Published by authority of the Secretary of Agriculture. Massachusetts Connecticut. New York New Jersey Maryland Virginia South Carolina Alabama Louisiana Preliminary returns on the acreage of Vermont The condition of winter wheat shows a Corn. Crop Conditions, July 1, 1900. Rye. Irish potatoes. No. 2. P.ct. P.c. P.c. P. ct. P.c. P.c. P.c. P.c. P. ct. P.c. P.c. P.c. Lbs 5.7 P.ct. Pc Pe Pe Pe Pe Pe 67 77 82 86 85 60 75 76 Acreage compared with that harvested last year. Winter wheat: Average condition July 1. July 1. Wheat still on hand July 1 of the Oats: Average condition July 1. Spring rye: Average con- Sweet potatoes: Average condition Acreage compared with July 1. * 28 22 233228888882888 Tobacco: Average condition July 1. Wool: Average weight per fleece. Cotton: Average condition July 1. Apples: Average condition July 1. Reza *** 20008883 Peaches: Average condition July 1. Grapes: Average condition July 1. 79 99 97 97 60 100 95 P.et. Maine N. Hampshire. 103 99 105 97 94 101 90 95 93 91 101 91 98 In most of the Southern States the winter wheat crop has been harvested and the condition reported is the condition at harvest. The average condition of spring wheat is 52.2 as compared with 87.3 one month ago, 91.7 on July 1, 1899, 95 at the corresponding date in 1898, and a ten-year average of 89.5. The condition in Minnesota has fallen to 48, in South Dakota to 44, and in North Dakota to 30, these figures being 44, 45, and 60 points, respectively, below the ten-year averages for the States named. The Northwestern States have been visited by a special agent of the Department within the last ten days, and the reports of the Department's regular correspondents are fully confirmed. In Minnesota and North Dakota the condition of oats, barley, rye, pastures, and meadow lands is, like that of spring wheat, the lowest on record. The condition of spring and winter wheat combined on July 1 was 69.8, against 76.2 on July 1, 1899, and 89.4 at the corresponding date in 1898. The amount of wheat remaining in the hands of farmers on July 1 is estimated at about 51,000,000 bushels, or the equivalent of 9.3 per cent of the crop of 1899. The average condition of the oat crop on July 1 was 85.5, as compared with 91.7 one month ago, 90 on July 1, 1899, 92.8 at the corresponding date in 1898, and a ten-year average of 87.3. Of the States having one million acres or upward in oats, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Kansas, and Nebraska report conditions 4, 10, 10, 16, and 7 points above their ten-year averages, while New York, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa report 5, 2, 24, 45, and 2 points, respectively, below the mean of their July averages for the last ten years. The average condition of barley was 76.3, as against 86.2 one month ago, 92 on July 1, 1899, 85.7 at the corresponding date in 1898, and a ten-year average of 88.3. All the principal barley States show a decline during the month and their averages of condition are all below the respective ten-year averages, except that of California, which corresponds exactly with the ten-year average, and that of Kansas, which is 17 points above. The average condition of winter rye was 89.6, as compared with 83.3 on July 1, 1899, 93.8 at the corresponding date in 1898, and a ten-year average of 89.5. While the two principal rye-producing States, New York and Pennsylvania, show an improved condition as compared with June 1, they still fall 7 points below their respective ten-year averages. The average condition of spring rye was 69.7, as compared with 89.7 on July 1, 1899, 96.9 at the corresponding date in 1898, and a ten-year average of 89.8. Of the four leading spring-rye States, Wisconsin and Minnesota report 28 points and 50 points below and Iowa and Nebraska 2 points and 4 points above their respective ten-year averages. There is an indicated increase of some 30,000 acres, or 1.2 per cent, in the acreage in potatoes. Of the 46 States and Territories reporting, 34 show an increase and 12 a decrease. In no important potato-growing State, however, does either the increase exceed 5 per cent or the decrease 6 per cent, and New York and Pennsylvania, with an increase of 4 per cent and 5 per cent respectively, alone call for special mention. The average condition of potatoes on July 1 was 91.3, as compared with 93.8 on July 1, 1899, 95.5 at the corresponding date in 1898, and a ten-year average of 93.2. The figures by States are shown in the table on page 1. The average condition of sweet potatoes was highly favorable, Texas being the only important producer that reports a condition even slightly below its ten-year average. Reports as to timothy and clover are, in the main, exceedingly unfavorable, there being few States in which these crops are extensively grown that do not report a condition considerably below