76 



has been so great that only the most suggestive and important facts 

 are given. 



Generalizing very briefly the results of this investigation, as to the 

 industries popularly esteemed most productive, local prelerences are as 

 follows: In Maine, hay occujiies the first place and dairy-husbandry the 

 second; hay and stock-raising are of equal importance in New Hamp- 

 shire ; dairy-husbandry stands high in its predominance in Vermont ; 

 in Massachusetts, hay first, market-gardening next; the garden and 

 the dairy divide the honors in Ehode Island ; and tobacco stands first 

 in Connecticut. There is much diversity in New York, but dairy-hus- 

 bandry is far in advance, being the choice of one-third of the counties. 

 There is much variety in New Jersey, though market-gardening stands 

 first. In Pennsylvania, manufacturing and mining make a varied pro- 

 duction most popular, few counties indicating very decided preferences, 

 though wheat (as few would suppose) holds the first place in one-sixth 

 of the counties. In Delaware, tobacco ; in Maryland, tobacco and fruit 

 growing. Of more than fifty Virginia counties expressing decided 

 preferences, 16 favor tobacco, 9 "mixed husbandry," 6 corn, 5 stock-rais- 

 ing, 5 market-gardening, and others jDca-nuts, sheep-husbandry, fruit- 

 growing and wheat. In North Carolina corn stands numerically before 

 cotton. In Florida sugar-cane is preferred, while cotton predominates 

 in South (Jarolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and in Texas. In 

 Arkansas corn stands first; and in Tennessee hay and corn are pre- 

 ferred. In West Virginia, corn and stock-growing; in Kentucky, to- 

 bacco and corn : in Ohio, great diversity appears — sheep husbandry, 

 corn, general cropping, wheat, hay, and fruit growing; and in Michigan 

 a similar variety — wheat, dairying, and fruit-growing. Corn is king in 

 Indiana and hay prime minister. Corn is also ti»st in Illinois and 

 wheat next. In Minnesota, wheat; in Wisconsin, wheat and the dairy; 

 in Iowa and Missouri, stock-growing, corn, and wheat. The order in 

 Kansas and Nebraska is wheat, stock-growing, and corn. In Califor- 

 nia, wheat, sheep-husbandry, and fruit-growing. In Oregon, wiieat and 

 stock-growing. 



One of our correspondents, after setting forth the impoverishingresults, 

 in the long run, of the single-crop system and dependence on imported 

 supplies and fertilizers, says: "Our intelligent farmers are waking up to 

 the necessity of improving the land and considering that a part of the 

 year's profit. When they do that and get some of our old fields now worth 

 $4 to $10 per acre to be worth $50 per acre, then our people will begin 

 to open their eyes to their best interests." Many more fail to see the 

 all-important distinction between the return above expenditure of so 

 much per acre and the per cent, of profit on the amount expended. 

 For instance, a farmer reports that cotton was more profitable than 

 corn, and proves it by exact statistics which show that, after deducting 

 in both cases all expenses up to sale, the cotton returned per acre $3 

 more than the corn. But the same statistics show that the corn re- 

 turned 175 per cent, on the cost of producing and the cotton only about 

 68 per cent. That is, 3 acres of corn, yielding a profit of $14 per acre, 

 could have been cultivated at less cost than 1 acre of cotton yielding a 

 profit of $17. 



There is no vocation in which a well-trained judgment, and a knowl- 

 edge of the principles and practice upon which success depends, are 

 more important or pay better than in that of the farmer. The size 

 of the farm ; the amount of additional capital required; the adaptation 

 of soil aud climate : the practicability of obtaining labor and the ex- 

 pediency of employing it at the cost; the distance from market and 



