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TABLE V.-Meteorological Register for the year ending November 30th, 1863; kept at Cleveland, Cuyahoga county, Ohio, by
Gustavus A. Hyde. Monthly mean from daily observations.

TABLE VI.-Extracts from the Meteorological Journal kept at Painesville, Ohio, by J. Storrs, for 1863.

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Mercury fell the lowest on the 18th of January, 7° above 0; and the 13th of March mercury the same, 7°. Mercury highest August 9th, 90°. You will see we had a mild winter, mercury not touching zero by 7°. In summer it seldom rises higher in this section (2 miles from lake) than 90°, on account probably of the lake breezes. Our coldest weather is usually in February.

Whole amount of rain and melted snow:

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December of this year not being included in the above.

The most remarkable feature in the present year was the frosts of August and September; the first occurring August 30, injuring corn on lowlands, and the second frost on the 26th and 27th of September-the last hard enough to kill all tender plants, and greatly injuring corn that was not ripe or cut up. A frost in August has not occurred here before, it is believed, since the settlement of the country; and it is very unusual to have a frost here till about the 20th of October, or the 1st of November.

The season has been favorable for most crops. The rains were light in May and June, and the hay crop in consequence was lighter than usual; winter wheat a fair crop; corn much below the average, in quantity and quality; oats middling; potatoes very fine, and fair yield; barley a good crop. All the smaller fruits were good. Apples not plenty-trees bore too excessive in '62, and did not blossom much last spring; about a medium crop of peaches.

The cultivation of peaches, pears, and grapes is greatly increasing. Our warm, sandy and gravelly ridges are well adapted to the culture of fruit, and yield large profits to the grower.

STATISTICS OF CROP RETURNS.

In the Ohio Agricultural Report for 1859 we gave a "History and Review of the Condition of Agriculture in Ohio," in which the more homogenous portions of the State were classified as valleys. It is proposed to retain the same classification in relation to the crops of 1863. These valleys are:

The MIAMI, embracing the counties of Butler, Brown, Clarke, Clermont, Champaign, Clinton, Darke, Greene, Hamilton, Logan, Miami, Montgomery, Preble, Shelby and Warren. This group of counties contain the Great and Little Miami and the Mad Rivers and all their tributaries, and forms a natural hydrostatic basin, in which it is reasonable to suppose that the soil is of more uniform quality, the meteorological phenomenon more identical, than if some other system of division or grouping had been adopted.

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From 1850 to 1858 the amount of crops of wheat and corn only were required to be returned to the Auditor of State and published in the Agri

cultural Report; in 1858 the crops of rye, barley, buckwheat, oats, and meadows were added to the list; butter, cheese, stone-coal and pig-iron in 1860; in 1862, sorgho, flax and maple sugar were added; and finally, in 1863, tobacco and clover were added. The correctness of the returns made of crops has been doubted by many very excellent citizens of the State, and held by them as mere "guess work." No doubt they are not precisely correct in every respect, but they have one merit at least, and that is, that they have been very uniform; when there is a good crop it never fails to be indicated in the returns, and a poor one is equally certain to do the same. It has been argued that a fear of taxation on the part of farmers induces them to withhold a portion which should be returned. If this were generally true, then the returns to the State Auditor should differ more widely than they are found to do from the census returns. Upon the whole, we are inclined to believe that the crop returns, as made in the State of Ohio, are as nearly correct as the returns of merchandise, capital invested in trade or manufactures, and much more reliable than the returns of personal property generally.

The crop returns, as usually published, present nothing more than "dry columns of figures," and the reader, if interested in them at all, will glance at the aggregate, and proceed to some other subject. But these statistics are the only statements to which we can refer to prove our condition agriculturally; and many important as well as interesting facts are contained in these "dry columns of figures," as will be manifest in the course of this article. For several years past we intended to analyze these crop returns, and show what they really embraced, but the returns made by the County Auditors to the State Auditor have been so tardy as not allow proper time to do so before the time of publication. In order to remedy this defect, in part, and to secure additional statistics, the Legislature, at its last session, passed the following law, and which was at once forwarded to the County Auditors:

Auditor of

County:

STATE AGRICULTURAL ROOMS,
OHIO STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE,
COLUMBUS, O., May 25th, 1864.

DEAR SIR: The Legislature at the last session passed the following law :

AN ACT

In relation to statistics of agricultural and mineral products.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Ohio, That it shall be the duty of the several township assessors in all the counties in the state, at the time of making the annual assessment of personal property for taxation, to collect the following items of statistics In addition to those already authorized by law, viz :

First-The number of acres grown in clover, the number of tons of hay made from it, the fumber of bushels of seed obtained, and the number of acres of clover plowed under for manure. Second-The number of acres planted in tobacco, and the number of pounds obtained. Third-The number of (old and young) dogs, both male and female.

Fourth-The number of tons of pig-iron manufactured, and the bushels of stone coal dug. Fifth-The number of acres sown in flax, number of pounds of fibre gathered, and the number of bushels of seed obtained.

Sixth-The number of acres planted in sorgho, the number of gallons of syrup manufactured, and the number of pounds of sugar obtained.

Seventh-The number or pounds of maple sugar made, and the number of gallons of syrup manufactnred.

Eighth-The number of pounds each of butter and cheese manufactured.

Ninth-The number of acres planted in potatoes, and the number of bushels obtained; and make a correct return thereof to the county auditors of their respective counties at the same time that a return of the enlisted property is made.

SEC. 2. That it shall be the duty of the county auditors to forward annually on or before the first day of June, to the office of the Ohio state board of agriculture, the aggregate of each of the items of statistics enumerated in the first section of this act, together with the aggregate of each and every item of statistics of acreage and product, where acreage is enumerated, and the aggregate of product where no acreage is enumerated, of all the agricultural statistics by law authorized to be returned to the auditor of state; together with the aggregate number and value of the horses, cattle, sheep and swine in the county, as sent to the office of state auditor. SEC. 3. This act to take effect from and after its passage.

February 20, 1864.

JAMES R. HUBBELL,

Speaker of the House of Representatives.
CHARLES ANDERSON,

President of the Senate.

Accompanying this I send you a proper blank in which to place the aggregate of each statiscal item. You will please fill up the blank properly, and forward to me in the accompanying envelope by the time prescribed by law, and much oblige,

Yours, respectfully,

JOHN H. KLIPPART,

Corresponding Sec'y Ohio State Board of Agriculture.

But even this did not have the desired effect, for one county (Trumbull) made no return until the 3d of November, at which time the printing of this entire report was almost completed, therefore allowing very little time in which to prosecute the contemplated analysis.

During the year 1863 crops were harvested from 6,465,279* acres of land in the aggregate of the State, or, in other words, about one-fourth of the area in the State was in crops in 1863.

In 1860 there were, according to the report of the Board of Equalization which met in 1859,

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⚫ In the statement on page XIX, in the column for 1863, one county is omitted.

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