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The 1900 Wheat Crop of British India.

The final estimate of the 1899-1900 wheat crop of British India, sown in the fall of 1899 and reaped in the spring of 1900, has recently been received. The following table gives the acreage and yield of the present year's crop as compared with corresponding data for 1898-1899:

Provinces.

Punjab
North
Western

Provinces

this time sowings on irrigated lands had
progressed fairly well, but sowings on un-
irrigated lands were estimated at only
about half the area of the preceding year,
and prospects were decidedly gloomy. For
the cultivator the last three months of the
year were a period of suspense and waiting
for the winter rains which seemed to be
never coming. At last, about the third week
of January, there was a general fall through-
Area (in acres). Yield (in bushels).
out the province. It came late, but it
greatly improved the condition of the irri-
1899-1900. 1898-1899. 1899-1900. 1898-1899. gated crops and encouraged the cultivators
to make further sowings. Further and
6,366,500 7,729,200 68,065,461 73,837,008 general rain came in February, followed

and Oudh. 4,800,709 4,818,528 72,830,389 67,517,931
Bengal
Central

Bombay.. 1,259,909 2,470,998

Sind

357,622 369,706
17,910 436,362

2,654,997 3,032,624

by showers in March which helped greatly in bringing the crop to maturity, in giving 1,555,800 1,582,500 21,377,066 24,505,600 some rest to the overworked well cattle, Provinces 1,619,989 2,505,299 7,245,280 17,030,309 and in sowing additional crops. In April 3,652,096 27,529,040 again rain was comparatively copious and 9.370 817,301 general. Speaking generally, the insuffi1,329,216 ciency of rain at sowing time, and the consequent absence of moisture in the ground, greatly contracted unirrigated sowings, 9,483 18,368 while the people in some districts increased their sowings on irrigated lands by sinking wells.

Berar..

Nizam's

Territory.

Rajpu

419,633 1,196,520| 75,637
360,733 1,196,014) 2,960,123 10,318,485
676,083 1,613,851 3,702,346 10,742,629
2,758 4,029

tana
Central
India.
Mysore
Total... 17,437,646,23,923,007 182,582,248 236,678,511

"In the Northwestern Provinces and

In a general summary which accompanies this report an outline is given of the Oudh the monsoon began in the second week conditions that in some of the provinces of June, and rain continued to fall uninterculminated in the famine. "In the three ruptedly until the end of the third week of wheat-growing provinces of Northern July, the heavy fall retarding all agricultuIndia, namely the Punjab, the Northwestern Provinces and Oudh, and Bengal, the wheat harvest has been on the whole a little over the average, though not so good

as last year.

about the middle of January, falling at in-
tervals until almost the end of the month
and doing incalculable good to the unirri-
gated crop. Rain fell again in February,
followed by showers in some places in
March.

ral operations considerably. This period of excessive rain was followed by deficient rain in August and September. The monsoon practically disappeared about the third week of September, and there ensued a pe"Elsewhere the crop has been a lament- riod of dry westerly winds. The months of able failure. The monsoon retired after October, November, and December were scanty and irregular rain in September, exceptionally dry. The winter rain came and thereafter there was practically uninterrupted drought in most parts of the region now stricken by famine. In many places no sowings could be made and in others the crop was unable to maintain it self in a soil which held no moisture. Often indeed even irrigation was of no avail, for the wells and canals held no water. In this region, which comprises all Western and Central India, the crop obtained is but little more than one-fourth of the crop of last year, and nearly two-fifths of this result was obtained in the northern districts of the Central Provinces. In Berar and the Nizam's territory there was practically no harvest, and Bombay was almost as bad. In Central India and Rajputana from two-thirds to three-fourths of the crop were lost.

"In Bengal the season was less favorable than in the preceding year. There was no repetition of the high floods which proved beneficial to the wheat crop of 1898-99, and the want of rain was felt at sowing time in some districts, leading to a contraction of the area sown. In September the rain was generally adequate, but in October it was deficient, and there was practically none in November and December. In January the rain was accompanied by hail, and this was followed by more rain in February and March. On the whole, the rainfall was irregular and badly distributed, and in a few districts the crop suffered also from hailstorms.

