348 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
\ 
necessity of drawing upon the soil for a great portion of their 
living. In the desire to obtain the most they could from what 
little labor they were able to bestow, cultivation has been, in 
most instances, too superficial, and the grain produced has been 
sold and carried off to purchase supplies and sustain foreign 
manufacturers, and to pay debts, so that there has been but 
little returned to the land in the shape of manure ; notwith¬ 
standing which, the yield of wheat the past season has been 
from twenty to thirty bushels per acre, of plump and heavy 
grain, although it had been grown upon the same land for 
three and sometimes for four successive years. 
The past season the agricultural productions have been re¬ 
markably good; the surplus yield of wheat in the county, 
according to judicious estimates, amounting to over half a 
million of bushels; together with nearly an equal amount of 
coarser grain, among which Indian corn is the largest crop.— 
It has been supposed that rye would be a desirable crop to 
raise, but careful observation and trial have shown that wheat 
can be produced just as well, bushel for bushel, and that it is 
no more exhausting to the soil. 
As a forage crop, millet and Hungarian grass have been 
extensively growm, and have given good satisfaction. They 
are considered a very good substitute for the perennial culti¬ 
vated grasses, which do not succeed well upon the light soils. 
Stock. —It has been often said, that stock-raising could not 
prove in this county a remunerative business, on account of 
our long and severe winters; as it must necessarily require a 
large amount of feed and care to keep cattle from autumn until 
grass grows in the spring. This opinion, however, which seems 
to have been formed upon abstract theory only, is gradually 
yielding, and people are now finding out that the cheapest and 
best way to obtain horses, oxen, cows, sheep and swine, those 
necessary concomitants of civilized life, is to raise them . 
Stock of every description need comfortable buildings to 
protect them from the inclemencies of the weather, and when 
suitable stabling is provided and feeding is judiciously done, 
the yield of straw, bran and shorts, from two and a half acres 
