168 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[Juke, 
Important Reports on the Breadth and 
Condition of the Growing Crops— 
Reliable Statistics from nearly 
200 Counties, Expressing 
the Opinions of nearly 
1000 Farmers. 
On page 186 will be found the beginning of an 
important monthly series of Reports upon the 
state of the Crops. The Reports this month are 
limited, but they indicate what is to be done, 
and how. Owing to the late opening of the 
Spring, and the lack of requisite time to make 
up full statistics, not more than half of the re¬ 
ports already provided for are given this month; 
yet on a single page we have the results of the 
observations of nearly One Thousand persons 
living in over one hundred and eighty counties, 
scattered all over the country. Most of those 
gathering and sending in these reports are intelli¬ 
gent, observing men, who have been designated 
by Agricultural Societies, Farmers’ Clubs, etc., 
for this special purpose. We feel quite sure that 
from no other source can so much reliable in¬ 
formation be obtained. Next month we shall 
probably have several hundred reports, but even 
200 of them, from different counties, scattered 
here and there all over the country, and espe¬ 
cially in the grain-producing States, will serve 
as a fair indication of the whole country. We 
shall still be glad to add to our list competent, 
reliable men from counties not yet represented. 
The reports are very comprehensive, and give 
in small compass a great amount of statistical 
information. The numeral 10 is taken for the 
average, and the comparative surface growing, 
the condition, etc., expressed in tenths above or 
below 10- [See explanations over the reports.] 
At the end of each column is a general average, 
obtained by dividing the sum of all the reports 
under any head, by their number. 
SUMMARY FOR THE WHOLE COUNTRY. 
A— The Weather averages nearly 9, or a 
little below the average of other years (10)—tak¬ 
ing into account its effects upon winter grain and 
fruit, and upon general farm operations. The 
notes accompanying the reports speak of the 
weather as very backward, retarding spring 
work, etc., but first-rate for winter grain and fruit. 
B—C—Of Winter Wheat, the breadth 
growing averages fully a tenth more than in 
1861, and fully one-third more than the average 
annual breadth, for a period of several years. 
D—The general prospects of Winter Wheat 
promise one-third above the average yield. 
E—F— Spring Wheat —The surface sown 
this year averages one-tenth more than last 
year, and eight-tenths more than the average 
annual breadth for five years past. 
G—The prospects for Spring Wheat are not 
quite equal to the average of other years. 
H—I—K— Indian Corn.— The planting was 
not far enough advanced on May 10tli for those 
forwarding reports to give full statistics, though 
many reported the probable number of acres 
planted and in preparation. These indicate a 
surface about equal to last year, but a third 
more than the annual average for five years 
past. Much fuller statements will appear in 
the monthly reports hereafter. 
L—M— Rye. —Surface sown, nearly the same 
- as last year. Prospects a tenth better than usual. 
N—O— Oats. —Surface sown a little above 
the average, and prospects nearly an average. 
P—R— Hay Crop. —Breadth growing and 
prospects, rather above the average. 
S—T— Potatoes. —The surface planted fully 
an average; prospects rather poorer than usual. 
U—V— Fruit. —Reports almost universally 
good. The average indicates a double crop of 
apples for the whole country, and a threefold 
crop of peaches. These are more indefinite 
estimates than will be furnished next month. 
GENERAL AVERAGE.—The general aver¬ 
age of all the figures given in our tables, 
including surface, prospects, etc., is 12.6, or 
one-fourth better than the average of other 
years. This is more favorable than we had an¬ 
ticipated, until we received and compiled the re¬ 
ports and read the notes accompanying them. 
A Change—The Michigan Farmer. 
The Michigan Farmer, hitherto published at De¬ 
troit, is now merged into the American Agricultur¬ 
ist. Subscribers who have paid in advance for the 
Farmer, will receive the Agriculturist for the full 
time paid for. The services of Mr. Doty, recent Edi¬ 
tor and Proprietor of the Farmer, are secured for 
the Agriculturist, and his P. O. address is now at this 
Office. His former patrons will thus continue to re¬ 
ceive the benefit of his labors, and in addition, the 
advantages of the Agriculturist, with its larger fa¬ 
cilities, and yet at no advance in the annual cost. 
The above is the seventh Agricultural Journal 
merged into the Agriculturist, during the same 
number of years. A friend inquires how long, 
and how far, this absorbing process is to go on ? 
We answer, just so long as publishers of other 
journals continue to find it to their own inter¬ 
ests, and to the interests of their readers, to pro¬ 
pose such changes, if on terms we can afford to 
accept. No proposition has ever been first made 
by the proprietor of the Agriculturist. 
Let us here remark, however, that there are 
some manifest advantages in this merging pro¬ 
cess—to the readers, if not to the publishers. 
