M'arthur Democrat. (McArthur, Vinton County, Ohio) 1853-1865, 1859-04-28
S3umIturaI,
Substantial Progress Of the staIe.

Substantial Progress of the State
There are three classes of persons
who have been of late years actively
decrying the lndusti ial position OF til,
country, and charging all manner o
decay aud retrogression upon it. We
do not belong to or sympathise with
either of those classes, and we have
torbUrne to say in these columns what
we had in our heart TO say, uHtil the
present time, that no one should charg
us with using our position to defeat
certain schemes which we conld mol
approve. One OF these is-whae was
called the Agricultural College bill,
in Congress, and the other, the Geo.
logical Survey bill in the Ohio Legis.
lamre, both OF which failed, for which
we are not sorry, since they were both
pressed upon tho public under false
colors and by false argument. We
commenced this article by saying
there are three classes Of persons who
decry our industrial position, and all
three claim to be trae prophets, and
learned in all the wisdom that pertains
TO the productions OF the State. One
elass-mostly located in the tishy re
gions ofthe Atlantic slope, declare the
land is going to rum, and can only be
saved by their patent fertilizers. An,
other class, having large interests in
literary centres, East and West, think
the salvation Of the country lies in
grinding the boys through an Agri.
cultural College; and the other class
being OF scientific turn Of mind,
and sadly in want OF profitable em
ployment-hold and declare that the
Garth is full of hidden store Of wealth,
that can only be developed by Geo
logical Survey. And all these patri.
Otic individuals rush to the State with
an appetite as keen, and numerous, as
litter ola dozen juvenile porkers to
their maternal parent, who is expected
TO root for the whole brood, even tho
they were large enough to be weaned
long ago.
These are the men who are ringing
thc changes upon the deterioration Of
our soil, the ignorance Of the people,
md how much better 1t would be If
the benighted farmers would forswear
their own knowledge, and make over
the country to their hands, to be put in
thorough repair, and afterwards held
under their superintendent as con.
sulting (inSultingO agriculturists p
We do not really think this thing win
ever Le done--the job is entirely too
extensive for such contractors.
But let us look at the facts and fig.
ures, and see how the country stands;
it may be we shall be able to carry on
the wcrld a while longer in the old
way, before we become bankrupt, even
without the help cf the "insulting ag-
riculturists." The great cry has been
that the wheai crop in Ohio has fallen
of from an average of 35 bushels per
acre, to y or IA bushe!s--which is
just as palpable lie as was ever put
ON paper. There is not a particle OF
evidence on record that the average
yield ofwheat in Ohio was ever better
than it has been since 1850. In this
proposition, we except the early pc.
riod when but few farms we're opened
in the State, and those mostly in the
original wheat belt Of the counties Of
Colnmbiana, Stark, Wayne and Rich.
land, the Miami and Mad River Val.
leys, and few other picked lands Of
like peculiar fertility and adaptation
But this was a time before the immi
grafton Of the insect enemies of this
crop, which have followed upon the
heels Of population. Leaving this
apocryphal period, let us come within
the only range of reliable statistics on
record, as shown in the following ia.
Bile: