378 Notes and Gleanings. 



Cotton. — The area in cotton is somewhat less than last year. Its culture 

 has been better, the preparation for planting more complete, and labor more 

 regular and reliable, as a general rule. Early in the season, the promise was 

 fine. Serious losses have of late been incurred, however, principally from depre- 

 dations of the cotton-caterpillar, or army-worm, which have proved more general 

 and severe in Georgia than elsewhere, very troublesome in portions of Alaba- 

 ma and Mississippi, and somewhat prevalent in the Carolinas and in Arkansas. 

 Heavy rains in Tennessee and the South-West have caused anxiety, but done 

 less damage than was expected. Our returns indicate a smaller crop, possibly 

 by fifteen or twenty per cent, than last year ; but the complete estimate will not 

 be made till the crop is gathered. 



It is the aim of the statistician to give the exact truth, — nothing to extenuate, 

 and nothing to depreciate. Some farmers would conceal the actual facts of the 

 harvest, with the expectation of better prices as a result of the deception. The 

 hope is fallacious : the fraud will always be discovered. On the other hand, 

 there are always buyers who will give publicity to extravagant estimates to de- 

 preciate prices, and magnify a scarcity after having purchased heavily, to give 

 an unnatural stimulus to the market. Honesty is decidedly the best policy for 

 farmers as well as others. In these estimates, while a doubt exists, it may be 

 proper to give producers the benefit of it, and make the figures somewhat smaller, 

 rather than larger, than the probable result. Acting on this principle, the cotton 

 estimate for 1866 was placed at 1,835,000 bales, and that of 1867 at 2,340,000 

 bales ; while the actual shipments of the cotton for those years reached very 

 nearly 2,000,000 and 2,500,000 bales respectively. Could every pound have 

 been counted in advance, no fairer statement could have issued from this 

 department. 



Pease and Beans will be nearly an average crop. 



Buckwheat is very generally deficient. Connecticut, New Jersey, Min- 

 nesota, California, and some of the Southern States, furnish favorable excep- 

 tions. 



Sorghum has been more successful than last year. Illinois and Wisconsin 

 are not quite up to last year's production. Both buckwheat and sorghum were 

 injured by early frosts in high latitudes. 



Potatoes. — In Southern New England, New Jersey, Delaware, the Gulf 

 States, and California, potatoes are reported a full average crop, with a deficiency 

 of ten per cent in New York and Pennsylvania, from three to seven per cent 

 in the Southern Atlantic States and Tennessee, twenty in Illinois, ten in Iowa, 

 eleven in Indiana, fifteen in Ohio, sixteen in Michigan, and a greater or less 

 reduction in other Western States. 



Sugaii-Cane. — Returns from Louisiana indicate an increase of twenty-two 

 per cent over last year. 



Old Wheat. — The amount of old w# eat on hand is somewhat less than 

 usual thro-;ghout the country, with the exception of the cotton States, which 

 have a higher average than last year. This remark will not apply to Texas, 

 where the granaries are uniformly empty. The quantity left over in Wisconsin 

 is relatively somewhat lower than in the neighboring States. 



