500 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 
worm are largely under the influence of atmospheric changes and con- 
ditions, which often prevent their deing much harm. 
Mr. Geddes, in an elaborate article on the culture of winter wheat, after 
allowing for ail drawbacks, perils from insects, &c., comes to the 
conclusion that it wjll be profitable as a leading crop as long as people 
prefer wheat bread to any other, although from various causes it may 
sometimes be unremunerative, like all other crops and branches of busi- 
ness. With good wheat land a farmer can combine with this crop the 
raising of other cereals, dairying, stock-raising, or wool-growing, as cir- 
cumstances may make most judicious, thus availing himself of all the 
advantages of mixed agriculture. 
Cheese factories are inereasing in various parts of the State. In Lena- 
wee County 331,000 pounds of cheese were made from 3,140,660 pounds 
of milk, averaging one pound of cheese from 9.49 pounds of milk. It 
was sold for $52)421 25, or at $15 83 per 100 pounds; the total cost of 
manufacture and selling was $2 82 per 100 pounds. There are fifteen 
factories in this County alone, using the milk of upwards of 4,000 cows. 
Other factories in the State are working with satisfactory results. 
Heretofore Michigan has never produced cheese enough for home con- 
sumption, but with the number of new factories going into operation, it 
is probable that the State will soon make a surplus for exportation. 
At the discussions of the Lake Shore Horticultural Association, Mr. E. 
P. Powell, of Adrian, a successful cultivator of pears, recommended 
mulching pear trees as a preventive of blight, and as advantageous 
in other respects. He sometimes uses long manure, though preferring 
only grass. His soil isa clay underdrained. <A few years after planting 
his orchard be ceases plowing the land, and simply cuts the grass and 
spreads it about the trees. No strength is taken from the land 
excep} what is gathered in the fruit, and this is replaced four-fold in 
mulching. No stimulus is given to hasten the growth of the trees, and the 
wood is consequently strong, compact, and ripe each year. He con- 
siders the Flemish Beauty, Belle Lucrative, Louise Bonne de Jersey, 
Lawrence, Seckel, White Doyenne, Onondago, Beurré d’Anjou, Bartlett, 
Howell, and Tyson, the surest bearers. The best keepers, and those he 
finds most profitable, are the Butfum, White Doyenne, Beurré Clairgean, 
Seckel, Sheldon, Onondaga, and Beurré d@’Anjou. For winter pears he 
prefers the Lawrence ‘to the Vicar of Winkfield, or even to the Nelis. 
The Buffum is highly esteemed, has many points of excellence, and occu- 
pies but little space, being nearly as erect in growth as a Lombardy 
poplar. 
Mr. H. Pennoyer, another successful cultivator, sets his trees without 
manure or anything to enrich the soil; lets the grass grow around the 
trees; uses the knife freely, so as to bring the tree into proper shape 
and proportion. Pear trees, he holds, must not be stimulated; high 
manuring forces an unnatural growth, winter kills the soft wood, and 
blight finally finishes the tree. The peach crop has become a remuner- 
ative one; the soil, as well as the protection received from the prex- 
imity of large bodies of fresh water, being favorable; high table-land is 
preferable; one man sells his crop from an orchard of twelve acres 
nearly surrounded by water at $8,000 to $12,000 per annum ; the east 
side of the water is the best, particularly where the west wind sweeps 
over the water. The fruit trade of Southern Michigan is very large; the 
shipments of peaches from St. Joseph to Chicago last year exceeding 
700,000 baskets and boxes, besides nearly 160,000 bushels of other fruit, 
the whole estimated to be worth $1,000,000. 
The article on European agriculture, with notes by Sanford Howard, 