their ten-year average. There are likewise few important grazing States in which the condition of pastures does not compare very unfavorably with the ten-year average. While the whole of the 14 States having three million or upward apple trees in bearing at the last Census report a decline in the condition of apples since June 1, they still have the promise of an exceptionally large crop. The condition in New York is 29 points above the ten-year average, in North Carolina 26, in Maine 19, Pennsylvania 16, Ohio 15, Kansas 13, Virginia 12, Illinois 11, Michigan 10, Missouri 8, Indiana and Tennessee 4, Kentucky 3, and Iowa 1 point above the respective averages for the last 10 years. The condition of peaches on July 1 was such as to give promise of a phenomenally large crop. In several of the great peachgrowing States of the South the condition was more than double the ten-year average, while in many of the North Atlantic and Central States it exceeded the ten-year average by from 25 to 75 per cent. Of the 18 principal peach States, California, with a condition 6 points below its ten-year average, forms the only exception to an otherwise unbroken series of extraordinarily favorable reports. While there was some improvement during June in North Carolina, Texas, Oklahoma, and Indian Territory, amounting to 3, 7, 7, and 12 points, respectively, there was a decline of 6 points in South Carolina, 7 in Louisiana, 10 in Tennessee, 13 in Arkansas, 15 in Georgia, 17 in Alabama, and 21 in Mississippi. With the exception of North Carolina, where the average condition on July 1 was 2 points above the mean of the July averages in that State for the last ten years, and Indian Territory, where the figures available for comparison cover only 3 years, the condition throughout the entire cotton belt compares unfavorably with ten-year averages, Louisiana being 7, South Carolina and Texas 10, Arkansas 11, Tennessee 12, Georgia 13, Alabama 18, and Mississippi 24 points below their respective ten-year averages. Not only was the condition on July 1 for the cotton region as a whole the lowest July condition on record, but in Georgia, Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi also it was the lowest in the entire period of 34 years for which records are available, while in Tennessee it was the lowest with one exception and in South Carolina, Texas, and Arkansas the lowest with two exceptions in the same period of 34 years. Excessive rains, drowning out the crop, and followed by an extraordinary growth of grass and weeds, the gravity of the situation is greatly inare reported from almost every State, and creased by the general scarcity of labor. In South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, and Texas considerable areas will have to be abandoned. The September Schedule. ghum, sugar cane, apples, grapes, rice, and clover seed. The schedule returnable September 1 will call for reports on the following subjects: 1. The average condition on September 1, separately, of corn, buckwheat, tobacco, The average condition of grapes is consid-potatoes (white and sweet), cotton, sorsiderably above the ten-year average in almost every State in which viticulture is an important industry. In California the condition is 8 points above the ten-year average, in New York 13, in Ohio 23, in Virginia and Kansas 10, in North Carolina and Indiana 9, in Missouri 8, and in Illinois 6 points above the respective ten-year averages. The annual report of spring shearing indicates the average weight per fleece at 6.17 pounds, as compared with 5.95 pounds in 1899 and 5.80 pounds in 1898. of wheat, rye, oats, and barley. 2. The average condition, when harvested, 3. The amount of old cotton (from crops of 1899 and earlier years) on hand September 1, 1900, as compared with total cotton crop of 1899. 4. Stock hogs. Number for fattening compared with that of last year, and average condition as to weight and size. 5. Product of peaches compared with a full crop. 6. Acreage of clover seed compared with that of last year. Crop Statistics Compiled from Previous Reports for Comparison with Report for July 1, on page 1. 