PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS' CLUB. 189 



160,000, respectively; the fourth is in the city of New York, which returned 

 146,000 barrels. 



WHEAT. 



The quantity grown in 1849 was 100,485,944 bushels, while in 1859 it 

 was 111,183,381, showing an increase of nearly seventy per cent. 



To the introduction and greatly extended cultivation of spring wheat in 

 the Northwestern States, is the country mainly indebted for the increase in 

 the amount of wheat produced. 



In Illinois, this crop has increased in ten years from 9,414,571 bushels, 

 to 24,159,500 bushels. In Wisconsin, in the same period, the increase has 

 been from 4,286,131 to 15,812,625 bushels. 



INDIAN CORN. 



This crop in 1849 was 592,011,104 bushels, while in 1859 it was 830,- 

 451,101 bushels, an increase of more than forty per cent. 



DAIRY PRODUCTS. 



The quantity of butter produced in the census year 1 859-' 60, was 460,- 

 509,854 pounds, an increase of forty-six per cent, over that made in 1849- 

 '50. The amount of cheese returned was 105,815,135 pounds. The quan- 

 tity of cheese exported annually to foreign countries is about 15,000,000 

 pounds. 



WINE. 



The returns upon the subject of wine-making show a very large increase. 

 In 1850, the quantity made was 221,249 gallons, to 1,860,008 gallons in 

 1860 — an increase of 140 per cent. Ohio, California and Kentucky made 

 nearly one million of gallons. 



ORCHARD PRODUCTS. 



The value of these products in 1849 was $1,128,186; in 1859 it had 

 reached $19,159,361. 



DRAINING. 



This important improvement has made great progress in the estimation 

 and practice. of our farmers. Tile factories have been established exten- 

 sively in many parts of the country, and, consequently, the material for 

 making permanent drains is much cheapened. 



Should the next ten years witness an equal advance in this direction, 

 under draining will be regarded as among the most indispensable opera- 

 tions of the furm, and its benefits will soon be fully realized. 



Underground draining involves an amount of wealth not yet appreciated, 

 though rapidly becoming realized, by the American farmer. It is an 

 undoubted fact that, the most productive portion;,-; of our farms, and which 

 are fertile in fevers, lie neglected and worse than useless for the want of 

 knowledge, or the absence of enterprise. An assistant marshal in the 

 State of New York, made report of one farmer, near Geneva, who had laid, 

 on a moderate sized farm, some fifty miles of drain, and acquired wealth 

 as the result. A single year's crop from land before useless, has sometimes 

 paid all the expenses of the improvement, and the drains made twenty 

 years ago ai'e as efficient as when first constructed. For health and wealth 

 nothing contributes more, where circumstances admit of it — and where do 

 they not, to a greater or less extent ? — than underground drainage. 



