340 
AGRICULTURAL AFFAIRS IN MICHIGAN AND OHIO. 
Applying my estimates you will find that 10 acres 
per day, cut by twenty hands, make 60 per week, 
240 per month, and 360 for a month and a half. 
Making ample allowance for time lost by weather, 
sickness, or accidents, these 360 acres of cane should 
be cut between the 15th of December and the 15th of 
February, and the necessary cabins erected, ft would 
appear from this showing, that it is not only an easy 
matter to open in the cane as much land as would 
be sufficient for cotton and corn the first year, but 
that it is necessary to limit the amount cut, for I 
would much rather have the cane on my land than 
off, if it be not cultivated. So favorably do I think 
of the cane lands (those, of course, on which the 
cane is large enough to kill the timber in burning), 
that were two tracts of like quality lying contiguous, 
the one having the cane on, the other off, I would 
not hesitate to give ten dollars an acre for the former, 
rather than accept of the latter as a gift, on the con¬ 
dition of improving it. If I am right in my position, 
a richer mine of wealth than the cane-brake lands of 
this State and Louisiana belongs not to any people. 
But to be enjoyed it must be dug immediately; for a 
few plantations, dispersed through the various cane- 
brakes, will, by means of their stocks, in a very short 
time, destroy the cane, to the irreparable injury of 
non-residents and the tardy in purchasing. 
The young man in charge of my Deer Creek 
place is extremely energetic and attentive, and per¬ 
formed the work without severity, with great ease to 
himself and his hands. Mr. Dyer had never before 
been in charge of a cane-brake establishment, and 
but one of the hands had ever cut cane. I remained 
on the place upwards of three weeks, and until satis¬ 
fied that Mr. Dyer would carry out my plans properly. 
The estimates herein made, I should add, can be 
realized easily ; but only by great energy and close 
application to business. S. S-. W. Yick. 
Vicksburg , Miss . 
AGRICULTURAL AFFAIRS IN MICHIGAN 
AND OHIO.—No. 1. 
Since writing you the brief notices of farming 
matters in Illinois and Wisconsin, which recently 
appeared in the Agriculturist, I have again gone over 
nearly the same ground, with the addition of crossing 
the peninsula of Michigan, and passing twice through 
Ohio on different routes. The two latter states are 
fully sustaining their onward course of improvement 
and population, though in a ratio much diminished 
from the former. Ohio has, for some years, been 
tolerably well settled, for an American state, except 
in her north-western*domains, and consequently, the 
rapid increase of population, which characterizes 
newer territories, is not to be expected; while Michi¬ 
gan has had some old-fashioned prejudices to en¬ 
counter, in the shape of sectional unhealthfulness of 
climate, and semi-repudiation and non-fulfilment of 
state contracts. These causes have wrought hardly 
against her, but she has struggled manfully against 
them, and the thriving villages, the better tilled farms, 
and the constant inroads of the axe-men into her 
forests, show conclusively, that she has a population 
and soil capable of yet making her a great and im¬ 
portant state. 
A considerable portion of the eastern part of 
Michigan consists of a clay soil, and is well adapted 
to grass and grazing. This quality of land extends 
from a point some 30 miles south of Detroit, to near 
Lake Huron on the St. Clair river, and for some dis- 
tance in the interior. As we advance westward, the 
soil, with more or less exceptions, gradually changes 
to a gravelly or sandy loam, and, in soma instances, 
acquires these characteristics to so decided an extent, 
as seriously to interfere with its permanent fertility. 
This is universally true of large quantities of the oak 
openings, which so generally pervade the interior and 
western part of the state. These lands will bear a 
few, good, first crops; but manures must follow close 
upon their heels, or exhaustion and sterility are as 
; certain as blighted leaves after autumnal frosts. There 
are some moderately good corn lands among this 
class of soils, and most of it is excellent for wheat; 
but all the agricultural vigilance of a long cultivated 
country must be generally adopted, or diminished 
crops will soon drive the occupants into the unculti- 
. vated regions still farther west. There are many sec¬ 
tions of the state which are exceptions to these re¬ 
marks, and none more so than a considerable part of 
the beautiful valley of the Kalamazoo, whose rich 
and gracefully undulating fields, clad with their native 
burr oak, give unfailing promise of abundant wheat 
; fields for years to come. 
There are other and extensive portions of the state 
possessing considerable fertility, which yet remain to 
be occupied, and which, in the inevitable progress of 
things, will ere long be settled, and swell the tide of 
■her population and wealth, to a respectable approxi¬ 
mation towards her elder sisters. 
Sheep husbandry is making considerable progress 
in the state, and promises soon to furnish no inconsi¬ 
derable proportion of the aggregate of her occupation. 
Depredations from wolves seem- already to offer no 
serious impediments to this department of the farmer. 
In many of those sections through which my earlier 
routes extended, some dozen years ago, when their 
; nightly serenade was the only lullaby of the wearied 
traveller, they are now known only by tradition. 
They have followed closely upon the footsteps of 
their friends, the Indians,* and are now seldom to be 
found, except amid the fastnesses of impenetrable 
: swamps, or boundless forests. 
Wheat is the great product of the state, and on this 
the farmers principally rely for their available ex¬ 
ports. Never did their efforts receive a greater reward 
than the present season. The estimate of several ju¬ 
dicious citizens is, that the crop fully average:! 20 
bushels per acre over the state. I was informed of a 
wheat field containing 100- acres, which averaged 
over 45 bushels per acre, and one measured acre of 
which, produced over 60 bushels. A cargo of this 
ear’s crop from Michigan, averaged one barrel of the 
est, superfine flour, for every 244 £ lbs. of wheat. 
The expense of transportation from the interior is ex¬ 
cessive. About 10 cts. per bushel from Ypsilanti, a 
distance of only 30 miles; and 20 cts. from Marshall, 
108 miles, by railroad, from Detroit, reduces the 
avails of the wheat-grower’s product, to far below 
what it should yield him. It is a matter of no little 
surprise, that when this road is in the hands of their 
own citizens, and entirely under their own control, 
* It is said, an Indian superstitiously avoids killing 
wolves, notwithstanding their depredation on their 
game, from apprehensions of ill-luck in their hunting 
excursions—a remark which is only partially correct 
