FROM KALAMAZOO COUNTY.

BY FRANK LITTLE, SEC'Y KALAMAZOO COUNTY AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY.

1. Kalamazoo county was settled in the year 1830. Very little, if anything, was done that year in the way of cultivation. The next year (1831,) ground was broken more or less throughout the county. A portion, therefore, of the soil of this section has been cultivated thirty-three years. Its original character was what is denominated "prairie," "oak openings," "timbered,” beech and maple, and "marsh" land, in the proportion of say two-tenths prairie, six-tenths openings, and two-tenths timbered and marsh. It may be properly termed dry. The prevailing species of trees were the varieties of oak, walnut, beech, rock and white maple, ash, elm, cherry and whitewood.

2. Winter wheat, corn, oats, potatoes and hay, are the principal crops raised here. The average yield from the first, as near as can be estimated, has been, for wheat, say fifteen bushels; corn, forty-five; oats, thirty; potatoes, one hundred; and hay, one ton per acre. Wheat, more than any other crop, unless it may be potatoes, has experienced many vicissitudes since the early settlement of the county. These changes seemed to come by periods, in which the crop would almost utterly fail for two or three years in succession, and entirely baffled the skill of our best farmers to devise a remedy. It would be difficult to state how much the increase and decrease has been. Wheat has suffered mainly from ravages of insects, rust, and chess, or cheat. The crop is now, however, considered a pretty safe one on fallows, or where it is green-manured with clover. White wheat is not as certain a crop as red, being more subject to injury from the Hessian fly, though the yield is thought to be greater from a given number of stalks, and, of course, the quality is much superior, and the price greater per bushel. Upon an average, there is but little difference in the yield of the two varieties per acre, though a good crop of white will yield all of five bushels per acre more than the red. A growth of from thirty-five to forty bushels per acre has been no uncom

mon occurrence upon choice land, and under other favorable circumstances, from the first settlement to the present time.

3. The price of wheat has ranged from thirty-seven and a half cents to two dollars per bushel. Ordinarily the average price has been one dollar. Oats, thirty-one cents; corn, fifty cents; potatoes, twenty-five cents; hay, six dollars a ton. The surplusage of wheat is sold and shipped to market. All other products are held mainly for home consumption. In regard to the relative cost of the different crops, wheat and grass may be set down as by far the most profitable; corn the least so, owing to the excess of tillage required over other crops, and the low price, comparatively, at which it sells. Farmers have been divided in regard to the policy of planting very much oorn, and although the soil is much benefitted by the cultivation, yet the scarcity and high cost of labor, the uncertainties attending its growth and maturity, and its being so entirely unremunerative, are difficulties which, when weighed against all the advantages, have resulted in keeping its growth down to the lowest minimum of the necessities of each cultivator and of the locality where it is grown.

4. Apples and peaches are cultivated more extensively than the other fruits. Pears, plums and cherries are grown to some extent; also grapes, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, gooseberries, currants, &c. Apples and peaches have become articles of commerce from this section, and in favorable seasons the crop of fruit has been a profitable one, especially that of peaches. Much more might be realized, but our farmers, as a general thing, are so much absorbed in grain-raising that the orchards are sadly neglected, being left after the first planting, mainly to the care of nature and the women and children. The orchards prove to be very convenient for grazing purposes, and horses and cattle are turned in, much to the detriment of the growing trees. Prices of fruit have averaged about as follows: Apples, one dollar per bushel; peaches, seventy-five cents; strawberries, twelve cents a quart. They have mostly been sold in Chicago.

5. Root crops are not cultivated to great extent in this section. In order to be grown successfully, two things are indispensable-high culture and favorable weather. In England, under the "four course," or "four shift" system, turnips are made the basis of all other crops. Through their successful growth, and consumption by sheep on the land where they are grown, the soil is made rich, producing abundant harvests of each of the three succeeding crops-wheat, barley and grass. They may really be termed the key that unlocks earth's treas ures to the English farmer. But the climate of England is mild, equable and humid, while ours is changeable and dry. The severe periods of drought we experience almost every summer, would be fatal to the successful cultivation of root crops, which thrive better in cloudy and moist weather. Until our population becomes more dense, and a higher system of farming is inaugurated, with the necessary adjuncts of cheap labor, manures and irrigation, I am inclined to the opinion that root crops cannot be grown successfully or profitably in our State.

