AGRICULTURE. 



remains that the land which will not yield in the acre is either very poor land or very badly 

 average years at least halt' a bale (200 Ibs.) to tilled. 



Sugar- Cane. The sugar-crop was unusually 

 good in Louisiana, Texas, and Southern Ala- 

 bama, which are the areas of the largest pro- 

 duction, and very nearly an average in Georgia, 

 Florida, and Mississippi. A little is grown in 

 Arkansas and Tennessee, but it is an uncertain 

 crop in both States. The yield is fully 175,000 

 hogsheads and perhaps more. Sorghum is re- 

 ported as a crop in twenty-one States, and in 

 those States where it is most largely grown the 

 yield was much above the average. It is mainly 

 used in the form of syrup or molasses, and the 

 production must have been somewhat more 

 than 16,000,000 gallons. Beet-Sugar is becom- 

 ing a production of considerable importance 

 in California, and the year was unusually fa- 

 vorable for the manufacture of sugar from the 

 maple, an industry which is largely followed in 

 the Eastern and Middle States. 



Flax. Returns from only fifteen States are 

 given, but of these those most largely engaged 

 in its culture, Indiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota, 

 Iowa, and Kansas, all report an excess over last 

 year's abundant crop, while the other States 

 are nearly up to last year's production, except 

 Kentucky, where, for some cause, there is only 

 two-thirds of a crop. The product is probably 

 not far from 28,000,000 Ibs. 



Peon and Beans were not quite an average 

 crop, though probably amounting to nearly 

 15,500,000 bushels. 



There are no satisfactory returns of the Rice 

 crop. It is cultivated as a crop only in North 

 and South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, and 

 perhaps to a small extent in the Gulf States. 

 The usual production is now about 88,000,000 

 pounds. 



Fruits. In all the Northern, most of the 

 Western, and all the States on the Pacific coast, 

 the- year was an exceptionally fine one for 

 fruit. In the Southern States the protracted 

 drought, and in some sections insect destroyers, 

 impaired the crop from 10 to 30 per cent. The 

 grape is becoming one of our most important 

 fruits, not only for table-use, but for the man- 

 ufacture of wine and brandy, which is every 

 year assuming a greater magnitude, and within 

 the next decade will probably diminish our 

 importation of these articles to a very small 



amount. Both in quality and quantity the 

 grapes of 1874 in the principal wine-growing 

 districts, East and West, were greatly superior 

 to ordinary vintages. In this crop California 

 takes the lead, having now nearly 100,000,000 

 vines in full bearing, including all the best spe- 

 cies and varieties of Europe, as well as all the 

 native and cultivated varieties of all parts of 

 our own country. The Apple crop was very 

 abundant throughout a part of the Eastern, and 

 all of the Middle States, most of the North- 

 western, and all of the Pacific States. In the 

 Southern and Southwestern, as well as in the 

 Northeastern States, it was less than an aver- 

 age. The quality of the fruit was not, how- 

 ever, equal to the quantity, the winter apples 

 rotting early and fast. Pears were much be- 

 low the average in quantity, except in New 

 England and on the Pacific coast, but for the 

 most part the quality was good. The Peach 

 crop was below the average, especially in Dela- 

 ware and Maryland, but the quality of the fruit 

 was generally very good. The Northwestern 

 and the Pacific peach districts did not yield so 

 largely as in some seasons. The early small 

 fruits, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, 

 and cherries, were very plentiful, strawberries 

 especially being lower in the great markets 

 than for several years. 



On the next, page we give, instead of our 

 usual table of statistics of the number and value 

 of live stock in each State and the Territories, 

 at the beginning of 1875 a table showing the 

 aggregate numbers, prices, and total values of 

 each kind of live-stock for the whole country 

 for the ten years 1866-1875 inclusive. 



In the ANNUAL CYCLOPEDIA for 1873 atten- 

 tion was called to the diminishing yield of 

 wheat per acre, even in our newest wheat- 

 growing States, as an alarming fact, and the 

 experiments of an English farmer, Mr. J. B. 

 Lawes, on the beneficial effects of different 

 kinds of manures, experiments running through 

 a series of years, were detailed as demonstrat- 

 ing that there was no necessity for such a 

 diminution. We present this year another 

 series of experiments, approaching the subject 

 in an entirely different direction, that of the 

 quality and quantity of the seed sown. Major 



