486 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



cultivation. The cows were raised and fed without special reference to their milk 

 producing qualities; the butter is of all kinds, and made by the most primitive pro- 

 cesses; clieese factories are not lialf so numerous or well patronized as thej' should be. 

 Good wholesome cheese should be as common as bread, but on many tables it is never 

 found, and on many others only as a rarity. The English consumption of cheese 10 

 pound per capita annually. If Michigan ate every pound it makes, the average con- 

 sumption would be but two and a half pounds. With its rich pasturage and pure 

 water, there is no good reason why Michigan should not make as sweet butter as any 

 other State, yet, as a matter of fact, Detroit dealers order their finest grades from 

 New York. Reform is necessary if Michigan dairy products are to hold the market 

 abroad. Durham cows are noted for the quantity and quality of their milk, and 

 those having an admixture of this and other equally good blood, should alone be 

 selected for the dairy, and should have their natural capabilities for milk increased by 

 judicious care and feed. To feed for the shambles and to feed for milk are two very 

 diflerent processes, though the distinction is quite commonly overlooked. AVith the 

 present outlook for the Michigan stock breeder, his interest seems to lie in the culti- 

 vation of the milk giving as well as in the beef producing qualities of his stock. 



SHEKP. 



In 1874 there were in the State 1,651,903 sheep, being 401,453 less than in 1864. For 

 this reduction or about one-fifth in 10 years a number of causes combined, all, how- 

 ever, of a temporary and local character, and such as could not permanently affect the 

 growth of the sheep interest. Within the space of a year or two at the close of the 

 war, injudicious legislation drove the price of wool from 30 and 40 cents a pound up 

 to §1 a pound and upward, and thousands of adventurers embarked in wool growing 

 as a speculation, without any special experience or knowledge of the b\isiness. Like 

 those who embarked in wholesale hop raising about the same time, the ill-advised 

 wool growers were soon glad to sell out at heavy sacrifices, and under an equitable 

 tariff, the wool trade settled into its natural channels again. In despite of unwise legis- 

 lation the wool product of tlie United States has increased from about 54,000,000 in 

 18G0 to about 275,000,000 in 1878, and Michigan has contributed its share to this in- 

 crease. The clip of 1873 amounted to 7,729,011 pounds, and showed this gratifying 

 fact, that the average yield of wool per head had increased from 2J^ pounds in 1850, 

 to 4 3-5 pounds in 1872. This tells us plain as figures can, that the original bare- 

 legged, scraggy flocks have been rapidly giving place to the short-legged, round- 

 bodiedj thick-coated breeds in which alone the wool grower must find his profits. 

 Whether these profits shall be largest from the long, short or middle wools, must 

 depend largely upon the location and character of the farm, but in places convenient 

 to market, undoubtedly very good returns are to be expected from the breeding for 

 mutton as well as for wool. 



Next to wheat, wool is probably the second great money crop of Michigan, while 

 breeders find no small share of their profits in supplying the West with thorough- 

 bred American Merinos, Cotswolds, Leicesters, Lincolns and others for breeding pur- 

 poses. The State Association will ask you for $500 to be expended in premiums at a 

 proposed sheep shearing festival to be held at Jackson next April. Much good may 

 be derived from such a meeting, and the request is worthy of careful consideration. 



ROOTS AND VEGETABLES. 



As to the crop of roots and vegetables no statistics can be given, but the amount is 

 enormous. The society oflered 72 separate premiums in this class, yet at least three 

 exhibitors made about 150 entries each, and many more would doubtless have been 

 made had adequate accommodations been furnished them. For variety and general 

 excellence of its roots and vegetables Michigan will compare favorably with any 

 State in the Union. Her light sandy soil, impregnated with lime, is peculiarly 

 adapted to root crops and in favorable seasons they reach dimensions which seem in- 

 credible. At the Grand Traverse county fairs have been exhibited, I am assured, a 

 squash, grown in the vicinity, weighing 142 pounds, aflat English turnip 19i^ pounds, 

 a rutabaga 24 pounds, a beet over three feet long, and white Belgian carrots 16 inches 

 in circumference; and these figures have no doubt boon equalled or possibly surpassed 

 at other county fairs, though 1 liavc no authentic record of thoni. I>ast year Mr. 

 John Jollifle, of Antrim county, raised 350 busliels of carrots from half an acre, and 

 1,200 bushels of rutabagas from less than three acres, sown broadcast; and Mr. Almond 

 Young, of Ro\nul Lake, reports rai;^ing rutabagas at the rate of 1,000 bushels to the 

 acre. These are not extraordinarj'^ yields, and their significance can hardly be over 

 estimated, in a soil where such growths are coniinoii. or even possible, the growing 

 of root crops for stock feeding and other purposes nuist soon become a feature of 



