MISCELLANEOUS' PAPERS. 277 



Many of them were organized within the past twenty years, and some are not 

 yet organized, but are attached to other counties for judicial purposes. 



THE PRESENT. 



Here is a territory abundantly watered by lakes, rivers, and springs, thus 

 furnishing power in abundance for the farmer, and power for the manufact- 

 urer. The water of nearly all these lakes and rivers are clear as crystal, cold 

 and pure, and all are abundantly stocked with fish. All kinds and varieties of 

 forest and soil may be found. Tamarack and black ash swamps; low level 

 lands upon which the soft maple, elm, and oak abound ; lands rolling and 

 hilly covered with beech, maple, hickory, oak, and other hard woods, and all 

 these diiferent kinds having a rich vegetable mold of from a few inches to sev- 

 eral feet in depth resting upon a clay bottom. Then we have the higher, or 

 rather lighter, warmer and sandy soils, where the pine and hemlock mixed 

 with hard woods grow. All these different soils are capable of yielding, in the 

 hands of intelligent farmers, crops most bountiful, and of every variety that 

 flourisli in the temperate zone. Owing to our proximity to the great lakes, 

 surrounded as northern Michigan is by them, we are less liable to extremes of 

 heat or cold than sections far south of us. "We have no severe droughts in the 

 summer, and from our abundant and frequent rainfalls and the great depth of 

 our soils, our ordinary summer droughts affect us but little. 



As a wheat producing region, either in quantity to the acre or quality, we 

 stand pre-eminent. With ordinary cultivation forty, fifty, and sixty bushels 

 to the acre have been raised, while with extra cultivation still larger yields are 

 known. The quality of our winter white wheat when placed in competition 

 with that of the state, has been awarded the first place. In corn, oats, barley, 

 and other grains large and uniformly excellent crops have been raised. Much 

 of this laud is unexcelled for pasturage and hay, while in the production of 

 roots and vegetables, no part of the State can successfully compete with us, as 

 it has been demonstrated at successive State fairs. The fruits of northern 

 Michigan are unexcelled. The apple, the pear, the peach, and the grape may 

 all be grown here successfully ; while in small fruits — the raspberry, the black- 

 berry, the strawberry, and many others may be found in almost every field and 

 fence corner. As conclusively showing the position occupied by Michigan as 

 an agricultural state, the reports of the department of agriculture, published 

 at Washington for the years 3 871 to 1878 both inclusive, places the yearly cash 

 value per acre of the principal products of the farm in this State ahead of 

 Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, and 

 Nebraska. Farming therefore is more profitable in this State than in either 

 of those named, and the reports published by our Secretary of State show that 

 the cereal products of this part of the State are better than in the older 

 counties. 



I shall not attempt to give the present agricultural development of the Sag- 

 inaw valley. We are more interested in what the future shall be. I may but 

 add until about two years ago, no wheat grown in the valley had ever been 

 shipped out of it, indeed the supply fell far short of the local demand so that 

 wheat had to be imported. The supply of other farm products do not yet 

 equal the demand ; large quantities of oats, of feed, of hay and fruits are an- 

 nually brought here and find a market. During the past few years our agri- 

 cultural growth has been most rapid, exceeding during tiie past three years any 

 ten previous, and as we have now a large surplus of wlieat for exportation so 



