ANNUAL REPORT—AGRICULTURE. 
23 
The Wisconsin crop of 1869, as reported by the United 
States officers, was 388,425 bushels—an increase of over 290 
per cent, since 1860. 
These crops abound in nutritious matter, and besides being 
adapted to soils incapable of producing heavy crops of cereals 
and Indian corn, easy of cultivation, and favorable to clean 
tillage, if consumed largely upon the farm, may be made a 
means of keeping up the fertility of the soil. 
Prices of white beans were considerably lower in 1870 than 
during the three years previous; the range being between 
$1.00 and $2.00 during the first quarter of the year, and 
between $1.00 and $1.50 per bushel for the remainder of the 
year. 
White peas ranged between 85 and 95 for common, and 
between 90 and $1.10 for choice. 
POTATOES. 
The potato crop of 1870 is estimated to have been 20 to 30 
per cent, less than the average. This was partly due to an 
early drouth which extended over a wide belt of country reach¬ 
ing from Missouri across Illinois and eastern Wisconsin, and 
partly to the ravages of the potato-bug {Doryphot a decem-lineata ), 
which, in some sections effected the almost total destruction of 
the crop. Nevertheless the aggregates shown by the United 
States census returns of 1850, 1860 and 1870 are proof that 
this pest, with occasional touches of the rot, has not been able 
verv materially to retard the progress of our agriculture in 
this particular: 
Bushels. 
Potato crop of 1850. 1,402,077 
1860. 3,818,300 
1870. 6,645,629 ' 
Thus far, nothing of acknowledge value has been devised in 
the way of a remedy. In some sections, Paris Gfreen, mixed 
with flour and sprinkled upon the plant while the dew is on, 
has been tried and in others buckwheat—lor which, the bug 
is said, to have a strong aversion—is sown scatteringly by some 
