54 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
It will thus appear that the crop of the past year, with a fair 
report of which we are provided by the returns made un¬ 
der the amended law*, excels in every respect all the crops 
of wheat hitherto grown, and may with propriety be called the 
# 
great crop of 1860. The number of acres sown was 1,112,- 
630.32 — the yield, twenty-seven millions, three hundred 
AND SIXTEEN THOUSAND, THREE HUNDRED AND SIX AND ONE-HALF 
bushels ! from which v r e determine the average yield per acre 
to have been twenty-four and fifty-four hundredths bushels. 
This is not only a great crop for this State, and an immense 
crop independently considered, but probably the largest aggre¬ 
gate and the largest average yield ever yet produced by any 
single State in the Union. 
The numerous blank spaces in the table for the years 
1856 and 1857, show that the officers in some counties totally 
neglected the important duty of collecting the statistics as 
required by law, and the aggregates for those years, especially 
for 1857, are very much less than they should be. But after 
making due allowance for these omissions, it is still doubtful 
whether any other State of the Union, or any portion of the 
world, can show* a corresponding rapidity of agricultural de¬ 
velopment. 
The wheat grown is chiefly of the Spring varieties, although 
in some localities Winter wheat has been grown with quite uni¬ 
form success for several years. The quality of Spring wheat 
is good, much of it unsurpassed. The chinch-bug has occa¬ 
sionally damaged the crop somew*hat, but as a general rule the 
loss from the ravages of insects so commonly destructive in some 
parts of the country, has been comparatively trifling; while 
the rust, blight and smut, are seldom suffered to any consider¬ 
able extent. 
The other crops usually grown in the Northern States are 
cultivated in Wisconsin with success, and some of them to a 
large extent; still, as it regards the area thus occupied, the 
aggregate product and value, they are all subordinate in im¬ 
portance to wheat. The table subjoined shows the number of 
acres cultivated, in each of the more important field crops, 