"The reports from the Provinces are summarized in the adjoining paragraphs. "In the Punjab the monsoon rain in July was very deficient and in some places there "In the Central Provinces the season was was no rain at all. In August the fall, abnormally dry. The monsoon began early though general, was much below the aver- and in good time, but its abrupt cessation age. In September the fall was partial at the close of September impeded successand scanty and in October, November, and ful sowings. The October rain, which deDecember there was hardly any rain. By termines the successful germination of the

wheat crop, was entirely absent, and there was none thereafter until a few showers fell

at the close of January, but too late to do any appreciable good. Progress had been made in the last two years in reclaiming the area which had been lost from wheat cultivation in the famine year 1897, but this improvement has been lost, and this year wheat was confined to an area even smaller than that of 1897.

"In Bombay the season was so bad that in many places no sowings could be made. In September the rain was deficient, and it failed altogether in November and December. The yield on the whole area is not onefourth of that of last year or of the average.

"In Berar, as in Bombay, the season was disastrously bad, and not quite 18,000 acres were put under wheat, but last year the crop was grown on 436,362 acres. Practically whatever was grown was irrigated from wells, and in many places the wells failed before the plants got a start, and the crop withered. The yield amounts to only 251 tons, which is about 1 per cent of the usual production."

Pear Blight.

Mr. B. T. Galloway, Chief of the Division of Vegetable Physiology and Pathology, has furnished the CROP REPORTER with the following article on this subject:

Pear blight has been unusually abundant the present season, and, owing to the great damage it has done to orchard fruits, a few words in regard to its cause and prevention may not be out of place. It may be defined as a contagious bacterial disease of the pear and allied fruit trees. It attacks and rapidly kills the blossoms, young fruits, and new twig growth, and runs down in the living bark to the larger limbs and thence to the trunk. While the bacteria themselves rarely kill the leaves, at most only occasionally attacking the stems and midribs of the youngest ones, all the foliage on the blighted branches must, of course, eventually die. The leaves usually succumb in from one to two weeks after the branch on which they grow is killed, but remain attached and are the most striking and prominent feature of the disease.

The most important parts of the tree killed by the blight are the inner bark and cambium layer of the limbs and trunk. Of course, when the bark of a limb is killed the whole limb soon dies, but where the limb is simply girdled by the disease it may send out leaves again the next season and then die. All parts of the tree below the point reached by the blight are healthy, no more injury resulting to the unaffected parts of the tree than if the blighted parts had been killed by fire or girdling.

The blight is caused by a very minute microbe of the class Bacteria. This microbe was discovered by Prof. T. J. Burrill in 1879

east of the Rocky Mountains, stocks in Manitoba elevators, and stocks afloat on lakes and canals.
The following figures represent stocks of grain available at 62 of the principal points of accumulation

Pacific coast stocks are shown only in the case of wheat.

and is known to science as Bacillus amylo- Total Visible Supplies of Grain Available in the United States and Canada at the vorus. The following are the principal Dates Given, as Reported to Bradstreet's. proofs that it causes the disease: (1) The microbes are found in immense numbers in freshly blighted twigs; (2) they can be taken from an affected tree and cultivated in pure cultures, and in this way can be kept for months at a time; (3) by inoculating a suitable healthy tree with these cultures the disease is produced; (4) in a tree so inoculated the microbes are again found in abundance.

1893, July 1
1894, July 1
1895, July 1
1896, July 1
1897, July 1

1898, July 1
1899, January 1.

GRAIN STOCKS EAST OF ROCKY MOUNTAINS.

PACIFIC

COAST STOCKS.

DATES.

Wheat.

Corn.

Oats.

Barley.

Rye.

Wheat.

1890, July 1
1891, July 1
1892, July 1

Bushels.
26,646,098

Bushels.

Bushels.

Bushels.

Bushels.

Bushels.

19,251,938

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480,000

2,842,000

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158,000

6,549,000

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25,730,000 21,538,000

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2,382,000

1,112,266

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2,935,000

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5,923,000

February 1..

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13,231,000

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5,039,000

March 1..

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5,104,000

April 1

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4,321,000

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4,455,000

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3,635,000

July 1.

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3,409,000

August 1

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4,188,000

September 1

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6,282,000

October 1

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November 1.

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3,925,000

1,906,000

11,085,000

December 1.

