200 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[July, 
The Agriculturist Crop Reports. 
Breadth, Condition, and Prospects of the 
Growing Crops in 24 States and 
Territories. Gathered from 
1,557 Reporters. 
Ou pages 218 and 219 will be found, in com¬ 
pact tabular form, the reports on the growing 
crops for June 10th. A considerable increase in 
the number of reports over last month will be 
marked, and some important changes. We are 
free to say that no system of gathering statistics 
in this country, (even that attempted recently by 
the Patent Agricultural Office,) has given so sat¬ 
isfactory and truthful an exhibit of the state of 
the crops, even over a very limited district, as 
we present in these reports for the whole coun¬ 
try, where war is not actually going on. Drouths 
have continued in some sections since our re¬ 
ports came in, which were then severe, and in 
parts of Illinois the newspapers report, in a few 
cases, great damage to the wheat by the midge 
and chinch bug, but of this we have no direct 
report, and do not believe extensive damage has 
been sustained by the crops. 
PROSPECTS. 
Winter Wheat promised, on June 10th, well in 
all the great wheat region of the West, and be¬ 
low an average only in New-England and Ken¬ 
tucky. We have reports of injuries to the crops 
by rust, and insects, or by both, from a few 
counties in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa, 
but in few cases only are they very serious. 
Spring Wheat has been affected quite unfavor¬ 
ably by the cold rains, frosts, and drouths. 
Indian Corn. —Our great staple, upon which 
also depend the beef and pork product, is, we 
regret to say, a little “under the weather” yet, 
still June settles the fate of the crop, and that 
was only one-third passed when our reports 
were made out, and the season besides was 
nearly 10 days backward. 
Rye , following in the wake of careless wheat 
farming, is chiefly reported upon in the older 
States, and hardly comes up to average promise. 
Oats almost everywhere have been seriously 
affected by the unfavorable weather of all kinds 
—planted late, they have suffered equally from 
cold and drouth where they prevailed. 
Hay. —The grass crop seems to have sustained 
itself well—no where below average in promise 
except in Michigan, New-England, and N. Y. 
Potatoes promise decidedly better than com¬ 
mon, except perhaps in the far West. 
Fruit. —The apple crop has suffered consider¬ 
ably, but not enough to reduce the crop to av¬ 
erage, or near it; and the peach crop still prom¬ 
ises exceedingly well. 
The General Average is about 8 per cent 
lower than last month—the footing being 12.2. 
The average prospects of farm crops (exclusive 
of fruit) is a little above average, viz.: 10.3 which 
is very gratifying. 
CROPS NOT SPECIFIED. 
Barley. —We have reports from Ohio, Wis¬ 
consin, Minnesota, the Middle and Eastern 
States. The mean of the estimates for surface 
compared with the average for 5 years is 13, or 
nearly i more, while the prospects are account¬ 
ed 113—decidedly better than average. Where 
sorghum is cultivated, barley has given way to 
it a little.' 
Sorghum:. —We have quite full reports from 
Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and a few from 
Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Mich, and Wisconsin. 
In only a single case is a decrease of surface re¬ 
ported—in another, an equal surface—in all 
taken together (70 reports), an increase amount¬ 
ing in the mean to nearly 3 times the breadth 
cultivated for the past 5 years. This must indi¬ 
cate a large increase over last year. In the case 
of this crop it would be better could we compare 
this year’s crop with that of last year instead 
of the 5 years past. (If reporters follow this 
suggestion, will they please specify it particular¬ 
ly.) The prospects of the crops in Ohio and In¬ 
diana, are better than average; in Illinois, a little 
below, and in Iowa, just about average. The 
crop now promises to make itself felt in the 
market decidedly more than last year. 
Flax. —The reports from the flax-growing 
Counties of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Penn¬ 
sylvania, uniformly represent a much great¬ 
er breadth sown than usual, and the crop 
above the average condition, and the same is 
true of scattered reports from other sections. 
They all foot up 2% times as much sown, and 
two-tenths better prospects than usual. 
Hops. —So far as reported it appears the cul¬ 
ture is increasing and the condition very prom¬ 
ising at present. 
Peas and Beans. —These crops are reported 
chiefly from the extreme Northern line of States 
and Counties; about two-thirds more than com¬ 
mon have been planted, and the crop does not 
promise well on the whole. 
