74 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



March 



and who appreciate their objects ; that hence, 

 neither the delay, nor errors, nor expenses, will 

 be attendant on a census taken by this Depart- 

 ment, which has characterized the decade census ; 

 and that, as this Department alone has special 

 cognizance of the interest of the industrial pur- 

 suits, all matters, such as the census, which al- 

 most exclusively belong to these pursuits, should 

 come under the jurisdiction of the Department of 

 Agriculture. 



The tables of this report refer more to sustain- 

 ing the soil by the use of proper manures and 

 deep plowing than to the condition of the crops ; 

 but in this connection is stated the amount of the 

 clover seed crop for 1863, in nine of the principal 

 clover seed producing States — the omitted States 

 raising but little. The crop is as follows : 



Clover Seed Crop for 1863 in Nine States. 



1859 837,109 bushels. 



1862 1,034,790 " 



1863 806,458 " 



Being a decrease in the last year's crop of 228,- 

 332 bushels, or 28 per cent. This decrease was 

 caused by drought, the scarcity of fodder and hay, 

 and the severity of the fall frosts. 



The report shows the great utility of plaster as 

 a manure, sown on clover in June, and the entire 

 growth turned under for wheat in the fall. The 

 necessity of establishing manufactories of bone 

 charcoal at slaughtering- houses, for refining sor- 

 ghum molasses, and using it afterwards as ma- 

 nure, is also shown. 



The reliability of the information obtained by 

 the Department through its correspondents, is re- 

 ferred to in the present condition of the pork 

 trade, and as predicted by the Department. The 

 exports of breadstuffs and provisions are given, 

 with their prices in New York on the first instant: 

 also, the general imports and exports ; the proper 

 mode of stating these, by taking from the amount 

 of exports of produce the difference between gold 

 and currency; the perplexity arising from a want 

 of a uniform system of weights and measures in 

 England, and the necessity of Congressional ac- 

 tion on this subject in the United States. 



Congress prints 120,000 copies of the Annual 

 Agricultural Report, and 15,000 copies of the 

 monthly report, yet these inadequately supply the 

 public wants, . and hence the Commissioner ad- 

 vises a trial of the English plan of distributing 

 public documents — to sell them at cost. The 

 present cost of the Annual Agricultural Report is 

 sixty cents. Collections and orders could be sent 

 from every county through the regular correspon- 

 dent of the department. 



The Meteorological part of the Report is more 

 full and interesting than heretofore given. The 

 same seventy that has marked the climate of the 

 Mississippi since July still continues, although, 

 genarally, the weather has been favorable on all 

 the fall sown crops and for farm stock and labor. 



The Hop Crop. — The Inspector General of 

 hops reports the following, as the amount of hops 

 inspected in the State during the past year: First 

 sort, 518 bales, 97,800 lbs. ; second sort, 32 bales, 

 5,756 lbs. ; refuse, 30 bales, 5,749 lbs. ; total, 

 580 bales, 109,303 lbs. In 1862, the amount in- 

 spected was 319 bales, 57,410 lbs. 



WAR AND AGRICULTURE. 



BY JUDGE FRENCH. 



Retrospect of the Year 1863. 

 The changes affecting the interests of agricul- 

 ture and kindred pursuits during the past year 

 are worthy of the careful study of all who are 

 making or intend to make the culture of the earth, 

 or the growth of live stock the business of life. 

 The war and its results are as much the business 

 of the farmer as of the soldier. The great ques- 

 tions of the demand and supply of provisions, of 

 horses, of clothing, all immediately affect the pro- 

 ducer. The withdrawal and diversion of labor 

 from the soil, by the employment of our sons and 

 brothers in the army or in service connected with 

 the army, comes home at once to our farms and 

 our firesides. The breaking up of the great sys- 

 tem of involuntary service at the South, the sale 

 of estates for taxes, the desolation of large por- 

 tions of the States which have been the scenes of 

 active army operations, all are opening new fields 

 for the ambition of our young northern farmers, 

 and offering problems difficult of solution to the 

 land owners of the whole country. Of these 

 great changes it is our duty to take thought, early 

 and carefully, that we may so direct our agricul- 

 tural engines as to produce the best results both 

 for ourselves and our country. 



Agriculture our Strength. 

 When the rebellion broke out, and without 

 even waiting for the arrival in England of our new 

 minister, Mr. Adams, the British government at 

 once joined with France in acknowledging the 

 Confederates as belligerents, and there is no doubt 

 that throughout the first two years of the war, 

 both the governments referred to expected, if they 

 did not also intend, that the rebellion would be 

 successful. The Southern idea that cotton was 

 king, and that, in some way, cotton must be sup- 

 plied from America to Europe, took possession of 

 the leading minds of the British government, and 

 of the only mind of any importance in France, 

 that of the emperor. Much, however, as France 

 and England needed cotton to employ their labor- 

 ers, they needed bread far more to feed them. 



The parliamentary returns of Great Britain for 

 the year 1861, show that in that year she import- 

 ed of wheat, flour, and Indian corn, alone, one 

 hundred and six millions of bushels, 48 per cent, 

 of which, or nearly one-half, came from this 

 country. 



The New York trade tables show that- for the 

 year ending Sept. 1, 1862, we exported to Europe 

 more than fifty-two million bushels of wheat, flour 

 and Indian corn, equal to one hundred and forty- 

 two thousand bushels every day in the year! 



Again, the British board of trade reports, that 

 in the ten months ending October 31, 1862, Great 

 Britain received of the United States, produce 

 amounting in value to eighty-seven and a half 

 million dollars, which is more than $290,000 per 

 day for all that time, and the amount for the same 

 period in 1861 was not six millions less. 



Our contrihutions of food to England were not 

 charity, but merely trade, but in 1S61 and 1862, 

 there was really no market in the world where 

 England could have procured her supply of food, 

 had war suddenly broke out between that country 

 and America. Her statesmen are wise and far- 

 sighted, and it seems manifest, when we remem- 



