12 



AGRICULTUKE. 



si on in woollen manufactures, which has caused 

 many wool -growers to sell both lambs and 

 ewes to the butchers, as the most profitable 

 method of disposing of them. The markets 

 have been throughout the year glutted with car- 

 casses of mutton ; and the number of sheep, 

 which had increased with great rapidity during 

 the past seven or eight years, must have dimin- 

 ished during the year 1868. The wool-clip is 

 stated at 104,000,000 pounds. 



Of other crops less universally cultivated, 

 SORGHUM seems to have been about the same 

 in quality as last year ; the SUGAR from the 

 CANE, which is made in only five States to any 

 extent, viz., Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, Texas, 

 and Arkansas, was a much larger crop than in 

 any previous year since 1860, in Louisiana the 

 production being more than twice that of 1867, 

 and in the other States from 15 to 30 per cent, 

 more. The production of SUGAR from the 

 SUGAR BEET, though it has not yet attained 

 to any considerable prominence, is increasing, 

 not only in Illinois, but also in California, 

 where it bids fair to become an important 

 branch of agricultural labor, and in several 

 other States. 



The HOP crop, in 1868, has been for the 

 most part a failure ; the blight and aphis have 

 both seriously injured the crop, and the impor- 

 tation has been so large as to depress the price 

 to about the cost of production. The hop-grow- 

 ers of the Wisconsin hop district, who in 



1867 found hop-growing so profitable, were in 



1868 completely in despair; many of them 

 have abandoned their hop-yards or destroyed 

 the vines. 



FLAX has received in several States a new 

 impulse from the new machinery for dressing 

 and breaking it. In Michigan, Minnesota, Ne- 

 braska, and California, as well as in several of 

 the Eastern States, a much greater breadth of 

 land has been devoted to this crop than for 

 many years past. The leguminous plants, 

 BEANS and PEAS, have yielded a better crop 

 than usual, though the demand is not so great 

 for them as it was during the war. 



Of FRUITS, the apple crop in Maine, New 

 Hampshire, Massachusetts, North Carolina, 

 Georgia, most of the Gulf States, Minnesota, 

 Kansas, and California, was above the average, 

 in all the other States far below. In Pennsyl- 

 vania, Delaware, Maryland, Indiana, and Illinois, 

 it was an entire failure, and in several other 

 States where it was usually one of the most 

 staple crops the product was not one-half that 

 of the previous year. The PEAR crop was also 

 deficient in most of the States, North Carolina, 

 Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, and Cali- 

 fornia being the only exceptions. 



The PEACH crop was deficient, except in 

 Michigan, Illinois, Missouri, and the Gulf 

 States. 



The yield of GRAPES on the Atlantic sea- 

 board was very small, and they were of in- 

 different quality. In the interior, and espe- 

 cially in the Seneca Lake district, New York, in 



the vicinity of Lakes Erie and Ontario, in Mis- 

 souri, and in California, they were abundant 

 and of excellent quality. The culture of the 

 grape, both for the fruit and for wine, has at- 

 tained such magnitude in our country that it 

 must be regarded as one of the most important 

 of the minor crops. Its annual product in 

 fruit and wine is not less than ten millions of 

 dollars, and it is increasing in a very rapid 

 ratio. In the Southern States, grape-culture 

 has excited less attention, especially with ref- 

 erence to the manufacture of wine. The va- 

 rieties of the grape most in favor at the North 

 have not generally proved as successful at the 

 South ; and though the Catawba, Norton's Vir- 

 ginia, and the Herbemont, were all grapes of 

 Southern origin, neither the Southern Atlantic 

 nor the Gulf States have given any great atten- 

 tion to their development. A native grape 

 of very marked character, and though possess- 

 ing some faults, yet apparently well adapted to 

 the production of some classes of wines, has 

 recently attained considerable notoriety, though 

 it has long been, cultivated rather negligently, 

 in the South. It is called the Scuppernong, and 

 there seem to be three subvarieties of it, the 

 white, the black, and the purple, all possessing 

 similar characteristics, but differing in the de- 

 gree of acidity, and in some of their qualities 

 for the production of wine. This grape, which 

 can only be cultivated successfully in the long 

 and warm summers of the South, will doubt- 

 less greatly improve by careful cultivation. It 

 has a positive character, is very hardy and full 

 of vitality, and is said not to be subject to mil- 

 dew or blight, to yield plentifully, and to be in- 

 capable of propagation except from seeds or 

 layers. It is said also to be the only grape 

 which is free from the attacks of the grape- 

 vine borer (^ffigeria polistiformis\ which 

 gnaws the roots of the grape-vine, and does 

 great mischief in Ohio and Missouri. 



The number of bushels, acreage, and value 

 of farm products for the year 1867, and also 

 the average yield per acre of farm products 

 in each State, the same year, was as follows. 

 The value of these statistics in indicating the 

 degeneration of the soil for staple crops, and 

 the importance of the agricultural interest, 

 cannot be overestimated : 



Table sliowinq estimated quantities, acreage, and ag- 

 gregate value of the principal crops of the farm 

 in 1867. 



