Daily Republican. [volume] ([Wilmington, Del.]) 1874-1890, 1883-12-28
FOURTH EDITION,
CBOPO OF lSSS.
Preliminary Hssimases b. the esa.
sSsa1clsn ofshe Agricultural De-
laHlnA1a.

Pselininasy Hssimeses b. the ssa.
ssssseisn ofshs Agricultural De-
PsFtmens.
WAsHIN GToN, Dec. N.-Mr. J. r.
Dodge, tha Statistician Of the Agricul,
tural Department, has just completed
preliminary estimates Of the principal
crops Of the country for the year 1883,
which are to be printed ~ q special re-
port for December. They show that
pot atoes, ~ we'll as all other roots, and
oats have grown luxuriantly and yield.
ed abundantly.
The average yield Of corn per acre
for the present year, Mr.. Dodge says,
is nearly %: bushels, or, more exactly
by preliminary estimates, 22.7, which
IL - per cent. less than the average
yield for series OF years, or !, 551 ,066,
SS5 bushels. This stands for the quaint
ity Of the present crop. The quality,
he says, 10 another consideration. II
soft corn IL cribbed In masses, and after
few weeks Of mild and moist weather
IL badly injured, or even spoiled, II
does not change the fact that the corn
was grown and harvested. It IL donbt-
less true that the quality Of corn north
Of the parallel Of 40 degrees is worse
than for many years, increasing
practically tho amount Of shortage In
dicated by the number of bushels.
As the whole of the corn grown In
1883 in Michigan, Wisconsin, Mime
sota and Dakota, added TO half Of that
grown In Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa
and Nebraska, would make 400, OOO, 900
bushels, only fourth of the whole crop,
. possible depreciation Of 40 per cent.
in all of it would be equivalent to 10 per
cent. reduction In the value OF the en-
tire crop. Our Illinois agent makes the
quantity 81 per cent. less than An aver
age in that State An effort will be
made later, after H., vrrst OF the crop
has been fed, TO tesr Tue testing value
of the years product.
1t IL not proposed, however,
TO reduce the product to al equivalent
of merchantable corn or" sound
corn," a. no crop ever IL free from i'm
maturity and iInperfection There are
always some northern fields caught by
frosts, some negl. cited acres, some chOk-
ed with weeds or flooded by OvertiOws,
and some sod corn that IL mainly "nub-
bins." What is intended, without re-
ference to panic or exaggeration, is TO
find the exact truth, and then tell 1t.
There Is nothing gained, be it TO farmers
or consumers, in suppressing the truth
on the one hand or exaggsrating losses
on the other.
One feature of corn-grOwing In 1888,
Mr.. Dodge says, should be q. lesson to
the farmers of the country. The general
use in the West Of seed corn, grown
in lower ATTITUDES, the planting of Ne
braska seed in Minnesota, and of Kan
sas seed in Illinois, has demonstrated
the folly of attempting to acclimatize
southern maize In more northern dis
tricts. Much of the loss from frost would
have been avoided had seed been care
fully selected from the best corn grown
in the immediate neigbborhood.
The wheat crop, MIR. Dodge says, il,
as before stated, slightly in excess Of
4O0, 0OO, 900 bushels, and the cotton pro-
duct, as shown by the December re.
turns, is about 6, 900, 900 bales.
There will be another investigation
after the close of the cotton harvest
and the shipment of large portion of
the crop, when precise results can be
approached more nearly than has hith-
erto been possible