576 



wheat was sold at §1 35 per bushel, realizing a profit of $26 95, after 

 allowing $4 for the cleaning. Need I say anything more to you on 

 this subject ? 



I firmly believe that with proper attention in the preparation of land, 

 and the necessary care in procuring the best seed, every acre of wheat 

 land in this county can be made to produce at the rate of twenty-five 

 bushels to the acre, instead of the amount it now does. The whole 

 amount of wheat produced in this county in 1853, was 341,000 bush- 

 els, from 22,120 acres, at a probable cost for labor and seed of $8 per 

 acre, or $176,960 for the county, and for which the county gets back 

 the seed for next year, the quantity necessary for home consumption, 

 and the surplus, which would be about 200,000 bushels. Suppose a 

 better culture costs the farmer $10 instead of $8, of what consequence 

 would it be when his receipts would be more than double what they 

 were before. If I have dwelt long on this subject, it is because of its 

 importance to you, to the county, and to the State, and I could not pass 

 it lightly by. 



I come now to another important staple of the country, in the pro- 

 duction of which I consider there is as great a deficiency as in the one 

 of which I have just spoken. 



According to the census tables, you had in 1854 nearly 41,000 sheep 

 in this county, from which there was clipped a little less than an average 

 of 3^ lbs. of wool each. In some of the towns there was a little more, 

 and in some a little less than this average. In the town of Litchfield, 

 for example, the average was over three lbs. per head, while in Fayette 

 it barely reached two lbs., and in Wheatland each head of sheep pro- 

 duced two lbs. and a half. 



It is evident that in all these towns sheep are raised as a necessary 

 part of farm stock. In the town of Fayette there were 4,049 head of 

 sheep. Is there any good reason why they should not have produced 

 4000 lbs. more of wool than they did, and thus added at least from 

 $1200 to $1500 more to the wealth of the town? Even if they had 

 done thus much, the sheep of Fayette would only have put themselves 

 on a par with those of Litchfield, and it cannot be admitted that the 

 latter have by any means reached the maximum of production, espe- 

 cially if we put any faith in accounts which occasionally reach us of 

 single sheep yielding clips of twelve, fifteen, and even twenty pounds 



