Year: 1874

| The Crops.


The croakers Of bad harvests and short sup
plies OF our great agricultural staples may
again, and without further hesitation, retire to
the back seats of the false prophets Since
January last from frosts and floods, and rust
and bugs, and worms and droughts and
grasshoppers, serious deficiencies in our crops
OF wheat, rye, oats, barley, Indian corn, po-
tatoes, cotton, rice, sugar and tobacco have
been, from time to time, proclaimed newt
able From the unprecedented inundations
in the spring of the rich lowlands OF Arkansas,
Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana we were
warned that not one-tenth of the average
Louisiana sugar crop could be made this year,
and that within the alluvial bottoms indicated
the cotton would be q complete failure.
From Georgia and the Carolinas, too, there
were similar complaints in regard to the cot
ton. Later in the season, in the West, from
the discouraging reports Of potato bugs,
chinch bugs. droughts, freshets and grass
hoppers. we were apprehensive of short sup
plies and of speculative corners carrying every
article Of subsistence up to famine prices and
doubling the cost even of glass of lager beer.


But the official returns from the Depart
ment of Agriculture for the month of August
will serve to silence the ravens and give US
full assurance of good returns, not only in
the crops harvested but from those ripening
or maturing in the fields It thus appears
that the average yield of winter wheat
throughout the United States is 1O4,
and of spring wheat 96, and as the
area sown in spring wheat compared with
that Of winter wheat, is small, our general
wheat crop for 1874 may be set down at two
or three per cent above the average of the last
ten years. Insects, droughts, floods and rust
have seriously reduced the crop in many local
tiles; but in the general yield all these
losses have been more than supplied The
golden land OF California where the pioneers
of 1849-5O were often glad to get barrel of
-four for thirty, forty or fifty dollars in gold
now carries off the first premium as wheat
producing State. 1t is estimated that the
wheat crop Of California this year, in addition
to the supply required for her seven hundred
thousand people, will amount to six hundred
thousand tons for expectation, or, say twenty
millions OF bushels. Now, supposing that
this surplus wheat crop is to be carried
overland from San Francisco to New York in
CARTS one ton to each cart, we shall have q
pretty close line of carts extending across the
Continent, over three thousand miles, The
head of the procession will be entering New
York before the end of it is out of San Fran
cisco. And this one years product of Cali
fornia will supply the million of people of
this metropolis with their wheat -four for six
years. And Minnesota, in spite of the grass
hoppers, is close upon California with her
wheat crop for expectation. She would be
first but for the grasshoppers. At fair prices
We shall have wheat enough this season to
meet all demands at home and abroad for the
year before Us.


Indian corn, however, is the most important
and valuable Of all our cereals. Our average
crop of eight hundred millions of bushels, OF
fifty cents bushel, is equivalent to four hun
dred millions of money. Nor do we hear of
any drawbacks from floods, droughts or in
sects calculated to reduce the general
crop below full average for ten
years. In the cotton States the
area planted in corn this year has
been much larger than usual, and, doubtless,
the planters concerned will realize hand
some cash profit from the experiment. They
have heretofore devoted their lands too much
to cotton and depended too much upon Ken
tucky, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois to supply
their corn and bacon. As the prices of our
wheat, pork and beef depend greatly upon
the corn crop an abundant yield of this great
staple insures us at once for the year before
us an abundance of bread and meat at reason
able prices, and good returns moreover to the
national Treasury from the tax on whiskey
and from numerous other sources dependent
upon the crop of Indian corn.


It was supposed that the heavy and long
continued foundations of the sugar producing
districts of Louisiana and the adjoining States
would inevitably reduce our sugar crop to
less than one-third of fair average but
from the Agricultural Department it is re-
cane has this season been increased
from the average Of 100 to 1O8
in Louisiana, to 105 in Mssis-
sippi and Texas to 104 in Florida to
102 in Alabama, and to 101 in Georgia, and
that it is the prevalent opinion that the
Louisiana sugar crop will be equal to that of
1873, notwithstanding this years damaging
overflow. Upon the whole there is consider
able decline in the sorghum culture, the
article as substitute for the cane sugar or
molasses having proved generally unsatisfac-
tory.


Our cotton crop, which averages two hun
dred millions year in our cash account
against Europe, though considerably damaged
in many districts and in some localities
almost destroyed by floods. drought or in
sects, will, it is believed, exceed the general