GIO STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



obtaiuetl, and the more thoroughly tlie ground is pulverized the better the 

 crops. In August S. "W. Bceman read an essay on " Harvesting Fall Crops," 

 Avhich elicited consideraljlc discussion npon time, manner and tools for harvest- 

 ing, in which much practical information was advanced. Geo. P. Butler read an 

 essay on "Keeping vegetables," and L. 0. Whiting on "Bees and honey," 

 in September, during the progress of the county fair. Dr. Plessner entertained 

 the club with an essay on "Fruit for winter nse" at the October meeting, 

 showing scientillcally the benefit derived from the use of fruit, and the manner 

 and causes of decay, also best modes of keeping. The month of November 

 brought out James Graham with an essay on " Wintering Stock," which was 

 interesting and some discussion followed. Mr. John C. Spaeth told us all about 

 manure and winter work in December, and in January the secretary and Dr. 

 I. X. Smith gave a little talk on orchards and fruit, with a number of fine 

 specimens for examination. Mr. Robert Ure enlightened us all about cattle in 

 February, which was valuaJjle, and the secretary read a letter from Judge Bir- 

 ney on cattle in Holland. Much interest has been manifested, and the attend- 

 ance fair, but both are increasing as the objects and aims of the club become 

 better known. Reports of crops each month are reported from different joarts 

 of the county by the numbers, of which a record is made. 



That a farmers' club should be organized and successfully run away np in 

 Northern Michigan among the pineries will doubtless be surprising to many in 

 the older counties of the State. But if they will take the trouble to look on 

 the map they will see that our county is south of the center line of the State, 

 and according to the wheat map of the State published by the Agricultural 

 College we are in the wheat belt, and we think those 254 bushels of Clawson 

 wheat, full weight, raised from three and one-half acres of ground, would en- 

 title us to the banner of wheat producing counties. Mr. David Geddes, Presi- 

 dent of the Agricultural Society, raised this amount, and from ten acres raised 

 l,S-iO bushels of ears of corn, or 920 bushels of shelled corn of the Hackbury 

 Dent variety. Tiie soil was clay loam, underdrained. The first year a good 

 clover sod was turned under and planted to corn, from which he harvested the 

 above crop. The next spring it was plowed and sowed to barley, from which 

 he harvested thirty-six bushels per acre. The ground was plowed twice, man- 

 ured, and sown to wheat and harvested as above. 



It has been said of the Saginaw valley that it was fit only to breed frogs and 

 ague, but experience has shown that we have some of the best agricultural 

 lands in the state, and as people begin to learn these facts our lands begin to 

 be cleared and made into good farms ; but the progress has been very slow. 

 Gratiot county on the west and Tuscola county on the east have made very 

 rapid progress in agriculture. The lands in these counties, except where 

 bordering on Saginaw county, are high, rolling, possessing natural facilities 

 for drainage, botli, atmospheric and soil, the former of which is as necessary 

 as the latter. Some portions of the land in our county being very level and low, 

 being traversed by Saginaw, Cass, Flint and Shiawassee rivers, soildrainage could 

 not be readily cflectcd except by combinatioii, which is not easily done. When 

 the state passed the drainage law it was thought it would be the means of 

 settling our level lands, as they could be drained and the cost taxed pro rata; 

 but we were doomed to disappointment, and now the last experiment comes in 

 the way of dyking after the system adopted in Holland, which so far is a suc- 

 cess and has not been very costly. This only relates to lands adjacent to the 

 streams and especially along the Shiawassee and Saginaw rivers, along which 



