its of temperance and sobriety of the labor, by which the condition of the farm-house and farm is so essentially benefited, and domestic happiness and effective strength promoted. A clear head and a vigorous frame, in combination, will ever be most successful in tillage, as in every branch of industry. The lengthening of life and the repair of health thus secured, render many who have been but drones and mere consumers, also active and efficient producers as well as healthful consumers. The amount added, too, in the increased skill, as well as the saving, from less breakage of tools and machinery of labor, and the actual effectiveness of such laborers, as have heretofore been drawn from the intemperate class now reformed, constitute no small item of gain in this view of the subject. No little damage has been thus sustained in the "inebriate" management and culti vation of the land, which is now avoided. Were this the proper place, some most interesting deductions might be made, as to the physical force and efficiency thus added to the various branches of industry, and the bearing of the whole on agriculture, as a source of national wealth.

ELEMENTS OF THE ESTIMATE.

The great and general elements which must be taken into consideration in forming this annual estimate, are, and this is also a stated or permanent

canse:

1. The annual increase of our population, natually, and also from immigration, and hence, consequently, of our laboring force. While it has usually been computed, that the proportion of the whole population engaged in agriculture, or depending on it for a livelihood, is equal to at least 83 per cent., the last census shows that over 3,700,000, or more than one-f e-fifth of the whole, constitute the effective force of male laborers. This is nearly three times more than are employed in manufactures, and trade, commerce, and navigation, taken together. In Great Britain the proportion is also large: 9,000,000 are said to be engaged in agriculture, to 4,000,000 employed in manufactures. A per-centage, therefore, equal to one fifth of the annual per-centage of the increase of our population, must be allowed on most if not all of the crops, in forming the agricultural statistics, as one of the usual natural elements of which the estimate is to be compounded.

2. The quantity of new land now first rendered productive. This applies with much force to several of the later States. The attention of the settler is at first turned to the clearing up, fencing, and putting in order his grounds; and thus, three or four years may often elapse before his land is made to reward his toil in large and full crops. Such a cause has been assigned the past year for the greatly-increased production of the wheat crop in Michigan. The same cause will, probably, prove, to a limited extent, a stated one for some years to come. Similar to this, too, is the restoration of lands, either wholly or partially worn out from excessive cultivation, by enriching them by suitable manures. Considerable attention, and with good success, has been directed to this object for the last two or three years in the older States. Thus, many acres of land in Virginia have been recovered by marling.

The opening, too, of new means of communication, railroads, canals, &c., bringing the markets nearer, has induced large appropriations of land to particular crops, nor has the expectation of the revival of the manufactures

and business generally, by means of the encouragement of a home policy, been without very marked effect.

3. Yet another element of calculation, deserving notice, is what may be called, perhaps, accidental or occasional-such as the failure of some par ticular crop the previous year, and the endeavor to supply the deficiency by planting more seed, and increased attention the next year. So the failure of an ealier crop, if known in time, may lead to the attempt to produce the larger growth of a succeeding one. It sometimes also happens, that, owing to some cause affecting the growth the previous year, the seed within reach is not so productive as usual. The drain likewise on the stock that may be on hand, by a lively market, may operate in a similar manner. Some of these causes, just mentioned, have not, it is true, operated very extensively the past year, as the crop of the previous year was a good one; and there has been no greatly-increased demand in the market for the different products; yet, in forming our estimate, it seems no more than proper to keep them ever in view. The relative proportion of the various kinds of products used, has considerable influence in determining their amount and home consumption, as more is required of some products to furnish the same nutriment than of others. Of two articles, either of which can be used to advantage at home, the producer will usually dispose of that one which will command the highest price in the market; though this may, perhaps, force him to look for his own supply, for home consumption, to the inferior articles.

The diversion of laborers from, or to other kinds of industry, in consequence of the suspension or revival of the same, also deserves attention. Changes of this description often have a very perceivable effect in regard to some particular results, as well as the general aggregate of production.

