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in others, while corn, hops, pork, and wool are the money crops in some sec- 
tions. Wheat and corn are largely grown in Muskegon, Berrien, Kalamazoo, 
Cass, Barry, Hillsdale, St. Joseph, Livingston, Van Buren, Calhoun, Kent, 
Gratiot, Macomb, Lapeer, Ingham, Clinton, and other counties; potatoes have 
been a leading crop in Mason, St. Joseph, Mackinaw, Ontonagon, Delta, Alcona, 
Alpena, Ioseo; hay in Bay; Ontonagon, Delta, Alcona, &c.; hops in Calhoun, 
Van Buren, Macomb; wool in Livingston, Kent, and Clinton. Our Calhoun 
reporter writes : 
In 1863 this county produced about 860,000 bushels of wheat, averaging nearly 15 bushels 
per acre, worth in round numbers $1,500,000. D. F. Curtis, living near this city, (Mar- 
shall, ) harvested 40 acres of Treadwell wheat this year, which yielded 30 bushels to the acre, 
sold in September at $2 per bushel. It was sown on a clover sod, ploughed early with a 
three-horse team, thoroughly dragged and cultivated, drilled in. (This is more than double 
the average of our county.) Another gentleman has several acres in hops ; his crop last 
year was about 1,100 pounds per acre, which sold at 60 cents per pound, yielding a net 
profit of $300, in addition to the roots sold in the spring, which, at $3 per bushel, produced 
nearly half as much more. The prices of both the hops and roots were high, rather specu- 
lative. 
In Clinton last season our reporter says he harvested 168 bushels of wheat 
on seven acres of clover sod, from which the stumps had not been removed, 
and that a neighbor raised 500 bushels upon 18 acres; and adds that those 
who take pains get from 18 to 30 bushels per acre. Ingham averages 12 to 15 
bushels of wheat to the acre, netting about $10 per acre. In Gratiot winter 
wheat on well-worked summer fallow, not molested by the midge, yields 30 to 
40 bushels to the acre; spring wheat does as well in favorable seasons. In 
Hillsdale wheat has become a precarious crop from bad farming, and more atten- 
tion is given to corn, which seldom fails, and is considered more profitable when 
fed out on the farm. Farmers in the lumbering regions and counties adjacent 
find the production of potatoes, hay, and oats the most profitable, always hay- 
ing a ready market for their surplus, and the crops being pretty reliable. In 
Tosco our reporter says they grow 300 bushels of potatoes to the acre and make 
a profit of $225 per acre. Our Alpena correspondent says: 
Hay is worth $30 per ton, oats $1 per.bushel, potatoes $1 50 per bushel. This county 
purchased and brought here last year, at a cost of $4 per ton, not less than 600 tons of hay, 
15,000 bushels of oats, and 5,000 to 6,000 bushels of potatoes. The price paid for clearing 
lands is $20 to $25 per acre, which land will yield from one to two and a half tons of hay to 
the acre, from 20 to 50 bushels of oats, and from 100 to 200 bushels of potatoes, with good 
market at cash prices. Last season I had 15 acres of grass and was offered $20 per acre for 
it as it stood, and I think this amount can be netted from any fair acre of farming land in 
this county. 
From St. Joseph county we have, “ potatoes and peppermint oil are special- 
ties in this county. Of the former not less than 200,000 bushels were shipped 
from the county last season at an average of 65 cents per bushel to the producer, 
and of the latter about 7,000 pounds at $4 75 per pound. Those engaged in 
the culture of these crops are well satisfied with the protits, potatoes being weil 
calculated to subdue the land and leave it in good condition for laying down to 
grass, while peppermint leaves the land (after yielding three crops to one plant- 
ing) in fine condition for wheat, our staple crop.” 
Hop culture is proving largely remunerative wherever engaged in, and the 
business is annually increasing in the State. Wool has been a prominent pro- 
duction in some sections, but the low prices of the past season have discouraged 
many farmers, and less attention is being paid to this branch, the returns of the 
number of sheep in the State January 1, 1868, showing a decline of 80,000 
from the year preceding. . 
5. Of the score or more of varieties of wheat sown in the State we may name 
the red and white Mediterranean, white Treadwell, Soule, Diehl, midge-proof, 
Lancaster, amber, blue-stem, flint, California white, and weevil-proof, as among 
the most prominent. Unlike other States lying in the same latitude, Michigan 
raises winter wheat principally, the peculiar location of the State, almost entirely 
