10 
for pasturage, worth, on an average, $18. In Litchfield are rough pasture lands 
of low value and woodland valued at $20 to $50, according to the growth. In 
Telland there is very little unimproved land. 
3. Iron, copper pyrites, and silver are reported in Hartford county, but are 
not worked. In Litchfield county there are valuable beds of iron ore, the man- 
ufacture of which consumes most of the wood in the northwestern part of the 
county. The soil of the Connecticut valley is a productive alluvial; west of 
the river is a belt of rich clay loam; still further west is a good region for gra- 
zing and general farming ; other sections contain the usual variety of soil and 
surface found in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. 
4. Tobacco is a specialty in the vicinity of the Connecticut. A gross product 
of $1,000 per acre is sometimes realized; $300 to $600 are regarded as paying 
yields. ‘The quantity obtained is often 2,000 pounds per acre. From $300 to 
$450 per acre profit on onions is occasionally received, upon a yield of 600 to 
700 bushels. ‘the growing of garden seeds by societies of Shakers and by joint- 
stock companies is extensively engaged in, and profits are presumed to be large. 
Corn and wheat are not generally profitable crops. 
5. Wheat is scarcely worth mention, so little is produced, though both winter 
and spring varieties do very well, with proper care; red Mediterranean is gen- 
erally preferred, as less liable to rust or iyi. It is sown from the first to the 
middle of September. It is sometimes put in after corn and potatoes, but gener- 
ally follows tobacco. But asmall proportion is drilled—not exceeding one-tenth. 
6. The cost of pasturage in Windham county is placed at 30 cents per week, 
or $7 50 per season; in Hartford, $9; in Tolland, 16; in Litchfield, dairy cows 
50 cents per week. Stock is usually pastured about six months, yet not exclu- 
sively more than five to five and a half months. 
7. Fruit is more successful and abundant than in many other sections of New 
England. Apples are of the most importance, and some farmers can pay the 
entire expense of cultivating their farms with the proceeds of their sale. Peaches 
are less successful than formerly, being injured in many places by the “ yellows.” 
Pears, plums, cherries, and grapes are grown with fair success; and a large 
amount of small fruit, in the aggregate, is produced, and a portion sent to the 
New York market. In Litchfield peaches and plums are reported uncertain. 
NEW YORK. 
1. The average increase in the value of farms, upon the basis of thirty-two coun- 
ties reported, is 28 per cent. It is not to be expected that land will fluctuate 
with the movements of the gold market; prices of real estate did not go up with 
the extraordinary rise in gold in 1864, nor fall with the tumble of metallic cur- 
rency in 1865; and when specie payments shall be resumed, there is little prob- 
ability that prices of farms will again recede in New York to the figures of 1860. 
‘Lhe average of 28 per cent., in view of all the causes affecting values of real 
property, indicates an actual increase at the present time of, say, 15 per cent. 
since 1860; less in remote country places, but much more in the vicinity of 
towns. The tendency to congrégate in towns is apparently greater than before 
the war or at any former period, and it is observed alike in all parts of the 
country. It is so, too, in Great Britain, though such has long been the case 
there; and it is especially the fact in France, causing much loss to proluction, 
and no little anxiety for the bread supply and the real welfare of the whole 
population. The increase is generally greater along the central lines of railways 
than elsewhere, is marked in Herkimer and other dairy districts, and greatest in 
the vicinity of Rochester, where it is estimated at 100 per cent. 
In Seneca county the selling price is at least one-third greater than it was in 
1860, and the ‘anxiety to invest in real estate is becoming very marked. Farms 
which could readily have been bought for $70 now command $100 per acre. 
The improved methods of farming have been the main cause—under-draining 