6. Beyond the number of horses, cattle, etc., essential in carrying on the farm, sheep have undoubtedly been the most profitable of all live stock. They have been kept mainly for wool, but few, comparatively, being fattened for market. I I might add, that for the last three or four years the raising of horses, cattle and swine, for sale, has received much more attention than formerly, and prices have very much advanced.

7. Prices have averaged as follows: Beef, three dollars; pork, four dollars; and mutton, three dollars per hundred. Butter, twelve and a half cents, and cheese eight cents per pound.

8. Of the three kinds of meat enumerated above, pork can undoubtedly be produced at the least cost.

9. It would be difficult to state the average annual yield of butter and cheese from a cow, as there are no extensive dairies kept in this section, and the butter and cheese-making interest among the farmers is entirely a secondary one, and is left to take care of itself, pretty much.

10. I am unable to state the relative cost per pound of butter and cheese. But little attention is paid to cheese-making. There is none made by the "factory system" in this county, to my knowledge.

11. The Short Horns are considered the best breed of cattle in this vicinity for all purposes. Many fine herds of pure-bloods have been introduced into this section, with marked advantageous results. The breed termed "native," is fast disappearing from off the farms, and improved stock is taking their place. The importations of cattle have been mainly from the States of New York and Ohio.

12. The Morgan breed of horses is much preferred with us, and seems best adapted to farm work and for general use. Their average size is about fourteen hands high; weight, one thousand pounds. In the early settlement of this county, heavier horses and oxen were required. But for general use upon the farm, and as roadsters, a horse combining the characteristics of the Sherman Morgan, or Black Hawk, being of a neat, compact form, good travelers, possessing hardy constitutions, and strong digestive organs, making them easy keepers, is of all horses, unquestionably the most economical in point of cost of keeping and endurance. Some other breeds have been introduced here with indifferent success. The formation at Kalamazoo, six years ago, of the society known as "The National Horse Association for improving the Breed of Horses," has done much toward the introduction of the best stock.

13. The French and Spanish Merinos are the only breeds of sheep kept in this locality to much extent. Average weight of washed fleeces, four pounds; average price per pound, forty cents. No sheep are kept exclusively for mutton, or fattened for market. A very few South Downs and Leicesters have been brought into the county.

14. There has been but little attention paid to the breeding of swine heretofore. The original breed was what is usually

termed "pointer," and was from the State of Indiana. They were a long-nosed, long-legged, slab-sided, predatory race of lean and incessant squealers, ravaging the corn and wheat fields of the early settlers, hated by all mankind and canines, and the only wonder and regret is, that they were not "dogged" to death, and the breed thus exterminated. The introduction of a few Leicesters and Berkshires about the year 1840, gradually modified the original temper and characteristics of the "natives." Later, the Suffolk, Essex and Chester White have been introduced, with favorable results. The Chester-Whites are at present the favorites. They are a very quiet, peaceable variety, and fatten easily. Swine are usually slaughtered at the age of eighteen months. The average dressed weight is about two hundred and fifty pounds.

15. Good implements in husbandry are almost as indispensable as the soil itself. To attain successful results the soil must be well cultivated and thoroughly pulverized. One of the most marked advances in modern agriculture has been the wonderful improvements and inventions of new varieties of farm tools and machinery. What a providence, surely, to the American farmer during the present scarcity of labor-the war taking off such a large proportion of the best bone and muscle of the country-that one man, through the aid of improved implements for planting, cultivating, harvesting and threshing, can do the work of ten, at least, under the oldfashioned mode. Almost all varieties of labor-saving implements are now used generally by the farmers of this section, and with good results. Ploughs, harrows, cultivators, rollers, horserakes, stump-machines and a number of the smaller utensils are manufactured here, both for home use and for shipment to other markets.

16. Several kinds of mowing and reaping machines, both single and combined, are used in this section. They are now the main reliance for cutting both the hay and grain crops. The most popular kinds are the "Seymour & Morgan Selfraker," "Buckeye," "Eureka," "Quaker," "Kirby," "Ball,"