542 State Board of Agriculture, &c. 



Our State makes nearly three times as much butter as 

 Massacliusetts, three times as much as New Hampshire, 

 more than twice as much as Connecticut, and one and one- 

 half times as much as Maine, 



Yermont makes almost as much cheese as all the rest of 

 New England. 



The general correctness of the census statistics showing- 

 the productiveness of this State, are confirmed by the 

 Annual Statistical Reports of the Department of Agricul- 

 ture. In 1873 the yield of corn per acre was reported for 

 Yermont at thirty-seven and one-half bushels, higher than in 

 any other State, with two exceptions. In 1872 the yield 

 was higher in only four States. In 1868 it was reported 

 higher than in any other State except California. For the 

 same year the yield of wheat per acre was reported at six- 

 teen bushels, being higher than in any other State, with one 

 exception. Only two States are reported for that year as 

 having a higher average yield of potatoes ; in the report 

 for 1871 only one State; 1872, five States; 1873, one State. 



The lowest yield of corn, per acre, that I have noticed in 

 any year of these reports was exceeded by eleven States, 

 but was then considerably above the average yield per acre 

 of all the States. An examination of these annual reports 

 will show that Yermont is seldom, if ever, repoi'ted below 

 an average in the yield, per acre, of any of the farm crops, 

 and, in most of them, usually stands near the head. 



Why should a State that t\icts favor so much lose 200,000 

 of its population by emigration ? Perhaps many have left 

 it entertaining the false idea that it was a hard, sterile and 

 forbidding country. Such an idea has prevailed to a con- 