84,687,000

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17,555,000 11,789,000 89,265,000 19,024,000 12,004,000 20,110,000 11,876,000

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10,678,000

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10,022,COO

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8,923,000

March 1

85,570,000 28,340,000 12,449,000

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7,814,000

April 1

79,690,000 31,883,000 14,176,000

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70,764,000 30,416,000 13,845,000
57,617,000 18,289,000 12,301,000
57,311,000

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17,896,000 11,279,000

1,331,000

954,000

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1,037,000

1,242,000
1,038,000

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May 1
June 1.

May 1.
June 1

June 9

June 16
June 23
June 30

gone over.

The treatment for the disease may be classed under two general heads: (1) Methods which aim to put the tree in a condition to resist blight or to render it less liable to the disease, and (2) methods for exterminating the microbe itself, which is of first importance, for, if carried out fully, there can be no blight. The methods under the first head must unfortunately be directed more or less to checking the growth of the tree and, therefore, are undesirable except in cases where it is thought that the blight will eventually get beyond control in the 1900, January 1. orchard. Under the head of cultural methods which favor or hinder pear blight, as the case may be, the most important are pruning, fertilizing, cultivation, and irrigation, but details in regard to these need not be given here, as the main reliance must be placed in the only really satisfactory method of controlling the disease, that is, the exterIf this be in midsummer, the mination of the microbes which cause it. trees should all be again carefully inspected Every particle of blight should be cut out in the autumn, just before the leaves shed, and burned while the trees are dormant, not so as to get every case that can be seen at a single active case being allowed to survive that time. After this a careful watch the winter in the orchard or within a half should be kept on the trees, and at least mile or so from it. Every tree of the pome one more careful inspection given in spring family, including the apple, pear, quince, before the blossoms open. It would, doubtSiberian crab apple, wild crab apple, the less, be well to look the trees over several mountain ash, service berry, and all the spe- times during the winter to be certain that cies of Crataegus, or hawthorns, should be the blight is completely exterminated. In examined for this purpose, the blight being order to do the inspecting thoroughly it is the same in all. The orchardist should not necessary to go from tree to tree down the stop short of absolute destruction of every case, for a few overlooked may go a long way toward undoing all his work. Cutting out the blight may be done at any time in the winter or spring up to the period when growth begins. The best time, however, is The above line of treatment will be even undoubtedly in the fall, when the foliage is more efficacious in keeping unaffected orstill on the trees and the contrast between chards free from the blight. A careful inthat on the blighted and that on the healthy spection of all pomaceous trees should be limbs is so great that it is an easy matter to made two or three times during the sumfind all the blight. It is important to cut out blight whenever it is found, even in the mer and a sharp lookout kept for the first growing season. At that time of year, how- appearance of the blight. It usually takes 1898 ever, it can not be hoped to make much two or three years for the disease in an orheadway against the disease, as new cases chard to develop into a serious epidemic, constantly occur which are sufficiently de- but the early removal of the first cases will veloped to be seen when the cutting is done. prevent this and save a great deal of labor In orchards where there are only a few trees later and many valuable trees. and the owner has sufficient time to go over them daily, he will be able to save some which would otherwise be lost. However, when the trees stop forming new wood, the campaign should begin in earnest.

Of course, the greater part of the blight can be taken out the first time the trees are

row, or, in the case of large trees, to walk
up on one side of the row and down the
other, as in simply walking through the
orchard it is impossible to be certain that
every case of blight has been cut out.

bered that success can be attained only by
In doing this work it must be remem-
the most careful and rigid attention to de-
tails. Watch and study the trees, and there
is no question that the time thus spent will
be amply repaid.

The International Trade in Flaxseed.

The production of flaxseed, on a scale of any commercial importance, is confined entirely to the United States, Russia, India, and Argentina. In these four countries is produced about 95 per cent of the entire crop of the world; and, as practically all flaxseed that appears in international traffic and commerce originates in these countries, their exports for any given period illustrate interesting phases of the seed situation during that period, both in the principal sources of supply and in the markets of the world. The following table gives the statistical history of the exports of the four countries named for the years 1892 to 1899: Exports of flaxseed, 1892-1899.