1898 1899 10 1898 1899 For 10 years For 1898 1899 10 years For 1898 1899 5 years 90.5 86.5 90.7 85.7 65.6 79.8 95.0 91.7 89.5 3.4 9.5 6.5 92.8 90.0 87.3 93.883.3 89.5 96.9 89.7 a 89.8 95.5 93.8 93.2 91.2 87.8 87.9 Indian Territory The United States a Nine years. b Four years. Report for August. may have been removed to elevators or h Eight years. arrived at, there is no secrecy attaching to those for particular States and any one can have them a few hours ahead of their publication in printed form either on application at the Department or by paying for their telegraphic transmission, as above stated. The circular returnable August 1 provides for a report on the acreage under buckwheat and hay; the average condition THE preliminary crop report sent out by of all growing crops including fruit, and of telegraph on the tenth of each month conpasture; the production of clover expressed tains only the figures for the United States as a percentage of a full crop, and the aver- as a whole and those for the States producage quality of clover hay, also expressed as ing the largest quantities of the products THE following statement shows the coma percentage, high quality being represented reported upon, with such comparisons with parative cost per box of transporting by 100. Careful observation of the weather previous years as are necessary to the proper oranges from Florida, California, and Medand its effects, and of insects and other understanding of the report. Any one deiterranean ports, respectively, to New York agencies affecting the condition of growing siring the figures for each separate State, City: crops, continues to be important. The con- in advance of their publication in printed dition of the weather during harvest and form, can have them telegraphed to him at the condition in which the crops harvested his own expense. This is sometimes done during July have been gathered should be by newspapers and commercial journals, reported, as also the stage of the harvest and when the information thus obtained is where it is still in progress. Farm reserves published with the statement that it has of last year's oats are included in the in- been telegraphed specially to the journal in quiry and should be expressed as a percent- which it appears, it should be borne in age of last year's crop. Estimates should mind by the reader that it was done at the include only such oats as are actually on newspaper's own expense and that the same the farm on which produced or in the pro- privilege is open to everybody. When once ducer's private granary and not such as the figures for the entire country have been Boxing and cartage.. Jacksonville penses Duty Florida. Califor- Mediternia. ranean. a Ocean rate. Refrigeration, April Jute Crop of India. By far the greater part of the Indian jute crop is produced in Bengal, and this is the only province for which official statistics are available as to the quantity produced. The official figures on area and production in Bengal for the years 1891 to 1898, inclusive, as given in the fourteenth issue of the Agricultural Statistics of British India, are presented below, with the annual average for the eight years indicated: Jute crop of Bengal, 1891–98. Production in bales of only a rough one, putting the crop of the The Indian crop is said to be sown during 2,000,000 metric tons, 600,000 to 800,000 of which are exported. The country can produce 10,000,000 tons annually, from 4,000,000 to 5,000,000 tons of which are subject to exportation. Siberia now exports butter to Denmark. It is estimated that she can export annually $15,440,000 worth of butter, wool, leather, dried and preserved meats; and fish and tallow may figure conspicuously in her exports in the near future. "A movement is now in progress in the direction of forest preservation, the destruction having caused a scarcity of furs, blue fox and zibelines. The importance of India as a source of the jute supply of the United States is shown by the fact that of the total quantity of jute and jute butts imported into this country during the eight fiscal years, 1891-92 to 1898-99-a period corresponding approximately to that "Siberia produces one-tenth of the world's for which the production of Bengal is yield of gold, and but few of the mines have shown in the first of the tables given above-been worked, on account of the climate. 5,717,444 the imports from India constituted very The immense coal deposits have hardly been 5,001,700 nearly 96 per cent. Of the total value, the touched. One mine, with six beds, contains 6,425,900 Indian contribution did not form quite so as much coal as all the deposits in England. 5,032,000 6,189,200 large a proportion, but on an average for The lack of transportation facilities alone 4,153,800 the eight years it exceeded 92 per cent, as has prevented it from being worked. 5,204,517 will be seen from the following table: a 2,971,794 6,144,300 In a table on the area under crops a statement is found by provinces, the figures for Bengal differing slightly from those in the foregoing table. The figures given below for 1891 and 1892 are from the twelfth and those for the remaining years from the fourteenth issue of the document named above. The official table on area does not include 1898: AREA IN ACRES. Jute and jute butts imported into the United VALUES. From British QUANTITIES. Fiscal From From From all Amount. coun- India. tries. Per ct.a 85.4 "The Trans-Siberian Railroad, from an economic and a political standpoint, is the greatest work of this century. It gives Russia a superior standing at Pekin. It now touches Amur; in three years it will reach Port Arthur, making the distance but thirteen or fourteen days from Moscow to Pekin. "There is annually an excess of 1,500,000 births over deaths in Russia, and Siberia is the outlet for this overflow. The black lands Tons. Tons. Dollars. Dollars. 