4. The operation of striking peculiarities of the season, the increase or decrease of the insect tribes that are hostile to various crops, may very properly be ranked under this class of accidental causes. Our country, indeed, is so extensive and ranging through so many different temperatures, that this variation of the growing season must be expected. Yet, while this necessity exists, on the one hand, we seldom find, on the other, that the cold, or drought, or rainy weather, or the ravages of insects so hurtful to different products, is universal. Some portion at least is more favored than another, and thus the similar crop escapes the injury which lessens the amount of production elsewhere; and hence we seem most effectually secured against any of those alarming failures of entire crops which have caused so great distress in England and other countries, as well as are ready to take advantage of any favorable increase of our trade in these products to foreign parts. 5. There is yet another element to be regarded in forming our estimatethat which is found in the superior productiveness of the crops arising from the influence of the weather-improved seeds, implements of husbandry, tillage, and various unmentioned causes combined. Were the improvement on seed simply to be estimated at 10 per cent. only on the crops, it is said, on high authority, that this would amount in value to $20,000,000, or more. A season more than usually favorable at the time, or just after planting, while the crop is in progress, or at the period of harvesting or gathering, will often add vastly to the amount of the productions. The improved culture, selection of seeds, and early attention to the rotation of crops, exhaustion and manures, will no doubt preserve the new States from the results

which have been so fatal to the older ones in impairing their lands, and thus losing their adaptedness to some particular crop.

All of these elements have been kept in view in the preparation of these statistics; and their compounded influence, as far as it might be estimated, has been the rule of judgment, in connexion with the actual statements of the crops in the various parts of the country. It can not be expected that their application should be brought out in detail with reference to every product in the table, though some such reference will be often found in the review of the crops as they will hereafter be mentioned singly. An error sometimes occurs in estimating the product of a particular crop, derived from the amount brought early into market, occasioned by some unusual activity in pressing it forward with the surplus stock of the year previous remaining on hand, as commanding a better sale, and enabling the producer to realize comparatively a better profit. It is unsafe to rely at all times on such data, though they should be suitably regarded. For want of reflection on this cause, persons may often form a very incorrect estimate, and such seems to have been the case, in some degree, during the past year. Interested men may likewise sometimes so contribute to influence the market price, or the demand that unfounded expectations may be excited, which however are nothing more than temporary, and secure no lasting profit. False intelligence is given by some, either with the corrupt purpose of gain, or from sheer ignorance of the facts in the case, and this is caught up and circulated from one part of the Union to the other. Hence the necessity of closely discriminating the actual or the probable from the merely possible results of the numerous influences affecting the great staple products of our country.

The season. The season, taken as a whole, has been most propitious. Suitable alternations of warm and cold, of wet and dry, have for the most part rendered the weather genial in its influence on the vegetable kingdom. Yet in a country like ours, of such vast extent, reaching through such varieties of clime, it can not be supposed that all parts are equally favored at every season. Portions of the country have suffered during the past year. In the earlier period of the seedtime and germination, frosts and cold in some of the States affected the grain, and prevented its forming so full as would have been the case had the weather been more favorable. The longcontinued and heavy rains in the months of July and August, also did great damage to the crops in Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina, and tobacco, wheat, maize, &c., were much injured in consequence. To some extent, too, the cotton crop suffered from the same cause in parts of Mississippi and South Carolina. Yet in no one instance is there what can be termed the entire failure of the product. Less injury perhaps than usual, has been experienced from blight and the ravages of insects; and the granaries and storehouses throughout the country, almost literally groaning beneath the burden of our harvests, can testify how truly we are lapped in plenty.

REVIEW OF THE CROPS.

A more particular review of the different crops corresponding to that of the last year's report, will furnish a summary of such information as could be gathered, as to the state of agriculture in our country. It is confined to certain products, as these were the ones specified in the late census, on which the estimates were originally based. The same remarks which are made with respect to one product may sometimes apply with equal force to another bearing the same general characteristics; especially, is this true, as regards the

various species of grain, and reference may also be made to the agricultural statistics of last year's report, for some facts relating to particular crops which are now deserving of notice.

Wheat. The crop of wheat was a large one. More than one third of this product, as will be seen, is raised in the western States. Of course, the causes which have occasioned a decrease in some portions of the Atlantic States have but slightly affected the whole aggregate. In the western States more wheat was sown than in any year before. The probable reason of this was, that it commands a better price, one nearer a recompense of labor, or more immediately than any other product of the soil; and that the Canada market offered greater inducement for exportation than heretofore.

The reports respecting this crop are quite various. In the New England States it has been better than it was the year previous, though, but little comparatively is raised in this section of the country. It bears, however, a very good proportion to the amount of population. In New Hampshire, the gain on the wheat crop has been estimated by a good judge on these subjects as high as 25 per cent.