For example, the Connecticut Homestead was 
a good paper, and so w;?5 the Agriculturist, as all 
admit, we believe; but the Agricultwrist now has 
the combined, earnest efforts of the editors of both 
papers, with no addition to the subscription 
price. The same may be said, in part, of the 
union of other papers with this. New York is 
a central point, almost as accessible, and as di¬ 
rectly connected with most sections of our 
country, as their own capital towns. This may, 
therefore, well he the central point for issuing 
a leading journal for all parts of the country. 
The average circulation of 25 out of the 30 agricul¬ 
tural and horticultural journals in this country 
probably does not reach 3,000 copies. The cir¬ 
culation of the Agriculturist, for sometime past, 
has ranged from 60,000 to 88,000 copies. Is 
it not better to combine the efforts of twenty 
men upon one such a journal, than to divide 
them among twenty or thirty of 3,000 circula¬ 
tion, each requiring all the office machinery, 
etc., and necessarily requiring the paying of 
twenty or thirty subscriptions by any one desir¬ 
ing to avail himself of the advantages of the 
whole? This concentration of effort at one 
point has one disadvantage, and one only, viz.: 
that local matters—of Societies, Fairs, etc.—can 
not all receive constant attention. But the local 
political and news journals will, in a measure, 
afford facilities for giving local news, while a 
few leading agricultural and horticultural papers, 
at principal points, can furnish the required 
amount of strictly agricultural information of 
general interest. We hope the time will soon 
come when every State shall support at least 
one first class journal, devoted to the great 
farming interest; and were farmers sufficiently 
awake to their true interests, this would be done 
at once, or as soon as the right men could be 
found to conduct such journals. But for the 
time being, it seems a waste of effort to try to 
keep up one or more vigorous, first class agri¬ 
cultural journals for each locality. 
Tobacco Cultivation—No. IV.' 
Tobacco culturists have now plowed the land 
deep and turned under a liberal supply of barn¬ 
yard manure, and for two, three, or four weeks, 
the ground has lain exposed to the sun and rains. 
The influence of these has been very important. 
The soluble ingredients of the manure have be¬ 
come diffused through the mellow earth, induc¬ 
ing decompositions in the soil itself and render¬ 
ing still more plant food available. The weath¬ 
ering has a similar effect; in fact, the ground has 
had a good fallowing with all its beneficial ef¬ 
fects, so long as it remained in this condition. 
Weed seeds germinate under the influence of 
the May rains, and the rawness of the freshly 
upturned soil is thoroughly cured. 
Were we to prepare a piece of land for tobac¬ 
co, after proceeding as directed in the May Agri¬ 
culturist, according to the amount of manure 
then plowed in, or incorporated with the surface 
soil, we would add more or less. A good sur¬ 
face dressing of well rotted stable manure or 
fine compost, might first be spread, (unless the 
land were to need harrowing once or twice to 
kill the weeds,) and directly upon this we would 
put 10 to 20 bushels of unleached ashes, three to 
five hundred weight of gypsum and three or 
four bushels of salt to the acre, (in the absence 
of barn-yard manure we would use about 200 
lbs. of Peruvian guano of the best quality); and 
it should be immediately plowed under very 
shallow, but not so as to interfere with lightly 
harrowing it; which done, it should be rolled 
and marked out for planting. Set the plants in 
rows three feet apart and two feet and-a-half to 
three feet distant in the rows. 
At the very first of this month the seed beds 
should be looked to, and the plants quickened, 
if at all backward, with guano water or other 
liquid manure, so as to be ready for transplant¬ 
ing as soon as the 15th. It is hardly worth 
while to attempt to transplant tobacco earlier 
than the middle of June. For some ten days or 
a fortnight after they are set they are peculiarly 
exposed to the attacks of the grubs and cut¬ 
worms, and they are only free from this danger 
when they have begun to grow very vigorously; 
this time comes when we have steady hot weath¬ 
er. It is a good rule to be ready to transplant 
on the first rainy day after the 15th of June. 
Care must be taken in transplanting; the plants 
being handled much like cabbage plants, and 
the smallest of them should have three or four 
leaves as large as a silver dollar. If the sun 
comes out hot the next day, mow a few swaths 
in short thick grass, wet it thoroughly, and use 
it to cover the plants. Cut hay or straw will do, 
but is not so good. Keeping a good watch of 
the plants eveiy morning, the cultivator will see 
at once any one wilted or drooping, and will 
often find the worm at the root, and he will re¬ 
place the plant thus destroyed at the earliest 
possible moment. Move the plants with a ball 
of earth attached that they may be less put back 
and that the field may be more even in appear¬ 
ance. After the plants become well rooted the 
field is tilled regularly, being hoed and weeded 
like corn, using the horse hoe k or cultivator. 
