280 



THE ILLllSrOIS FAKMEK. 



Aug. 



keeping it thoroughly clean by two plowingsin the | 

 fall and by hoeing "the wheat in spring by hand. 

 The Rev. S. Smith of Lois-Weeden, has for years 

 raised successive crops of wheat by a process of 

 trenching the land -with a fork and by hand-hoe- 

 ing. We do not advocate this system, but the 

 principle is applicable to our c;ise. We can ma- 

 nure our land by better tillage." 



Monthly Repor* of the Condition of 



tha Crops for May and June, 1863. 



Department of Agrictjltere, ) 

 Wasington, July 10, 1863| 



The Agricultural Department, in issuing its first 

 monthly report of the condition of the crops, 

 desires to make known its purposes in preparing 

 these reports, and the means it has adopted to 

 collect the information embraced in them. 



1. No nation has ever developed such agricul- 

 tural resources as the United States, whether the 

 amount and the variety of its products, or their 

 relations to manufactures and commerce, are con- 

 sidered. The amount of the capital it has invested 

 in lands and farming implements is nearly seven 

 billions of dollars, producing an annual value of 

 two and a half billions of the population of the 

 United States. Its products are not only those 

 cereals and animals from which our brcadstuffs 

 and meats are obtained, but embrace also those 

 textile materials that sustain not only our own 

 manufacturing industry, but the great cotton man- 

 ufactures of the world. Hence our manufacturing 

 industry has been created by, and is dependent on, 

 our agriculture. The capital invested in our man- 

 ufactures exceeds two billions of dollars, yielding 

 an annual product not much less in value. This 

 diversified industry has created a commerce of not 

 less proportionate magnitude, which, employed in 

 distributing these provisions and materials and 

 manufactures, uses as its means of travel and 

 transportation railroads, canals, and river improve- 

 ments, costing two and a half billions of dollars, 

 and employs a tonnage in value about two hundred 

 and twenty-five millions of dollars. Such are the 

 gigantic operations of American industry, making 

 its national inventory one of the most extraor- 

 dinary records of progress the world has ever 

 beheld. 



Nor is this all. The wants of Europe have 

 established a great end rapidly increasing depend- 

 , ence upon the United States for its agricultural 

 products. This is seen in the magnitude of the 

 exportation of these, even when civil war has 

 closed so many ports, and paralyzed the agriculture 

 of so large a portion of the country. The world 

 leans on us. 



To meet demands of this great magnitude is the 

 mission of American agriculture. The merchant 

 and the manufacturer, the operative in the factory 

 and the mechanic in the shop, those at home and 

 those abroad — all, as much as the farmer, cannot 

 but feel deeply interested in the monthly report of 

 the progress of an agriculture upon which these 

 classes depend. 



Statistical information is collected slowly, and 

 generally not published until the immediate inter- 

 est in them has passed away. Thus, for instance, 

 the American Almanac, an annual statistical publi- 

 cation of the highest authority, does not generally 



bring its statistics nearer than two years of the 

 time of its publication. Even the imports and 

 exports of the United States are not made gener- 

 ally known by the Treasury Department until 

 eighteen months after the close of the fiscal year. 

 In the meantime the vast crops have been sown 

 and harvested and sold, with no reliable informa- 

 tion of their amount, save what certain interests 

 obtain through agencies, in which the public are 

 not regarded as having any concern nor any right 

 to the information they give. 



This is unjust to the industrial pursuits of our 

 country. Those who produce, and those who con- 

 sume, have interests as well as the purchaser who 

 stands between them. A knowledge of the market 

 is essential for all, and this market is governed by 

 supply and demand. 



The relations between agriculture, manufactures, 

 and commerce, demand that something should be 

 done to obtain and publish, at brief intervals 

 during the crop season, reliable information of the 

 amount and condition of these crops. The con- 

 nexion between the industrial pursuits creates 

 mutual interests. There is no clearer principle of 

 political economy than this, that as the farmer is 

 enriched all other classes prosper. His pursuit, 

 as stated, embraces two-thirds of our population — 

 the great body of consumers of manafactured pro- 

 ducts — and of these he buys in proportion as his 

 own occupation gives him the means. Hence, the 

 more he consumes the greater is the demand for 

 manufactures. The office of commerce being to 

 interchange the prsducts of agriculture and manu- 

 facture between their respective consumers, it, too, 

 prospers in proportion as the farmer and operative 

 thrive. Individuals, however, do not regard the 

 common welfare, but are constantly impelled by 

 self-interest to take from it to enrich themselves. 

 Hence commercial speculations are common where 

 general ignorance prevails of the true conditions 

 of supply and demand. Every public interest is 

 injuriously affected through this self-aggrandize- 

 ment. The Wall street speculations in gold, which 

 led Congress to enact the first law ever passed in 

 this country to regulate discounts, are not the only 

 instances where individual gain disregarded the 

 public good. 



Ignorance of the state of our crops invariably 

 leads to speculation, in which oftentimes, the 

 farmer does not obtain just prices, and by which 

 the consumer is not benefitted. The interests of 

 labor, therefore, demand that the true condition 

 of these crops should be made known. Such 

 knowledge, whilst it tends to discourage specula- 

 tion, gives to commerce a more uniform, and con- 

 sequently, a more healthy action. Its influence 

 on manufactures is not less beneficial. The prob- 

 able supply of textile material directs the extent 

 of manufacturing industry, and the prices and 

 consumption of its products. 



2. Holding these opions, the Commissioner of 

 Agriculture believed it was his duty to adopt some 

 plan to obtain each month, during the months from 

 May to October, inclusive, general information of 

 the amount and condition of our leading agricul- 

 tural products. He was aware of the difficulties 

 that surrounded an attempt of this kind. The 

 department had no means, except in a copy of its 

 annual report, these monthly reports, and seeds) 

 to pay for ans to interrogatories necessary to pro- 

 cure information. It had but one reliance — ^the 