88,624 86,473 3.021,174 2,892,969 95.8 of Siberia form an area of not less than 133,82.231 80,992 2,467,828 2,383,849 96.6 50,037 49,164 1,716,298 1,656,458 96.5 550,000 acres, but high freight rates are an 110.671 103,018 2,752,966 2,351,942 obstacle to the arrival of their cereal prod88.992 88.1 82,097 2.001,206 1,763,907 68,550 66,129 1,640,484 1,492,035 91.0 ucts in France. The average freight rate on 112,306 109,909 2,543,498 2,428,409 89.9 the Trans-Siberian is three-tenths of a cent 83,161 78,784 2,296,189 2,065,103 per ton per kilometer (about five-eighths of a mile). In France the minimum rate is four-fifths of a cent per kilometer." 95.5 Area under jute in British India, 1891-97. 1891-92 1896-97 92.4 a Per cent of total value of the jute and jute butts P. ct. propor- the total area. 99.97 imported into the United States. By reducing tons to bales of 400 pounds Closing Quotations on Middling Upland 99.89 and comparing the average imports for the 400 2,100,044 2 1896 2,211,500 3.601 4 2,215,105 1897 2,155,200 4,703 5 2,159,908 2,248,593 99.84 eight years named with the average produc 99.78 99.84 tion of Bengal for the corresponding period, we find that nearly 9 per cent of the Bengal Upper and Lower Burma, Bombay, and Ajmere- crop found its way to this country. Merwara. The areas in this column for the years 1891 to 1894 are chiefly for Lower Burma. The figures for Bengal for this year include cotton and some other fiber plants. The jute crop appears from the table first presented to have been a very small one in 1891. It will be seen from this last table that practically the whole production of jute in India, so far as is shown in the official statistics, occurs in the province of Bengal. Resources of Siberia. The United States consul at Lyons, referring to a recent conference on the resources of Siberia held in that city, says: "The principal speaker was Mr. Emile du Marais, a civil engineer who has passed many years in Russia and is a member of the Russian The Statistical Bureau of the Government section of the French bureau of foreign comof India has not yet issued its statement for merce. He said that 200,000 farmers arrive 1899, but the Department of Land Records in Siberia annually, the Government proand Agriculture of Bengal has published a viding them with free transportation and report on the jute crop of that province, put- giving each family the free use of 374 acres ting the area at 1,971,300 acres, an increase of land for a stated time. The population of more than 21 per cent as compared with of Siberia is now 8,000,000. Making a com1898. It is, however, nearly 10 per cent be- putation on the basis of the population of low the normal area, which is put at 2,189,- Russia in Europe, Siberia is capable of sus400 acres. The deficiency in the yield is still taining a population of 80,000,000. The angreater, the official estimate, confessedly nual production of cereals in Siberia is The introduction into the United States of the seedless orange, the culture of which has assumed such large proportions on the Pacific coast, was primarily due to an American woman. Traveling in the province of Bahia, Brazil, in 1868, she incidentally mentioned in a letter to a friend in the United States, Horace Capron, the then Commissioner of Agriculture, that the oranges of Bahia were of superior quality to those raised in the United States. No chance expression of taste was probably ever fraught with more magnificent results. Mr. William Saunders, then, as now, in charge of the gardens and grounds of the Department of Agriculture, had already devoted some attention to the improvement of orange culture in the United States and had introduced a few new varieties from The Origin of Seedless Orange Culture in lowing year the trees yielded several dozens there by the special effort of some highly the United States. of oranges, and people who had been grow- skilled farmer with abundant means, or ing the old varieties traveled hundreds of such as may be grown on a bit of land of miles to see them in fruitage. Few believed extraordinary fertility, or even such as may that the trees were other than a freak of be grown quite extensively once in a dozen nature; and the doubt was almost universal years in a season that is extraordinarily whether a seedless fruit could be propa- favorable to the crop to be raised. A normal crop, in short, is neither deficient on gated to a point of profitable production. After the California trees came into bear- the one hand