Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1883-12-28
YIELDS OF THE FIELDS.
AN ABUNDANT CROP OF POTATOES
AND OATS

Twenty-three Bushels per Acre the
Average of Corn for the Year-The
Wheat Crop Slightly In Excess of
4Oo,O0O,0OO Bushels-6, ,OO0, 900 Bales
of Cotton Expected.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 27.-J. r.. Dodge.
Statistician of the Agricultural Depart
ment, has just completed preliminary
estimates of the principal crops of the
country for the year 1888, which are to be
printed as a special report for December.
They show that potatoes, as well as all
other roots and oats, have grown luxuri-
ously and yielded abundantIy. The ave-
rage yield of corn per acre for the present
year, Mr.. Dodge says, is nearly % bushels,
or more exactly by preliminary estimates.
y 1-l0, which is 12 per cent. less than the
average yield for a series of years, or
l,53l ,066, $50 bushels. This stands for the
quantity of the present crop. The quality,
he says, is another consideration. If the
soft corn Is cribbed in masses, and after a
few weeks of mild and moist weather is
badly injured, or even spoiled. it does not
change the fact that the corn was grown
and harvested. 1t is doubtless true that
the quality of corn north of the parallel Of
40 degrees is worse than for many years,
increasing practically the amount of short
age indicated by the number OF bushels as a
whole. Ofthe corn grown in 1888 Michigan.
Wisconsin, Minnesota, Dakota added to
hall that grown in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois
Iowa and Nebraska, would make 400. .000,-
900 bushels, only 0ne-fourth of the whole
crop. Possibly a depreciating Of 40 ger
cent in all of it would be equivalent to a
10 per cent. reduction in the value of the
entire crop. Our Illinois agentmakes the
quality 81 per cent. less than an average
m Tot A .0ff., -
later, after the worst of the crop has been
fed, to test the feeding value of the years
product. Ii is not proposed, however. to
reduce the product to an equivalent of the
merchantable corn or sound corn,
as no crop is ever free from Imma-
turity and imperfectlon. There are
always some Northern fields caught by
frosts, some neglected acres, some choked
with weeds or flooded by overflows or
some corn that is mainly "nubbins."
What is intended without reference to
panic or exaggeration is to find the exact
truth, and then tell it. There is nothing
gained to farmers or consumers by sup
pressing the truth on the one hand, or
eXaggerating the losses ON the other. One
feature of the corn growing in 1883, Mr..
Dodge says. should be a lesson to the far
mers of the country. The general use in
the West of seed corn, grown in the
lower latitudes, the planting of Nebraska
seed in Minnesota and of Kansas
seed in Illinois, has demonstrated the
folly of attempting to acclimatize South
ern maize in more northern districts.
Much of the loss from frost would have
been avoided had the seed been carefully
selected from the best corn grown in the
immediate neighborhood. The wheat crop,
Mr.. Dodge says, is, as before stated,
slightly in excess of 400, ,000 900 bushels,
and the cotton product, as shown by the
December returns, is about 6,000,00 bales.
There will be another investigation after
the close Of the cotton harvest and the ship
ment of large portion OF the crop, when
precise results can be approached more
nearly than has yet been possible.