CHAPTEE VI 



ANIMAL INDUSTRIES OF MICHIGAN 



Blois' Gazetteer of 1838 estimated the number of 

 neat cattle in Michigan at 149,350. Of horses the 

 number was 23,430; of sheep, 37,806; of hogs, 

 181,825. The total amounts to 392,411. 



A glimpse of the place of live-stock in Michigan 

 agriculture in the middle of the last century is ob- 

 tained from a survey, the results of which are pub- 

 lished in the collections of the Michigan Pioneer 

 and Historical Society for 1887. Of Shiawassee 

 County, it is said that ''raising stock has become 

 quite a business. Besides the cattle slaughtered at 

 home, the amount sold and taken out of the county 

 for each of the years 1852 and 1853 was not less than 

 $10,000. Almost every farmer has a flock of sheep, 

 and wool-growing has become an important business, 

 the amount sold in 1853 exceeding $10,000. Nearly 

 every farmer raises or makes his surplus amount of 

 butter and pork."^ The township of Napoleon, 

 Jackson County, with a population of 301, produced 

 "80,000 pounds of wool, 800 barrels of pork, and 

 700 barrels of beef."^ Wayland Township, Allegan 



' "Mich. Pioneer & Hist. Soc. Collections," XII, 388. 

 'Ibid., 396. 



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