The Weather for the month from May 10 th 
to June 10th, has been exceedingly diverse in 
different parts of the country; even different 
parts of the same State exhibit in numerous 
cases the results of excessive rains, and, for the 
season, of unusual local drouths, while in every 
State larger or smaller sections have enjoyed 
that happy medium which is the farmer’s high¬ 
est joy in this respect. In New-England, 
and the States of Maryland, (Eastern) Virginia 
and Delaware, while there has been some drouth, 
sufficient to reduce the hay and Spring grain 
crop materially in sections of . New-England, 
the weather lists been on the whole, better than 
in average seasons. In New-York and Penn¬ 
sylvania, it has been less favorable, a severe 
drouth being reported by many in the Northern, 
Western, and Middle counties of New-York, and 
in Western Pennsylvania, and at the same time 
very cool weather has prevailed in some of these 
same regions accompanied by killing frosts, 
while Central and particularly Eastern Pennsyl¬ 
vania, and Eastern New-York, to a less degree 
have suffered from powerful rains, causing fresh¬ 
ets, etc. The season is backward every where, 
though where dry weather has prevailed, Spring 
work has been well done. In Ohio damage to 
crops from wet weather, floods and frosts is re¬ 
ported, though the dryness in some of the North¬ 
ern counties has amounted almost to drouth. 
In Indiana, through the middle counties there 
has been some trouble from drouth; in the south¬ 
ern from wet; while a similar state of things 
has prevailed in Illinois. The streaks (so to 
speak) of wet and dry weather have taken in a 
measure an oblique N. E. course across the coun¬ 
try. In Michigan there are reports of drouth and 
frost. In Wisconsin, cold, wet weather, drouth 
and frost are all reported. Iowa reporters speak 
of a backward season, cold and wet. The se¬ 
verest changes and hardest storms occurred be¬ 
tween the 20th of May and the 1st of June, 
since which time the weather has been more 
generally dry, especially in New-England. In 
Maine, for instance, there has scarcely been a 
soaking rain since planting time, and the hay 
crop promises to be very light. I 
The Homestead Law. 
The measure for procuring homesteads for the 
landless which has been before the country for 
so many years, has at length become a law. It 
will be good policy for the Government, we 
have no doubt, for the lands given away will 
be worth far more to the country, peopled with 
an industrious population, than lying waste as 
they now do. They will soon yield up their 
treasures of grain or of cotton and tobacco'to 
be exported, and to buy goods that will pay a 
duty to the Government. Peopled, they will 
furnish soldiers for the army, and taxes to pay 
their expenses, should the country need them. 
Before this law was passed, lands were so cheap 
that every man of real energy and industry 
could obtain a homestead if he tried, provided 
he could raise the means to get on to the land. 
This will be the chief difficulty now. Hundreds 
and thousands of families to whom the land 
would be a priceless boon will never be able to 
reach it. They have little forecast, are poor and 
in debt, and pretty much discouraged. They 
can not find constant employment, and do not 
know how to employ themselves profitably. 
If associations could be formed for settling these 
lands in part by such families, it would meet the 
difficulty. It would help them, without damag¬ 
ing the success of the new settlement. It would 
secure to them at once homesteads and full 
employment, which they so much need. 
Many questions are asked concerning this new 
law by those who desire to avail themselves of 
its advantages. A careful reading of the law, 
which we publish, will answer many of them. 
The lands are to be found in Michigan, Wiscon¬ 
sin, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Kansas, Ne¬ 
braska, Texas, and on the Pacific, in large ex¬ 
tent, and some still in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, 
though they arc probably not of a very inviting 
character. The lands lying along railroads are 
of double price, and on account of the proximi¬ 
ty to market, are perhaps cheaper at that rate. 
Only eighty acres of these can be taken by one 
individual. 
The old pre-emption laws are still in force, 
and a man may locate his land holding by these 
laws until the 1st of January, when he can hold 
by the new law. There are land offices in the 
vicinity of all these public lands, where the ap¬ 
plicant can make known his wants and secure 
his homestead. It will be seen that the matter 
involves either the expense of a personal visit, 
or that of a delegate, which is a serious obstacle 
to the poor. The best thing that can be done, 
probably, in all cases by those who wish to avail 
themselves of this law, will be to form an associ¬ 
ation for the settlement of a township, say a hun¬ 
dred families or more, and send out an agent to 
examine and locate the lands in a body. The 
advantages of planting a whole Christian com-, 
munity in the wilderness at once, over private 
emigration, are too apparent to need mention 
here. 
A word of counsel: A farm for ten dollars is 
not particularly cheap. It is the raw material of 
a home. Houses, barns, fences, roads, bridges, 
churches, school houses, and other public build¬ 
ings, are to be provided after the colony is lo¬ 
cated, and these things bring heavy taxes upon 
every individual for a dozen years or more. A 
man getting a living at the East should think 
twice before he goes into the wilderness. It is 
young men just married, or about to. be, men 
with large families and scanty means of living, 
and professional men with small fields of labor, 
that can take this step with the best prospects. 
