Democratic Sentinel, Volume 6, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 October 1882 — THE HARVEST. [ARTICLE]

THE HARVEST.

n»e Agricultural Department’s Crop Bulletin. Wheal. —The October returns to the National Department of Agriculture of the yield per acre of wheat, estimated from results of threshing, foreshadows a product slightly exceeding 500.000,000 bushels, and possibly reaching 520,000,000. The average yield per acre appears to be nearly fourteen bushels, on an acreage slightly less than 37,000,000 acres This is a reduct on of area in the soring-whea' region, and a large yield'in the reat winter-wheat growing belt of the West. Taking the highest figures indicated bv these returns of yield, the distribution of the production gives 248,000,000 bushels, or nearly half the crop of the United States, to six principal winter-wheat States—Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri and Kansas. The spring wheat of the Northwest may make 113,000,(QO bushels. The Pacific coast crop, which has been persistently exaggerated in commercial estimates, cannot much exceed 44,000,000 bushels. The Middle States produce about 40,000,000 bushels, and the Southern States Blightly in excess of 50,000,000 bushels. Corn. —The yield per acre of com will be reported in November. The condition averages 81, being very high in the South and comparatively low in the Sta’es of largest production. In Illinois, with 8 per cent, decrease of area, the condition is only 72, in lowa 70, and in Ohio 87. The three States produced 40 per cent of the crop of 1879. A careful comparison of the changes in area and condition indicates an average yield of twenty-five bushels per acre, against twenty-eight in 1879, and eighteen last year. The average of the series of years is between twenty-six and twenty-seven bushels. New England will produce, according to October returns, 7,000 000 to 8,000,000; the. Middle States, 82,000,06'); the Southern, 340,000,009; those north of Tennessee and west of Virginia and Pennsylvania, 1,259,000,000 -an aggregate of 1,680,000,000. Later returns may slightly reduce but cannot materially increase this estimate. Oats. —The Department of Agriculture reports the average yield of oats to be somewhat higher than last year, or in 1879, and the product nearly as large as that of wheat —probably about 480,000,000 bushe's. Illinois, lowa, New York, Wisconsin, Mis ouri, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Kansas are the States of highest rank in the production. Bye. —The average yield of rye, averaged from State returns, is fourteen and seven-tenths bushels, thus making the crop 0,009,000 bushels, or nearly the same as reported by the censua Barley. —The average yield of barley is twenty-three bushels per acre, aggregating 45,000,000 bushela California, New York and Wisconsin together produce more than half, or 27,000,000 bushela The product in 1879 was 44,000,000. Buckwheat. —The prospect for buckwheat is good for nearly the average product, 11,000,000 to 12,000,000 bushels. Pennsylvania produces nearly half a crap, and reports 95 as the average of condition, 100 representing the full normal yield. New York makes the average 75. No other State produces 590,000 bushels. Potatoes. —The general average condition of potatoes is 81. In the South, in the Ohio valley, and in Michigan, Missouri and Nebraska, the average is 100 to 1(6. In the Northwest and in the Eastern and Middle States the condition is lower, it is 70 in New York, 85 in Ma ne and 84 in Vermont. Returns indicate a probable y eld of 80 bushe s per acre on an area of nearly 2,000,000 acres Cotton —The cotton returns of the Department of Agriculture for October indicate unusual size and vigor of the plant and capacity for large production. The iate.development of the fruitage, and the reported indications of a small top crop, l mit the Otherwise extraordinary prospect.