following the same order in regard to crops, 

 we give our usual brief notes of the crops of 

 1868: 



The MAIZE, or INDIAN Costf, crop, though 

 much better than that of 1867, and of larger 

 amount than the crop of 1859-'60 (specified 

 above), is yet a decrease in proportion to the 

 increase of population. The Pacific States and 

 Territories are unsuited to the production of 

 Indian corn, and the amount raised there is 

 very slight. Leaving these States and Terri- 

 tories out of the account, the corn crop of 1868 

 was, in round numbers, 905,178,000 bushels. 

 Its quality was generally very good, though in 

 Iowa, Southern Illinois, and some other low 

 lands, there was more smut than usual. 



The WHEAT crop is slightly larger than last 

 year, though it will not probably exceed 225,- 

 000,000 bushels. The promise of the early 

 summer was not realized at the harvest. The 

 acreage devoted to wheat was considerably 

 greater than the previous year, but it is a fact 

 which ought to excite alarm, that the yield to 

 the acre in the older wheat-fields is rapidly de- 

 creasing. Land which, twenty years ago, 

 yielded twenty-eight to thirty bushels to the 

 acre, and ten years ago from eighteen to twen- 

 ty-two bushels, now produces only from nine 

 to twelve bushels, and wheat is ceasing to be a 

 paying crop. The whole wheat-growing re- 

 gion east of the Mississippi has, within ten 

 years past, barely held its own Wisconsin, 

 Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio, but just 

 making up the deficiency in New York, Penn- 

 sylvania, Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, and 

 the other States of the Atlantic slope. The 



g reduction of even the most fertile of these 

 tates, to the acre, is decreasing year by year, 

 and their aggregates are only kept up or in- 

 creased by the enlarged area devoted to this 

 crop. On the other hand, the territory lying 

 between the Mississippi River and the Pacific 

 Ocean, which, in 1859, produced but 25,000,000 

 bushels, harvested, in 1868, above 65,000,000 

 bushels, more than one-fourth of the whole 

 being yielded by California. The yield to the 

 acre in that State is between thirty and forty 

 bushels. The cause of this decreased produc- 

 tion in the States east of the Mississippi is the 

 abstraction, by continued cropping, of those 

 constituents of the soil which go to the making 

 of the wheat culm and berry. If these can be 

 restored to the soil in full, the old yield per 

 acre ought to be regained. 



EYE, never a large crop, differs but little in 

 amount from last year, with possibly a small 

 gain from the greater plumpness of the berry. 

 It may safely be put down at 24,000,000 

 bushels. 



OATS are a very important crop. The yield 

 was light in most of the Atlantic States ; not 

 a full average in Michigan, Wisconsin, and 

 Iowa, but west of the Mississippi above the 

 average. In California, oats are extensively 

 mowed for hay before the grain is ripe, the 

 ordinary grasses not enduring the long dry 



season. The crop was not far from 272,000,000 

 bushels. 



BARLEY is one of the smaller cereal crops, 

 except on the Pacific, where it takes the place 

 to a great extent of Indian corn. In the At- 

 lantic and central States it is mainly grown for 

 malt. The crop east of the Mississippi was 

 smaller than last year ; west of that river, and 

 especially on the Pacific cost, it was somewhat 

 larger. It did not probably exceed 25,000,000 

 bushels. 



BUCKWHEAT was deficient in several of the 

 States where it is grown. In Connecticut, 

 New Jersey, Minnesota, and California it was 

 quite up to the average. The yield in the ag- 

 gregate was nearly 21,000,000 bushels. 



The POTATO crop has favorably disappointed 

 the farmers. It was thought early in the sea- 

 son that it would prove seriously deficient in 

 Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, New York, and 

 Pennsylvania, and that these great deficiencies 

 would reduce the aggregate below that of last 

 year, though Southern New England, New 

 Jersey, Delaware, the Gulf States, and Califor- 

 nia reported a more than average crop. The 

 aggregate production, however, proves to be 

 about 11 per cent, in advance of last year, and 

 though it does not approach to the enormous 

 crop of 1859, it will probably not fall below 

 75,000,000 bushels. The sweet-potato crop is 

 also larger than last year. 



TOBACCO is an uncertain crop, though, when 

 successful, a profitable one. The returns are 

 incomplete, even from the States where it is 

 most largely grown, but, so far as can be deter- 

 mined, indicate a crop of about 332,000,000 of 

 pounds. 



The HAY crop was almost uniformly good, 

 Florida and Kansas being the only marked ex- 

 ceptions, and in neither State is the hay crop 

 of prime importance. The returns indicate "a 

 yield of about 32,500,000 tons. 



COTTON, concerning which there were seri- 

 ons apprehensions during the summer from the 

 depredations of the army worm, proves to have 

 somewhat exceeded the aggregate of last year, 

 though upon fewer acres. The following is 

 the estimate of the Commissioner of Agricul- 

 ture in December, which, as he himself acknowl- 

 edges, was undoubtedly below the truth. Later 

 reports bring tip the aggregate to fully 2,500,- 

 000 bales of 400 Ibs. each. 



Bales. 



North Carolina 140,000 



South Carolina 180,000 



Georgia 290,000 



Florida 35,000 



Alabama 285,000 



Mississippi 400,000 



Louisiana 250,000 



Texas 260,000 



Arkansas 265,000 



Tennessee 200,000 



Other States 75,000 



Total 2,380,000 



The WOOL crop is somewhat smaller than in 

 1867. This was due to the protracted depres- 