New York is one of the greatest of the wheat-growing States near the Atlantic coast. In the eastern, river counties, in the northern section, and in the Mohawk valley, the crop is pronounced to be "good," "better than the year before." In the valley of the Mohawk, heretofore, the weevil has proved a destructive enemy; the past year, however, this cause has been less injurious. In the central, southern, and western sections of this State, the wheat crop was comparatively lighter than usual. In the western region, which is the great wheat-growing section, this was not so much owing to winter-killing and insects, although these last appeared, but the causes of the failure assigned, are the want of its stooling out properly, and shortness of head, on account of the unusual cold and wet of the months of May and June, while it was in the incipient formation of the germe. When this is the case, no after culture or change of season, however favorable, can remedy the injury. It was, indeed, supposed, and so published, on information de rived from those who formed their judgment merely by a cursory examination while passing the fields, that the crop would be a very large one, the most abundant ever known; but when it came to the harvesting, the abovementioned causes were found to have greatly affected it, so that the deficiency has been estimated, on good authority, equal to from 20 to 25 per cent.

In New Jersey, in quality, it is thought to have been as good as in the previous year, but the quantity is not so great. The vast quantities raised in the western States have a tendency, of course, to lessen the amount sown in the Atlantic ones, as it is impossible for these to enter into competition at the expense of harder tillage and manuring of their land, with the rich and extensive fields beyond the Ohio river.

Pennsylvania is a large wheat growing State, and the information respecting the crop here is varied. The fly, rust, smut, and wet weather, are as signed as causes of a decrease, probably, equal to 20 per cent. of the whole crop. Near Philadelphia, in the counties of Chester, Delaware, and Lancaster, the season was favorable to this product, and less so to the propagation of the fly; it is, possible, too, that the introduction and acclimation of the Mediterranean wheat in that region has had some influence in baffling those great enemies, the rust and fly. The objections formerly made there by the millers, are now relinquished, and it is found to answer their purposes as well as any other kind of wheat. Magnesia liming has proved very valua

ble in this section, and much poor land has been greatly improved, and hence a surplus raised. In a part of the region bordering on the Susquehannah river, the rust and smut have very seriously affected the crop; so that it was thought to have been not more than two thirds of an average one. In the western section, especially the southwestern region, a moderate winter is assigned as the cause of increase to this crop, of perhaps, one third, though the wet weather, during a part of the season, also, to some degree, affected it unfavorably.

In Maryland, in the eastern and central counties, the crop was much affected by the blight, and the rains which took place during the harvesting. In its first growth it appeared beautiful, but proved to be a great failure; the fly, too, was destructive in some portions. In the upper counties, however, there appears to have been more than the usual average.

Virginia, which ranks as the third of the great wheat-growing States, called the Atlantic States, has suffered much as regards this crop during the past year. There is much complaint of the rust. It has been thought that the crop east of the great mountain ridge is at least one third less than the usual one. The long-continued and heavy rains in August destroyed a large portion of the crop on James river, as also in other parts of eastern Virginia, as was the case too in North Carolina, contiguous. The rust Jikewise materially diminished it in portions of the western region of this State.

The wheat crop of Georgia is described by some as having been "hardly a fair crop," "inferior to that of the preceding year," while others term it, on whole, a "fair" and "average" one. From the information obtained, at judgment is formed of the whent crop in Alabama, that it was more than the usual average one. In Mississippi there has been quite an increase, and it is judged that there is more now raised than is wanted for their own consumption.

The crops in Tennessee and Kentucky were, according to the different accounts, "good," " an advance on the former years," "20 or 25

better."

tr

per cent.

Ohio is the greatest producer of all the wheat-growing States. A much larger quantity than usual was sown in many parts of the State, and the yield has been most abundant. In some parts the increase is estimated even as high as " 50 per cent.," in others at "not less than 30," " 25," or "20" per cent. In the Scioto valley not so much was produced as was expected, as the filling out became checked by the warm rains not long before it was harvested. A much larger quantity, however, was sown, and there was more raised than ever before. The late sown, too, in particular regions of that great State suffered partially from the rust, and the fly also affected unfavorably portions of the crop, this insect enemy is said to be increasing in Ohio, and threatening that beautiful wheat-growing region, and serious apprehensions are expressed respecting its future ravages, unless some means be early found to check its progress. The subject is one which deserves attention; a suitable reward offered might possibly lead to the discovery of some means for destroying an enemy which has already proved of such injury to the wheat fields of other States. The Governor of Ohio, in his late message, estimates the wheat crop of that State for 1842 at 24,000,000 of bushels. This nearly corresponds with the one in the table formed independently from various sources of information, and based on the consideration of the elements heretofore described. He supposes that.