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July

688 758 Aug 69 74 Sept.. 69 758 Oct... 68 742 Nov Dec... 64

751

748

Per bu. P. bu. P. bu. P. bu. P. bu.
62 67241 271 30 34 15 18 29 31
Nominal. 248 28 28 338 17 18 33 42
74 94 311 353 354 381 201 26 42 48
871 351 38 418 458 261 273 531 58
878 33 37 424 45 263 281 54 561
87 33 36 41 45 251 271 491 561
854 34 35 41 45 26 27 52 59
87 32 34 391 431 24 273 561 62
853 331 35 40 42 243 263 56
812 31 34 378 41193 25 51
781 30 33 36 411,191 22 51

Per ton. 9.00 10.00

8.50 9.00

180 lbs. P. bu. P. lb. P. lb. P. lb.
20 20 7 7 17 17 17 18
7 8 22 24 24 24

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8.50 1.25 2.00 42

55 18

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9.50 11.50

30 14

15 30

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781 31 33 391 428 22 23 544 58
758 301 331 398 413 22 24 49
76 30 31 39 40 221 23 49
78 30 31 397 421 22 23 50
79% 31 343 397 441 221 237 51
818 338 381 403 46 23
811381 40 451 491 23 251 53
824 36 40 41 478 211 133 53
967 37 43 421 508 211 261 521
88 420 428 48 491 231 233 57

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100 lbs. P. lb. P. lb. P. doz. 2.50 3.70 15 15 14 15 11 13 81 61 61 71 81 3.05 4.00 15 15 14 14 10 13 7 78 8 8 3.60 4.17 16 18 16 17 13 14 9 9 7 73 81 81 3.30 4.05 19 21 18 20 17 29 13 22 10 10 10 11 3.45 4.05 19 25 18 22 19 35 13 32 10 11 11 11 3.50 4.00 20 22 20 21 124 30 10 17 11 12 11 11 26 3.50 4.15 17 21 17 20 12 14 10 11 12 12 12 12 26 3.45 4.05 16 19 16 12 10 12 27 3.45 4.00 18 18 17 18 14 15 10 11 71 8 9 94 26 3.55 4.70 17 18 17 18 15 16 9 10 8 91 91101 27 3.85 5.00 17 21 17 20 15 18 9 12 91 111 101 10 3.90 4.90 20 23 20 22 18 21 11 15 11 11 113 12 3.80 4.90 23 24 23 23 20 22 14 15 12 12 13 13 3.55 4.35 24 27 231 21 24 16 17 12 12 12 13 3.50 4.45 26 28 26 27 21 24 17 17 12 13 12 12 3.70 4.92 24 30 24 29 17 26 12 17 12 13 121 121 3.70 5.10 24 26 24 24 13 19 10 14 12 131 121 121 4.00 5.52 23 26 24 24 12 17 8 15 13 13 12 12 4.25 5.85 17 23 18 22 12 13 8 11 11 13 12 12 4.00 5.57 18 19 19 19 12 14 9 10 91 11 10 112 18 19 13 15 19 19 13 14

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that has entered annually into the international traffic of the world during the past eight years averages 36,373,000 bushels. To this average annual movement, India has contributed a yearly average of 15,608,000 bushels, or nearly 43 per cent; Russia, 12,621,000 bushels, or nearly 35 per cent; Argentina, 6,221,000 bushels, or a trifle over 17 per cent; and the United States, 1,923,000 bushels, or not quite 6 per cent.

It is important to note, in considering the international traffic in flaxseed, that this is an agricultural product that has no uses as a raw material except for seeding purposes and as an article of trade; otherwise, its utility depends entirely upon its conversion into manufactured products. A paucity of exports from a country may, therefore, indicate great manufacturing resources rather than meagerness of production. Therein lies the true significance of the low rank of the United States as an exporter. This also explains the precedence as a shipper which India takes over Russia, and incidentally accounts for the somewhat peculiar fact that the average rank as an exporter of none of the countries in the table indicates its relative rank as a producer.

and is about double that of Argentina, both
of which are producers almost exclusively
for export purposes.