nor extraordinarily heavy on ing, the demands upon the Department of the other. While a normal condition is but Agriculture for orange plants of the new rarely reported for the entire corn, wheat, variety soon exceeded all possibilities of cotton, or other crop area, at the same time supply. The Tibbetts trees were the only or in the same year, its local occurrence is other source from which a supply of buds by no means uncommon, and whenever it could be obtained with confidence. It seems is found to exist, it should be indicated by that the young plants distributed in earlier the number 100. of. Buds from the Tibbetts trees came into ing is followed by a favorable growing years by the Department had been lost sight Sometimes a favorable season for plantsuch demand that they are said to have sold season, with no blight or depredations by for five dollars a dozen. In 1884 the buds insects, the result being a normal condition. taken from the two trees brought $1,500. At other times the normal may be mainIn a year or two seedling trees that had tained by conditions that are exceptionally been grafted with buds from the Tibbetts favorable in one or more particulars counthousands of buds that were used for prop-able in other particulars. Thus, a crop may trees became themselves productive of terbalancing conditions that are unfavoragation; and thus was developed the cul- have had such an unusually good start that ture of this variety of seedless, or navel, it may pass without injury through a period orange in Southern California. The average annual shipment of oranges from River foreign countries. This letter being brought side has now increased to 1,600,000 boxes. The Normal. to his attention suggested the possibility of an average crop. first, under the name of the "Bahia orange," To begin with, a normal condition is not The distribution of this new variety of orange by the Department attracted no attention in California until the winter of 1878-79, and the great interest then aroused was centered upon two trees which that season came into bearing on the place of Mr. Horatio Tibbetts, at Riverside. The first crop consisted of only sixteen oranges; but it was of peculiar importance as being the first crop of seedless oranges ever produced in North America. The new variety attracted widespread attention among the fruit growers and ranchmen of Southern California, and Mr. Tibbetts' orange trees immediately became famous. In the fol Furthermore, a normal condition does not indicate a perfect crop, or a crop that is or promises to be the very largest in quantity and the very best in quality that the region reported upon may be considered capable of producing. The normal indicates something less than this, and thus comes between the average and the possible maximum, being greater than the former and less than the latter. of drought that would otherwise have proved disastrous to it, or its more than ordinary vigor and potentiality may fully offset some slight injury from insects. The normal not being everywhere the same, in determining how near the condition of any given crop is to the normal, correspondents will usually find it an advantage to have a definite idea of what yield per acre would constitute a full normal crop in their respective districts; that is, how many bushels, pounds, or tons per acre of a particular crop would be produced in a season that was distinctly but not exceptionally favorable. In a region where 30 bushels of corn may be taken as the normal, the condition of 90 would give a prospect of a crop of 27 bushels, and 80 a crop of 24 bushels. If 40 bushels be considered the normal yield, 90 (or ten per cent less than the normal) would indicate a crop of 36 bushels, 80 one of 32 bushels, 70 one of 28 bushels. For the reason that the normal, represented by 100, does not indicate a perfect or the largest possible crop, it may occasionally be exceeded. The condition may be so exceptionally favorable as to promise a crop that will exceed the normal, and it will accordingly have to be expressed by 105, 110, or whatever other figures may seem warranted by the facts; 105 representing five per cent above the normal, 110 ten per cent, and so forth. The normal may be described as a condition of perfect healthfulness, unimpared IT HAS BEEN unofficially estimated that by drought, hail, insects, or other injurious the 1899 crop of peanuts in the United agency, and with such growth and develop- States amounts to between 4,000,000 and ment as may reasonably be looked for under 4,500,000 bushels. these favorable conditions. As stated in the instructions to correspondents, it does not represent a crop of extraordinary character, such as may be produced here and THE value of eggs exported from Canada in 1899 amounted to $1,267,063; in 1898, to $1,255,304; in 1897, to $1,978,479. |