2'53 



REPORTS ON FOREIGN CROPS. 



Crops in the United States. 



The September report of the Statistician of the Department 

 of Agriculture at Washington furnishes the following par- 

 ticulars as to the condition of the principal crops in the 

 United States on September ist, 1899. 



The average condition of the entire wheat crop when 

 harvested was 70*9, or 15*8 points lower than the average 

 of last year, and 14-8 points lower than that of 1897. It is 

 the lowest average condition when harvested for the past 

 twenty years. No quantitative estimate of the wheat 

 crop will be made by the Department pending a revision 

 of the acreage figures in the North- West and on the Pacific 

 slope. 



The general average condition of maize was 85*2, or ri 

 better than at the corresponding date last year, and 5*9 higher 

 thanini897. Oats had an average condition of 87-2, an im- 

 provement of 8'2 points on the average at the same date in 

 1898. Barley showed an average condition of 86*7, this 

 being 7 -5 points higher than that of last year. The average 

 condition of potatoes was 86*3, or 8*6 points better than that 

 recorded for the ist September, 1898. 



The Indian Wheat Harvest 1898-99. 



The final general memorandum on the Indian wheat crop 

 was issued on the 31st May, 1899. It states that the 

 conditions for the successful growth of wheat were on the 

 whole very favourable in Bengal and in the North- Western 

 Provinces, and in those tracts the yield of the harvest 

 exceeded the good returns of 1898 and were greatly in excess 

 of the average of recent years, affected as this was by 



