No. 113.] 355 



multitude was twenty-five centS; while at ihe fairs in this State no 

 more than twelve and a half cents are collected. 



I arrived in Detroit on the morning of the 21st of September, 

 and attended the Michigan State Fair at that place for three days ; 

 it was a good exhibition for that young and growing State ; it 

 could not be expected by any honorable means that the quantity 

 of stock, farm implements or field products should be equal to 

 Ohio or New-York, yet there were some very good cattle^ 

 horses, &c. ; of wheat and corn, the samples w^ere very fine. 

 The vegetables and fruits were highly commendable, par- 

 ticularly apples and peaches, wiiich were very fair, of large size, 

 and excellent quality. The butter and cheese did honor to the 

 domestic department, especially from Oakland and Lenawee 

 counties. 



The exhibition of the fine arts was of the best kind on the part 

 of the ladies; I have never seen, at any time or place, those that 

 would transcend them ; whether they were perfected in America 

 or Europe I am not able to say. 



I also attended the county fairs of Calhoun, at Marshall; Kent, 

 at Grand Rapids, and Kalamazoo, at Kalamazoo. They were 

 well attended, with good specimens of stock of different kinds; 

 the exhibition at Kalamazoo was equal to almost any county in 

 Western New-York. The samples of wheat were better than any 

 I have seen west of this State, and north of the Ohio riv^er, and 

 east of the Mississippi. I am decidedly of opinion that Michi- 

 gan is producing the best wheat of any western State ; I was cre- 

 dibly informed that sixty bushels to the acre had been grown on 

 a farm in Calhoun county. 



There is an inexhaustible fountain of gypsum at Grand Rapids, 

 of the purest kind, some of wliich is the most translucent of any 

 I have ever seen. Large quantities of this is used by the farm- 

 ers, in different parts of the State, with good success in growing 

 grain or chjver, and is a source of great wealth to the State. 



On the peninsula of Michigan, internal improvement is pro- 

 gressing; tlie population is rapidly increasing. Agriculture and 

 horticulture, in many places, is being brought to no small degree 



