112 



GENESEE 



FARMER. . May. 



various kinds, to a large amount, and employing 

 a very respectable amount of capital. But my 

 purpose is attained if I have convinced your cor- 

 respondent " S. VV.," and your readers, that in 

 some portion of the West, we " are alive, and 

 alive like to be." No where is tliere more or 

 better directed enterprise. 



The farmer alluded to above, lives in this town, 

 upon a farm of 80 acres, of what is called in this 

 county burr oak plain. The owner realized 

 from 40 acres of wheat (first crop, and by no 

 means the best in this country,) six hundred 

 bushels of merchantable wheat, which he market- 

 ed within 2 miles of his barn, at five shillings the 

 bushel — 



Amounting in the aggregate to, $375,00 



The charges against 'he crop are as follows; 



Clearing the land for tJic plow, $ 5,00 



Plov.ing the same, GO, 00 



Harrowing before and after sowing, 24,00 



Fencing, 40,00 



Seed, 43,75 



Harvesting, Threshing, and Marketing, ... 100.10=272, 75 



Nett proHt on 1st crop, 40 acres wheat, $103,75 



A son of this farmer 15 years old, got in, tended, 

 and harvested 13 J acres of corn, with eight days 

 assistance of tlie hired man, with the following 

 results : 



800 bush, shelled corn, at 20 els., is $160,00 



Stalks estimated at 20,00 



Pumpkins, '. 40,00 



$220,00 

 Charging against this crop for services of man and 

 boy, oxen, pony, seed, and expense of threshing 

 and marketing, 100,00 



Nett profit on 13} acres of corn, $120,00 



This farm was purchased, I think, at twelve 

 dollars per acre. At any rate equally good land 

 and as eligibly located, can be bought at that 

 price, and even less. University lands are twelve 

 dollars. School lands four dollars, and Internal 

 Improvement lands one dollar and twenty-five 

 cents. The University and School lands can be 

 purchased upon paying twenty-five per cent, 

 down, and annual interest thereafter. The In- 

 ternal Improvement lands can be purchased at 

 ten shillings, and payable in Internal Improve- 

 ment Fund Warrants, which are now at twenty- 

 five per cent, discount. These lands lie in va- 

 rious parts of the State, and are, in value, not a 

 whit behind the average lands of the State. — 

 Docs Seneca county open her arms like this to 

 the new beginner and the poor man ? 



Very respectfully, your ob't serv't, 



O. C. CoMSTOCK, Jr. 



Marshall, Callioun Co., Mich., March. 1847. 



Moral and religious education is the one liv- 

 ing fountain which must water every part of the 

 social garden or its beauty withers and fades away. 



Every school house that is built, every child 

 that is educated, are new and additional pledges 

 of our perpetuity. 



A PATRIOT is known i)y the interest he takes 

 in promoting Education and Improvement. 



Life in the West. — Farming in Michigan. 



Mr. Editor : — In a late, I tliink February, 

 number of your very valuable agricultural jour- 

 nal, an anonymous writer from Seneca county, 

 N. Y., deemed it necessary in acoounting for 

 the retrograde agriculture of that county, to say 

 tliat the sons of lier farrners had emigrated to the 

 west, to reap the "bare-footed blessedness of eat- 

 ing pork and corn bread, and becoming highly 

 excited at log cabin raisings." I quote as near- 

 ly as I can remember his words; I am sure I am 

 not mistaken in his sentimrnts. When I left my 

 beautiful home in New York for, to me, the un- 

 tried West, I bade adieu to " alluvial Seneca," 

 for 1 resided within half a mile of the southern 

 boundary of that county. I am not, therefore, a 

 stranger to the fertility of its soil — to the intelli- 

 gence, enterprise, and wealth of its population, 

 and I would not, if I could, disturb any of its 

 peaceful relations. If your correspondent, how- 

 ever, could be persuaded to leave fiis pills and 

 hisjlocks during the month of June or July en- 

 suing, and take a trip into this vestibule of the 

 '• West" for instance, his ideas would be im- 

 mensely enlarged, and his future communications 

 infinitely more charitable — and (I beg to say 

 without offence,) infinitely more truthful. 



A comparative statement of the price of land, 

 the cost of working the .same, apd the value of its 

 productions, would establish beyond controversy, 

 to the satisfaction of the man of limited means, 

 whether he had better invest his funds in farm- 

 ing lands in Seneca county, N. Y., or in Cal- 

 houn county. Mich. I regret that I have no sta- 

 tistical tabU^ at hand which will enable me to 

 make the contrast. I must content myself, there- 

 fore, by making a passing remark of this county, 

 and then invite 5"our readers to a candid exami- 

 nation of an account carefully kept by one of 

 our farmers, and one who, by tlie way, formerly 

 lived in a county adjoining "alluvial Seneca." 



The first white settler in Calhoun county 

 pitched his tent at the confluence of Rice Creek 

 and Kalamazoo River (now Marshall,) in 1830. 

 At the last census there were 1.5,719 inhabitants! 

 — since which period there has been a large em- 

 igratfcn from Ohio and New York. There was' 

 raised in that year 500,000 bushels of wheat, as! 

 returned by the marshal. Of the coarse grains, I 

 no return was made, but the quantity is known j 

 to be enormously large. There are, at the pres- 

 ent time, between 40 and 50 pairs of burr mill 

 stones in operation, and other flouring mills are 

 now being built. Some conception of the amount 

 of wool grown in this county may be had, in view 

 of the fact that there are three woolen factories 

 now in succes.;ful operation, and one other near- 

 ly completed, entirely stocked from the clip of i 

 this county. A large amount is also annually 

 shipped to New York. I might append to this 

 statement a flattering expose of machinery, of 



