FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 



345 



per acre in the State of Micliigan is much larger than in any of those States 

 famed as the gardens of the West. Tlie States with wliich I make coniimrison 

 in tliis statement are Wisconsin, ]\Iinnesoto, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas and Ne- 

 braska. 



By way of showing the superiority- of Michigan in a manner at once concise 

 and conclusive, I will give a few of the figures as found in the department 

 reports. 



The average for live years, from 1871, of the cash value per acre, of corn, 

 wheat and oats was as follows : 



It will be observed in the matter of corn, that Michigan leads the next best 

 State, nearly eighteen per cent; in wheat nearly the same, and in oats has a 

 substantial advantage. If we make the comparison with the average of six 

 States we find it to be nearly thirty-five per cent: 



Micliigan $154 43 



Wisconsin .- 141 S3 



Minnesota 128 00 



Illinois 124 70 



Iowa 101 95 



Kansas 130 92 



Nebraska 101 01 



Showing Michigan to be nine per cent better than Wisconsin, which State 

 makes the second best record, and twenty-seven per cent better than the average. 

 Taking the average value for five years of all crops per acre, we have : 



Michigan $17 19 



Wisconsin 13 89 



Illinois ' 11 12 



Kansas 10 48 



Nebraska 8 50 



Minnesota 11 93 



Iowa 9 47 



By this statement Michigan is recorded twenty-four ])er cent better than the 

 next best State, fifty-seven per cent better than an average of all the rest and 

 one hundred per cent better than Nebraska, a State to which the tide of emi- 

 gration from the east has long been setting, attracted by the advertisements of 

 the railroad companies. By extending our comparisons so as to embrace other 

 States of the west and south we will find no State with a record to be compared 

 with our own ; in fact, by embracing them tlie general average is found to be 

 much lower than when only the first mentioned States are considered. 



At the time this paper was prepared I did not have the reports for 1877 at 

 hand, but on Monday obtained a copy, and have extracted a few totals which 

 show that the superiority of Michigan is constant and that it occupies the same 

 vantage ground in 1877 as in preceding years. 



44 



