346 



STATE HOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



I add a table showing the average cash value per acre for principal cro]) 

 for 1877 : 



It Avill be seen by the above comparison that the land was maintained in 

 1877, with the exception of corn in Ohio, when there is tlie slight advantage of 

 fifty cents per acre (but then Ohio is a corn state). In wheat, however, Mich- 

 igan is accredited with a handsome majority over all, the same being true of 

 other principal crops. 



The Saginaw \'alley is no insignificant quantity in the total. I will refer 

 you to the wheat map of the State, by consulting which you will find that the 

 counties lying within its bounds produce more wheat per acre than any other 

 counties in the State. 



These comparisons are convincing arguments of themselves, but people in 

 general desire to know the reasons why as well as to learn the facts, a wish 

 which is not at all difficult to gratify in this case. 



The causes which tend to produce this condition of superiority in our State 

 are varied, some of them have been set forth most clearly by gentlemen who 

 have preceded mc, and others may be shown hereafter; but it is my i)leasure 

 to call attention to two reasons, which are of such a nature that they may safely 

 be considered as constant, and we bo entitled to the inference that as they have 

 tended to produce this condition in tlie past, they will continue to do so in the 

 future. I refer to markets and to climate. 



In all thickly settled communities by far the larger amount of produce raised 

 is shipped to the east, and now that Great Britain is drawing upon us for a 

 vast amount of food, this fact becomes of greater importance. It necessarily 

 follows that the nearer we are to those points where our productions arc con- 

 sumed, tlie greater will be the cash value of crops when ready for market, by 

 just so much as the cost of shipment is less than from those points farther 



