G 



AGRICULTURE. 



entire crop, and the latest returns show that 

 not less than 854,000,000 bushels were har- 

 vested. The crop of 1873, which was not 

 thought to exceed 870,000,000 bushels, actually 

 turned out to be 920,000,000. 



The Rye crop is about 8 per cent, below 

 the average, but probably does not differ ma- 

 terially from that of last year. "We should 

 put it at 14,891,000 bushels, or 98 per cent, of 

 the crop .of 1873. 



Oats are very nearly an average crop in quan- 

 tity, a larger acreage than usual having been 

 devoted to them. In New England and on the 

 Pacific coast the yield was very large and the 

 quality excellent. In the central and South- 

 ern States, drought, rust, the chinch-bugs, and 

 the grasshoppers, have done extensive injury to 

 the crop. The estimate of the Agricultural 

 Department is 240,000,000 bushels, which is 

 probably very near the truth. 



Barley. This crop, though early in the sea- 

 son reported as slightly below the average, has 

 yet, from increased acreage, been probably 

 larger in amount than in any previous year. 

 The Agricultural Department estimate it (prob- 

 ably slightly below the truth) at 32,704,000 

 bushels, or 1 per cent, advance on the largest 

 previous crop. 



Buckwheat is never a very large crop, and is 

 confined to a few States. In New England it 

 was an average crop; in the Middle States 

 about 8 per cent, short ; in the Northwest its 

 condition was unsatisfactory ; and in portions 

 of Kansas the grasshoppers destroyed it. It is 

 only cultivated, in the Southern States, in West 

 Virginia, Tennessee, and very slightly in North 

 Carolina, and in these it was a fair crop. It 

 is seldom grown for two successive years on 

 the same land. The yield may possibly reach 

 9,000,000 bushels. 



Potatoes (Solatium tuberoswri). In New 

 England the crop was more than an average. 

 Elsewhere drought, Colorado beetles, chinch- 

 bugs, a fly, said to be a cantharis, and, above 

 all, the grasshoppers, made sad havoc with the 

 crop, except on the Pacific coast, where it was 

 an average crop. The rot was not as severe 

 as usual. The crop is estimated at 106,000,000 

 bushels. The Colorado beetle (the ten-lined 

 spearman) has appeared in considerable num- 

 bers east of the Mississippi, and a few have 

 been seen in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and 

 New York. 



Potatoes, Sweet (Batatus edulis). Owing to 

 the drought, the crop was from 8 to 10 per 

 cent, below the average. It probably reached 

 46,000,000 bushels. 



Hay. The protracted drought materially 

 injured the pasturage, and rendered the early 

 feeding of cattle necessary, and prevented in 

 most sections the cutting of the aftermath, 

 but the first growth was not affected, and the 

 quality was, for the most part, excellent. The 

 Agricultural Department estimate the crop at 

 25,500,000 tons; and later reports may show 

 that it exceeded this amount. On the Pacific 



coast, where our ordinary grasses do not suc- 

 ceed well, the hay is mostly from alfalfa, lu- 

 cerne, and the wild-rice. The quantity in 

 'California was said to be one-third larger than 

 ever before. The alfalfa is cut four or five 

 times in a season. In the South, pea-vine hay 

 has been found very nutritious for cattle, and 

 in South Carolina and Georgia is largely 

 cured. 



Tobacco. The tobacco-crop in all the lefld- 

 ing tobacco States, was almost a failure. In 

 Kentucky the product was reported as only 

 24 per cent, of the usual average ; in Missouri 

 55 per cent., and this reduced late in the sea- 

 son by the ravages of the chinch-bug, a new 

 enemy ; in Virginia, the product would not ex- 

 ceed 58 per cent. : Tennessee yields only 19 per 

 cent., and North Carolina but 54 per cent. The 

 seed-leaf tobacco of the Connecticut Valley did 

 better, yielding 75 per cent. ; and the Pacific 

 coast, where it is becoming an important crop, 

 was 2 or 3 per cent, above the average in quan- 

 tity, and the quality was excellent. The entire 

 production did not probably exceed 200,000,000 

 pounds. 



Cotton. As usual, the aggregate amount of 

 the cotton-crop of 1874 has been hotly and 

 somewhat angrily discussed; one party con- 

 tending that the early heavy rains, the later 

 droughts, the ravages of the caterpillar and 

 boll-worm had reduced the crop so much, that 

 it would not be half that of the previous year, 

 which slightly exceeded, according to actual 

 returns, 4,100,000 bales ; the other arguing 

 that, notwithstanding these drawbacks, the 

 weather, late in the season, had been so very 

 favorable, and the cultivation of the crop so 

 much more careful and thorough than usual, 

 that the crop would not vary more than 8 or 

 10 per cent, from that of the preceding year. 

 The views of the latter party seem to have 

 been justified by the returns so far as they have 

 been received, and the estimate of the crop, 

 Which places it at 3,748,000 bales, is not, prob- 

 ably, far from the truth. The only States in 

 which there was any considerable falling off 

 from the -product of the preceding year were 

 Texas, about 12 per cent. ; Arkansas, over 35 

 per cent ; and Tennessee, about 38 per cent. 

 On the other hand, Florida had increased her 

 production about 7 per cent, over the previous 

 year, while South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, 

 Mississippi, and Louisiana, were but slightly, if 

 at all, below the previous year's production. 



The following table, giving the average num- 

 ber of pounds of ginned cotton produced to the 

 acre in 1870, 1871, 1873, and 1874, indicates, 

 even in the States having the highest average, 

 either that the cotton-land had become impov- 

 erished by the constant repetition of the same 

 crop, or that the lack of manure and of careful 

 tillage had reduced the yield far below its fair 

 and legitimate amount. At the same time it is 

 but just to say that there are some indications 

 of a determination to improve both in the 

 quality and quantity of the crop. Still the fact 



