more consideration than is generally given to it. Those who depend on wheat as the main crop, and those who neglect its cultivation altogether, are perhaps equally out of the way. The extraordinary crops which are common some seasons, and others equally extraordinary, at occasional places, to be found every season, seem to make it plain that the difficulty lies not in the soil nor the climate, but in the generally defective and imperfect manner and method of cultivation. Requisites to a good yield of corn. Of all other crops grown by the farmers of Iowa, the production of a fair crop of corn is generally best understood. Still there is no other secret about it but good seed and clean and careful cultivation. The best crops of corn are raised in something like the following manner: 1st. The ground is plowed deeply in the fall, if the previous crop was other than corn. 2d. It is thoroughly harrowed, if the season is dry. 3d. If plowed in the fall mark off shallow in the spring, thereby preventing the weeds which may be covered in the fall from springing up in the hill. 4th. Carefully selected seed is dropped and covered. 5th. It is rolled after planting, to give the seed the best chances for germinating. 6th. It is harrowed just as the corn is coming up, that being the first assault upon the weeds. 7th. It is plowed out one way. 8th. It is plowed out the opposite way. 9th. It is plowed out a second time the first way. 10th. It is plowed out a second time the second way, and the corn, even and completely, to the exclusion of everything, takes full, and we may say magnificent possession of the ground. A crop with such or similar cultivation, suited to the soil and the season, is harvested in time to be out of reach of any ordinary frosts, yielding from 60 to 75 bushels per acre. The corn crop has been the foundation, and will long continue to be the foundation of three-fourths of all the agricultural prosperity of our State. How shall a good yield of wheat be secured?-Suppose the same amount of labor expended on the spring and winter wheat crops of Iowa, the result would be a general average for a series of years of about twenty bushels per acre instead of twelve bushels. Instead of the shallow plowing in the spring, the sowing of a bushel, more or less, of dirty, shrunken, rusty seed, and the single careless harrowing, or "dragging," as it is more appropriately called, suppose a system of cultivation adopted similar to that required to produce on an average from 60 to 75 bushels of corn to the acre. Then the routine of obtaining a spring wheat crop might be something like the following, and for a winter wheat crop altered to suit circumstances: First, we should have a tolerably clean piece of land -very clean the best-from which the surface water would readily drain then the routine would be: 1st. Deep plowing, and if possible, subsoiling in the fall. 2d. A thorough harrowing in the spring, if the ground is not too wet. 3d. Sowing as early as the ground will admit, from one and a half to two bushels of sound, clean seed. 4th. A second harrowing to cover the seed. 5th. Rolling, if the ground is not too wet, to assist the seed to germinate, by affording it all the chances. 6th. A second rolling at the proper time to assist the growing plants to stool, to crush the larvae of insects, helps to level the surface, and kill and bury starting weeds. ASSESSED VALUE OF REAL ESTATE AND PERSONAL PROPERTY IN IOWA, FOR THE LAST THIRTEEN YEARS, FROM 1850 TO 1863, INCLUSIVE. The following table is taken from the printed reports of the Auditor of State, excepting only that for the year 1860, which is from the U. S. Census, which gives the cash value instead of the assessed value of property. Up to and including 1857, regular annual assessments were made; after that year, regular assessments were made every alternate year, 1859 and 1861; the last regular assessment occurred in 1863. The discrepancies existing, especially in the number of acres returned, are principally owing to want of returns from some of the counties, and cannot now be corrected. In regard to the other items, glaring errors are evident in several counties, in carrying out the value of property, most of them probably typographical. The table, however, is as near correct as the records furnish, and will serve as the best approximation, at least, which can be given of the progressive value, and sometimes deteriation in value, of the taxable property of the State. It is the only exhibit of the kind which has ever been given. It is probable that at least one-half of the land assessed is owned by non-residents. The average assessed value of lands is a fraction over four dollars and thirty-three cents per acre, and the present tax on all property for State purposes, is two mills on the assessed value. The taxes for all other purposes, county, school, &c., &c., is about eight mills additional. 27,300,865, 121,194,836 24,770,327 29,806,475 175,771,638 1863 702,374 28,336,345 111,036,569 23,613,964 32,463,106 167,113,639 The United States Census places the true value of real and per sonal property in Iowa for 1860, at $247,338,265, exhibiting a rate of increase, for the previous ten years, of 942-97 per cent. The only State which at all approaches Iowa, is California, whose rate of increase is 837-98. Texas is next, 592-44. Wisconsin's increase is 550-72. Oregon's 471-35-Illinois, 457-93, and Arkansas 450-32. These are the only States exhibiting any remarkable increase, as the increase of the whole Union is put down at 126-45 per cent. The cash value of farms in Iowa, as per U. S. Census, in 1850, was $16,657,567-in 1860, $118,741,405. In this item Iowa ranks 21st among her sister States. The value of farming implements and machinery, the U. S. Census gives for Iowa, in 1850, $1,172,869, and in 1860, $5,190,042. In this, Iowa ranks 22d among the States. IMPROVED AND UNIMPROVED LANDS. The following data of improved and unimproved-lands is obtained from official sources. We have added to the reported improved lands an average of four acres for those occupied by houses, barns, &c. For the large items of unimproved lands reported for 1856 and 1858, we are unable to account. That the precise number of acres unimproved attached to farms might be satisfactorily obtained, this item was embraced in the census tables for 1862. The United States census returns must have been based upon the same requisition as the increased number of acres of improved lands from 1860 to 1862 agrees so nearly to the facts of the increased tilled acreage as ascertained from other sources: under fence,.. under cultivation,.4,170,496, unimproved at 4,784,886, tached to farms,4,135,613 As the whole number of acres in the State, after deducting about 4,000,000 for rivers, creeks, &c., is as near as can be ascertained, 35,000,000 acres, there is of uncultivated lands about 30,000,000 acres, or over one-eighth of the whole amount; there are assessed for taxable purposes, 28,336,345 acres, thus leaving of lands not entered, and not subject to taxation, 6,663,655 acres, about one half of which being taken by or subject to railroad grants. Of the taxable lands it is very probable that not less than 15,000,000 acres are owned by non-residents. Some of these lands are doubtless held, where they are located very eligibly, for speculation, yet the most of them can be obtained at from $2 to $5 per acre, even in the older settled counties, and from five to ten miles from railroads in, or soon to be in operation. There is, perhaps, no State in the Union offering greater facilities for settlement and productive farming, either on a large or small scale, than does the State of Iowa. Even with only a little over one-eighth of her land under cultivation, her annual available products for exportation have averaged not less than $10,000,000 per annum for the past three or four years. AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS FROM THE STATE CENSUS FOR 1862. The statistics in the following tables are principally taken from the State census for 1862, attached to which are deductions and comparisons with the productions of other North-western States, as found in the United States census of 1860. They will be found interesting and valuable: FROM THE STATE CENSUS FOR 1862. SPRING WHEAT. COUNTIES. Av'ge WINTER WHEAT. Av'ge CORN. Av'ge Acre. Acres. Bushels. per Acres. Bushels per Acres. Bushels. per Acre, Acre. 15019 42343 101894 2.40 983 4834 21.29 23756 747679 31.47 36794 1227011|33.34 4077 14.10 35774 1584253 44.28 |