Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1885-08-18
CROPS IN VIRGINIA.
GENERAL OUTLOOK rs GOOD.

Commissioner Isuisop's Report FOR An'
eu.-vbsat. Corn. RYE, Oau. HaT, Cot
ton, Peanu,s. Tobacco. aud Fruit.
The following is the Virginia crop
report for August Of Colonel Randolph
Harrison. Commissioner of Agriculture.
II gives some interesting details and a
hopeful outlook for the general crops oil
the State
Unusually full returns have been re-
ccived, every county in the State being
reported except in the extreme south
western corner, and in most of them
several correspondents have given fall
information. Some have honored Us
with letters supplementing the statistical
reports.
1t is gratifying to observe that the
tone Of most Of the communications Is
hopeful, Notwithstanding the failure OF
winter grain and the partial droughts
which have afflicted some Of the fairest
portions of the State during the spring
and summer Of this year. Summer
rains are always more or less "partial, "
but they seem to have been more than
usually so this year, and have given the
"go-by" to some OF the best grain
and pasture-lands in the State.
That our farmers have gone energeti-
cally to work is shown by increased
areas Of corn and tobacco, and should
there be good following season, doubt
less there will be a larger acreage Of
wheat than usual. True the price Of
wheat is low, and there is no reason to
expect very high prices but there is
good ground for believing that wheat
will command a better price than it
now does. 1t will be strange if this
does not come to pass. BY the time
the next crop comes in the accumulated
stocks left over from the good years
$50, 1913, and "a will have been cleared
away.
THE wHEAT-CROP SHORTAGE.
There is now no doubt-it is admit
ted by all the statisticians--that the
crop Of 1885 is the shortest made in the
United States since 1868. The average
of five estimates, coming from authori-
ties regarded as the very highest in the
country, gives the crop of the United
States as $50, zoe, 900 bushels, the esti-
mate of Secretary Chamberlain, Of
Ohio, being the lowest (3O0,OO0,000
bushels). and that Of Mr.. j. ii. Dodge,
of the United States Department Of
Agriculture, being the highest &c.,
o00, 000). As time goes on, proof seems
to accumulate that the lower eSti-
mate is the more correct one. Now, if
we take the average, $50, 100000 bush
els, as the correct estimate for this year,
against 513,000,000 for last year, and
against Ash ,000, 000, the average OF the
last five years, we have a shortage Of
1873, 900, 900 bushels compared with last
year, and l2l, 100000 bushels COM
pared with the average Of the last five.
This is not all that may be; the esti-
mates are made in the supposition Of
good weather for the spring wheat until
secured. Any serious disaster in the
Northwest will seriously lower the
figures given. Already there are ru-
mors, as / learn from private letter
from Milwaukee, of considerable dam
age done by rust and by storms. At
any rate, the outcome Of the spring
wheat is yet in doubt, with no proba-
bility of any important increase in the
figures, and 8 decided possibility Of
their being lowered.
1t is yet uncertain what will be the
,Itent of the European demand for
our breadstuffs. Within a short time
we can probably form some more def
mite idea than we now have.
would advise our farmers to make
al the wheat they conveniently can,
that it does not pay to
cultivate poor land in wheat (if indeed
it does in anything else.
Report OF the Crop In Virginia.
WHEAT.
A large percentage has been threshed,
so that the yield can now be deter
mined within very narrow limits. A
careful tabulation of the returns, which
are more complete than ever before,
gives most remarkable confirmation
of my estimate made on June LIST. |
then estimated the crop Of the State at
2,4l3,354 bushels. As nearly as |
can now calculate the yield from the
Goures of my corresnondents. IL differs