4G2 AGRICULTUKAL REPOET. 



DIGEST OF STATE REPORTS. 



INDIANA. 



The tbirteeiith annual report of the State Board of Agriculture con- 

 tains the transactions of the board during the year 1871, the premiums 

 ofiered aud av.'ards made at the annual State fair, reports from a large 

 number of county and district societies, an essay on hog-feeding in win- 

 ter, addresses on the mineral resources of the State, &c. 



The annual fair, which was held at the fair-grounds near Indianapolis, 

 from the od to the 8th of October, inclusive, was very successful, both 

 in point of attendanoe and the number of articles exhibited. David 

 M. Leer, of Grant County, was awarded the first i^remium on corn. He 

 raised five acres, averaging 197 bushels and 22 pounds to the acre. Mr. 

 Leer states that his land is a black loam, with clay subsoil. This yield 

 is the third crop raised on the ground. jSIo manures or fertilizers of 

 any kind were used. The ground was plowed in the spring 10 inches deep, 

 harrow ed one way and rolled. Corn planted May 1, and the ground agr.in 

 rolled. The corn was plowed five times duringthe season. Thefirstprem- 

 ium on wheat was awarded William Nagle, of Hamilton County, who raised 

 394 bushels on one acre of ground. Alfred Welton, of Knox County, 

 raised 51 bushels of oats on one acre, for which he was awarded the 

 first premium. The same gentleman was awarded the first premium for 

 an acre of timothy grass ; had raised on this amount of laud 9,018 

 pounds, or four tons and 1,018 pounds. 



Eeports from upward of fifty district and county societies show them 

 to be in a prosperous and flourishing condition. 



Eecent surveys by the State geologist show the block-coal regions of 

 Indiana to be of much greater extent than preceding surveys indicated. 

 In an address before the Chamber of Commerce of Indianapolis, deliv- 

 ered by Dr. J. W. Foster, of Chicago, the margin of this extensive and 

 valuable coal-field is given as follows : Starting at a i)oiut on the western 

 boundary of the State, (in AVarren County,) about seventy-five miles south 

 of Lake Michigan, the line is protracted thence in a southeasterly direc- 

 tion to the mouth of Deer Creek, a few jniles above Canuelton, on the 

 Ohio River. Within this area are included not less than twenty-four 

 counties underlaid wholly or in part by the coal-measures. This, how- 

 ever, is but a portion of that great coal-field which stretches uninter- 

 ruptedly west, to near the borders of the Mississippi Eiver, including 

 nearly two-thirds of Illinois, a large portion of Kentucky, aud embrac- 

 ing a combined area of not less than sixty thousand square miles. * * * 

 The assemblage of rocks, made up of coarse aud fine grained sand- 

 stones, shales, fine clays, and limestones, which form the coal-ineas- 

 ures, embraces a vertical thickness of about 600 feet, and within this 

 range there are not less than six seams of workable coal, each of which 

 will be found to have its own peculiar properties, and giving in the aggre- 

 gate something like 22 feet of solid coal. 



The annual report of the Indiana Horticultural Society for 1872 con- 

 tains the transactions of the society for 1871, discussions on various sub- 

 jects of interest to fruit-growers, reports from district committees and 

 county societies, list of fruits recommended by the society for general 

 cultivation, memoirs of tlie pioneer fruit-growers and nurserymen of the 

 Ohio Yalley, essays, «S:c. 



The reports of the district committees showed a fair yield of fruit 