As is well known, the two products derived from flaxseed by the process of manufacture are those known commercially as linseed oil and linseed cake; the latter, after grinding, is known as oil meal. Roughly estimating, a bushel of seed (56 lbs.) is converted by the manufacturing process into about 30 per cent of oil and 70 per cent of oil cake. A heavy proportion of the oil cake manufactured in the United States, which means about 70 per cent of the total production of flaxseed, is exported. For instance, the generally accepted commercial estimate of the flaxseed crop of the United States in 1897 was 11,000,000 bushels or 616,000,000 pounds; 70 per cent of this total, which roughly represents the oil cake derived from it, is 431,200,000 pounds. The exports of oil cake for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1898, were 436,206,321 pounds. It is evident, therefore, that the importance of flaxseed as an article of export from the United States depends largely upon the exports of the products derived from it, especially of oil cake. The following table, As a producer of flaxseed, the United which gives the exports of oil cake and oil States ranks second among the nations of for five years, 1895-1899, shows remarkable the world, this notwithstanding the fact regularity from year to year in the volume that its production to any degree of impor- of the exports of oil cake, notwithstanding tance does not at present extend beyond the wide fluctuations which occurred durthe eight States, Minnesota, North Dakota, ing the same years in the exports of flaxSouth Dakota, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, seed: Wisconsin, and Kansas. The great attention that is paid to the flax fiber industry in Russia, a phase of flax growing that is of small importance in the United States, has doubtless exerted no inconsiderable influence in placing that Empire far in the front rank as a producer of flaxseed. But 1898 as compared to the other two important 1897 producers, the crop of the United States 1895 generally equals or exceeds that of India'

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Available Publications.

The following publications are now available for distribution and can be had on application to the Statistician:

Circulars.

No. 21,
Bureau of Animal Industry.
Blackleg: Its Nature, Cause, and Preven-
tion.

No. 9, Division of Botany. Wild Garlic.
No. 27, Division of Botany. Canada
Thistle.

No. 2, Division of Entomology. The Hop Plant Louse and the Remedies to be Used Against It.

No. 42, Office of Experiment Stations. A German School with a Garden.

No. 44, Office of Experiment Stations. Agricultural Experiment Stations in the United States.

No. 22, Section of Foreign Markets. Agricultural Imports and Exports, 1895-1899. No. 14, Office of Road Inquiry. Addresses on Road Improvement.

No. 29, Office of Road Inquiry. The Forces Which Operate to Destroy Roads, with notes on road stones and problems therewith connected.

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Pounds.
107,000
90.074 Trees.

111,262

67,157

62,718

AN ESTIMATE of the rice acreage in eastern Texas this year places it at 30,000 acres.

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Published by authority of the Secretary of Agriculture.

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Connecticut
New York.

76.0 New Jersey
87.9 Pennsylvania.
88.2 Delaware
79.9 Maryland.
Virginia

The average condition of corn declined 2 points during July, and on August 1 it was 2.4 points lower than at the corresponding date last year, but .5 point higher than on August 1, 1898, and 1.3 points above the mean of the August averages for the last ten years. The conditions in the principal States are as follows: Ohio and Indiana, 98; Illinois, 96; Iowa, 105; Missouri, 99; Kansas, 71, and Nebraska, 85. During July there was an improvement of 8 points in Ohio, 9 in Indiana, 4 in Illinois, and 3 in Iowa. On the other hand, there was a decline of 2 points in Missouri, 8 in Nebraska, and 22 in Kansas.

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No. 4.

Crop Conditions, August 1, 1900.

Hay.

Oats.

Buck

wheat.

Pota

toes.

Spring wheat: Average condition. Corn: Average condition.

Spring rye: Average condition.

hand.
Percentage of 1898 crop on
Average condition.

Barley: Average condition.
year.
Acreage compared with last

Average condition.

year.
Acreage compared with last

Tobacco: Average condition.
White (or Irish).
Sweet.

Cotton: Average condition.

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Pasture: Average condition.
Sorghum: Average condition.
Sugar cane: Average condition.
Apples: Average condition.
Rice: Average condition.
Hops: Average condition.

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The average condition of spring wheat improved 1.2 points during July, but on August 1 it was 27.2 points lower than at the corresponding date last year, 40.1 points lower than on August 1, 1898, and 27.8 points below the mean of the August averages for the last ten years. The conditions in the Oklahoma. principal States are as follows: Minnesota, 58; North Dakota, 25; South Dakota, 49; Nebraska, 64; Iowa, 91. During July there was an improvement of 10 points in Minnesota, 5 points in South Dakota, and 1 point in Iowa. On the other hand, there was a

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JOHN HYDE, Statistician.

