570 



ning to know the necessity of improving its breeds, there is Httle fear 

 of the market being overstocked with first [rate animals, for a long time. 



There is another branch of farming, though probably one of minor 

 importance, for which this locality is admirably adapted; and that is, 

 the growth of fruit. Need it be said that the orchards of Hillsdale 

 ought to bring in a large revenue to their owners ? I do not think it 

 need look eastward, but westward for a market for their produce. It is 

 there, where as yet no orchards have had time to grow, but where so 

 many railroads are almost daily springing into existence, and opening 

 new avenues of travel to a rapidly increasing population, that you 

 may look for a constant demand and steady market for your best fruit; 

 and this market extends the length of the Mississippi river, from St. 

 Paul's to New Orleans. But you need not go so far from home; our 

 own State has been but scantily supplied with fruit for the past two or 

 three years, and for two months past not a barrel of dried apples has 

 been for sale in the city of Detroit. So that with our own home wants 

 to be supplied, and Chicago with her insatiable appetite, and the hungry, 

 growing west stretching still beyond her, there is little danger that your 

 orchards with all their advantanges of favorable soil and situation, will 

 bear too abundantly. 



Hillsdale is channeled by running water iu all directions, being the 

 fountain head of nearly all the important rivers in southern Michigan, 

 and for elevation, variety of soil, undulating surface, and agiicultural 

 and commercial advantages combined, we doubt whether she has her 

 equal north or south, east or west. 



But I have not come here merely to utter praises of your beautiful 

 county. On the occasion of such a meeting as this there are subjects 

 of higher utility which should claim our attention. One of these I am 

 about to bring before you. It is one which calls for investigation from 

 us, and is worthy of all the light that you and I, and all of us together 

 may be able to throw upon it. 



Why is it that in a year of a very full crop, such as that of 1853, 

 the amount of wheat grown in this county averaged but fifteen bushels 

 and a third per acre? With the soil, the climate, and the favorable 

 conditions under which wheat is usually grown here, the average amount 

 per acre should be far nearer twenty-five than fifteen bushels. We ad- 

 mit that many farmers grow much more than this ; and some reach as 



