The Hartford herald. [volume] (Hartford, Ky.) 1875-1926, 1879-08-13
July Report Of COMMISSIONER of Agrs-
culture.

ne eAtTtllle cOiu winter, 81 unliStiai IN
this latitude, held everything above
ground i'm cold and dead embrace for
II longer period than ever known before
For days together the thermometer
marked from zero To ~ degrees below.
This could could not be without serious
results, and they are To beseen ON every
hand. The fruit-buds i'm their protect
ing easements We're reached and killed
instantly, or else their vitality so far inn
paired a. to destroy all prospects of any
thing like fruit crop. Peach trees in
many instances We're killed. The hardy
native blackberry to a large extent was
killed to the snow line throughout the
State. Exotic trees and vines that had
been acclimated, and that had stood all
previous winters, suffered the same fate.
Perhaps the most serious and marked
result was the effect of the extreme
cold on the seed-cOrn, selected as usual
from the corn cut up and shocked in the
field. Halt of the growing corn crop in
Kentucky gives sad attestatiOn of this
effect to-day. Ensuing upon this was
the backward spring, holding in check
the grass crop on which we so much
needed for our pOverty-wintered stock,
until not only the grass crop, but the
small grain crops We're threatened with
disaster by the drOuth, so out of place
and 80 out of season, running through
the entire month of May. At last, the
long hoped for rain came in cOpiOus
showers throughout the entire State, at
the grain-forming period i'm the wheat
crop, and the result was an eXtraOrdi-
nary wheat harvest. There is some
compensation in this for our shortened
crops of barley, rye, and oats. Let us
hope that the rains with which all parts
of the State are now being blessed, i'm
the face of well-grounded apprehensions
to the contrary, may produce equally
gratifying results i'm the corn and tObac-
co crops. Theg pastures are beyond
redemption by the seasonable spell with
which the entire State is being visited.
At lesat, it would be i'm a naked degree
exceptional if it were otherwise. The
pastures may be started into new life
again, and replace their parched and
dead covering with green growth, but
that is all. Kentucky bluegrass grows
but two crops in year, and only two
a spring and II fall crop.
COre-Our correspondents, and they
are from all parts of the State, speak
despOndently and despairingly of any
thing like full cropOf corn. Their re-
pOr,s, however, Were written, i'm most
casts, just before the recent rains chat
seem to have been satisfactory through
out the State. Those that have been
written since have a much more cheer
fui tOne.I may be remarked that corn is
"a patient plant, 80 much 50 that il has
come to be a saying that "cOrn will wait
II long time on rain" We have reason
To hope that a generous and fructifying
season Is upon us, and that it will con-
tinue, and that in the end the corn crop
will surprise Ills in results as much as
did the wheat crop. 1t would be hard
at this cOnjuncture to calculate, in all
of its bearings, the disastrous results
from anything like a failure of this
crop. Ii is gratifying to know that,
with the present unprOmising prospect,
that there is a much larger acreage in
corn this year than usual.
hedt-The wheat crop has been ex-
traordinary in both quality and yield.
We regret that we have no data at
hand from which we can approximate
the acreage in the State. Nor have We
any means from which to form any
thing approaching the aggregate crop
in the State. The acreage we gather
from our correspondents, and, of course,
each only speaks for his locality, is from
to 10 per cent. above that of last year.
To reach comparison rs TO the aggre-
gate yield between this and last year,
basing our conclusions upon the esti-
mates of our correspondents, we should
place IT at from IL to 20 per cent. above.
Most of our correspondents place crops
i'm their respective counties at from to
% per cent. above an average. Al of
them speak of the crop rs being unusu-
ally fine in yield and quality. When a
Weld of from II to IL bushels per acre is
counted Il fair crop, and We find this
year the yield ranging from 10 to 164
bushels per acre, We feel justified in our
conclusions, especially when we are
backed up in them by the concurrent
| estimates of our correspondents.
Running back over a period of thirty
years, it is gratifying to us to note the
advancement i'm Kentucky in the art
of wheat culture. There are other adj
vancements yet TO be made, and We are
persuaded our wide-awake Kentucky
I farmers will bring into active operation
all of the appliances that will tend to
! improve either the yield or the quality
of the wheat product of Kentucky.
Our wheat, like our bloOded stock, by
its superior quality, must take and hold
the front rank in the principal wheat
marts.
If our information is to be relied on,
Kentucky, within less than year, will
/ hold most advantageous and enviable
position with regard to the chief wheat
markets OF the United States. 1t will
/ be the cOntesting ground on which buy
ers from all sections will meet to secure
the products of her improved varieties
of winter wheat. Under the energetic
management of Mr.. Huntington, of the
Chesapeake and Ohio Road, it is an
nounced that by the LIST of April next
we will have an all railway connection
between Louisville, Ky, and Rich
mond, Va. The bridge over the Big
Sandy is already under contract, and
arrangements are being made to open
out in full force along the whole line
from Mt. Sterling to Huntington. From
Huntington to Richmond, Va, there is
no grade ON the line above 80 feet to the
mile. If this grade is maintained on
the part of the road yet to be built, the
wear and tear ON the road will be but
| little compared with roads of the usual
| grades, and locomotives of given pow
er can draw much heavier loads than
on roads of higher grades. The effect
of this must be to cheaper freights.
Aside from this, this road, when COM
, pletel, will be by all odds our shortest
! line to principal wheat markets, and to
/ the seabOard. There has been within
the last few years radical change in
the modes of milling. The new and
improved modes have had quite an eff
feet on the kinds of wheat most desira-
bic. In other words, wheat that under
the Old modes stood in the front rank
have fallen out of il, and other varieties
have come to the front. With the
thar tho Xr;rc,; ., l.. r,,iIls man