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decline of 5 points in North Dakota, and of Maine, 99; Michigan, 92; West Virginia 2 points in Nebraska.

and Iowa, 94; and Minnesota, 80.

The average condition of oats declined The average condition of potatoes de.5 point during July, and on August 1 it clined 3.1 points during July. On August was 5.8 points lower than at the corre-1 it was 4.8 points lower than at the corressponding date last year, but .8 point higher ponding date last year, but 4.3 points higher than on August 1, 1898, and 2.7 points than on August 1, 1898, and 2.2 points above above the mean of the August averages for the mean of the August averages for the the last ten years. The conditions in the last ten years. The conditions in the prinprincipal States are as follows: New York, cipal States are as follows: New York, 86; 83; Pennsylvania, 82; Ohio, 93; Michigan, Pennsylvania, 80; Ohio, 87; Michigan, 95; 101; Indiana, 94; Illinois, 97; Wisconsin, Indiana, 96; Illinois, 99; Wisconsin and 77; Minuesota, 57; Iowa, 90; Missouri, 100; Iowa, 91; Minnesota. 79; Missouri, 97; Kansas, 87; and Nebraska, 78. During Kansas, 86; and Nebraska, 81. During July July there was an improvement of 2 points there was an improvement of 3 points in in Ohio and Michigan, of 9 points in Wis- Michigan, 7 in Wisconsin, and 14 in Minneconsin, 8 in Minnesota, and 1 in Illinois. sota. On the other hand, there was a deThere was a decline of 3 points in Pennsyl- cline of 3 points in New York and Kansas, vania, 5 in Indiana and Kansas, 1 in Iowa, of 12 points in Pennsylvania, 5 in Ohio, 1 in and 12 in Nebraska, while New York and Illinois, 6 in Iowa, 2 in Missouri, and 10 in Missouri report no change. Nebraska, the condition in Indiana remaining unchanged.

The proportion of the oat crop of last year still in the hands of farmers is estimated at 6.8 per cent as compared with 6.9 per cent of the crop of 1898 in farmers' hands one year ago and 6.4 per cent of the crop of 1897 in farmers' hands two years ago.

ten years.

Of the thirteen principal sweet-potato-
producing States, five report an improve-
ment during July and six a decline, the con-
dition remaining unchanged in the other
two States.

Preliminary returns indicate a reduction
of 5.3 per cent in the hay acreage. Of the
fourteen States mowing 1,000,000 acres or
port a reduced acreage.
upward last year, all except California re-
The condition of
timothy hay is 6.8 points lower than at the
corresponding date last year, 19.4 points
lower than on August 1, 1898, and 7.5 points
below the mean of the August averages for
the last nine years.

In

paring favorably, except in North Carolina, both with the condition one year ago and with the average for a series of years. Louisiana it is I point above the normal and 14 points above the average for the last six years.

While there has been a slight decline in the condition of apples, there is not an important apple-producing State in which the condition on August 1 did not exceed the ten-year average. The indications still point to a phenomenally large crop.

There has been a marked improvement in the condition of pastures, and in not a few States the condition is now considerably above the ten-year average.

The August Cotton Report.

The monthly report of the Statistician of the Department of Agriculture shows the have been 76, as compared with 75.8 on July average condition of cotton on August 1 to 1, 1900; 84 on August 1, 1899; 91.2 on August 1, 1898, and 85.3 the mean of the August averages of the last ten years. during July amounting to 5 points in Texas There was an improvement of condition and Arkansas, 3 points in Georgia, 10 in Missouri, and 1 in Tennessee. On the other hand, there was a decline of 9 points in North Carolinia, 5 in South Carolina and Indian Territory, 4 in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Florida, 3 in Alabama, 2 in Oklahoma, and 13 in Virginia.

The impairment of condition is due in the main to drought and the continued lack of proper cultivation, but there are extensive sections where heavy and continnous rains have wrought injury to the growing crop.

While the condition in Texas is now 2 points above the State's ten-year average, every other State still reports a condition below such average, Arkansas being 2, North Carolina 7, Louisiana 8, Tennessee ginia 12, Florida 15, Alabama 21, and Mis10, Georgia 11, South Carolina and Virsissippi 26 points below their respective tenyear averages.

The average condition of barley declined 4.7 points during July, and on August 1 was 22 points lower than at the corresponding date last year, 7.7 points lower than on August 1, 1898, and 13.7 points below the mean of the August averages of the last The conditions in the principal States are as follows: California, 75; Iowa, 87; Minnesota, 60; Wisconsin, 70; North Dakota, 28; South Dakota, 57; Kansas, 76; New York, 80. During July there was an improvement of 6 points in South Dakota and a decline of 7 points in California, 5 in Iowa, 3 in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and North Dakota, 10 in Kansas, and 2 in New York. The average condition of spring rye improved 6.3 points during July, but on August 1 it was 13 points lower than at the corresponding date last year, 17.7 points lower than on August 1, 1893, and 10.9 points below the mean of the August averages for the last ten years. The conditions in the principal States are as follows: Wisconsin, 77; Iowa, 87; Nebraska, 74; and crop about held its own, and in Wisconsin expected one month ago and the Depart

Minnesota, 64. During July there was an improvement of 13 points in Wisconsin and 21 points in Minnesota, and a decline of 3 points in Iowa and 5 points in Nebraska.

Preliminary returns indicate a decrease of about 32,000 acres, or 4.8 per cent, in the acreage in buckwheat as compared with last year. Of this shrinkage, 22,000 acres represent the reduction in New York and Pennsylvania, which together produce about two-thirds of the total buckwheat crop of the country. The average condition of buckwheat is 5.3 points lower than at the corresponding date last year and 2.9 points below the mean of the August averages of the last ten years. The conditions in the principal States are as follows: New York, 91; Pennsylvania, 81; Wisconsin, 94;

The reports as to the production of clover are on the whole unfavorable, the percentages in the principal states, as compared York, 47; Pennsylvania, 58; Kentucky, 75; with a full crop, being as follows: New Michigan, 90; Indiana, 64; Illinois, 66; Wisconsin, 42; Ohio, 55, and Iowa, 78. In point of quality the crop compares unfavorably with that of last year, as also with the ten-year averages in all but some two or three of the principal clover-producing states.

During July the changes in the condition favorable, Virginia reporting a decline of of the tobacco crop were almost wholly un20 points, North Carolina of 10 points, Pennsylvania 6, Missouri 4, Maryland and Tennessee 2, and Kentucky 1. In Ohio the there was an improvement of 10 points.

The condition of sugar cane in Louisiana is within 3 points of the normal, is 22 points higher than on August 1 last year, and 5 points above the ten-year average. Similarly favorable conditions are reported from all the other States that contribute to the sugar crop of the country, with the exception of Mississippi, the product of which is inconsiderable.

The condition of sorghum is in the main favorable, Kansas being the only important State in which the condition falls below that of August 1, 1899, or the mean of the averages of the last ten years.

Except in California, the condition of hops was higher on August 1 than at the corresponding date in either 1898 or 1899 and also exceeded the average of a series of years. In California the condition falls 7 points below the five-year average and the

condition one year ago.

The condition of rice is very high, com

The averages of the different States on

August 1 were as follows:

North Carolina
Georgia

Virginia...

South Carolina

Florida..
Alabama

77 Louisiana
80 Texas
74 Arkansas
77 Tennessee.

77

83

83

77

84

80

91

74 Missouri 67 Oklahoma 60 Indian Territory........ There has been some abandonment of

Mississippi

land planted to cotton, but the area abandoned is somewhat less than was generally

ment will not, at present, change its acreage figures.

The October Schedule.

The subjects to be treated in the October schedule will be as follows:

1. The average yield per acre during 1899 of wheat, oats, rye, barley, hops, and, oranges.

2. The condition on October 1, 1899, as compared with the normal, of corn, buckwheat, potatoes, sweet potatoes, tobacco, cotton, rice, sorghum, sugar cane, and apples.

3. The average quality, as compared with a high medium grade, of the production in 1899 of wheat, oats, rye, barley, and hops. 4. The per cent of production of hops in 1899, as compared with a full crop.

5. The number of acres of bearing orange trees.

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