Northern tribune. [volume] (Cheboygan, Mich.) 1875-1885, 1880-03-13
Farms and Farm Products.
From the Lansing Republican.

The secretary of state has just issued
the first annual report relating to farms
and farm products. 1t is pamphlet of
POP pages and is for the years 1883,
that is it embraces report of the crops
of 1878. and statistics of land. live stock,
etc., as found when the Supervisors took
the assessment i'm 1879. The statistics
are published in detail for the town.
ship, cities and wards. Reports were
received from 80 per cent of the town.
ships i'm the state. OF the townships
from which no reports were received, 20
are i'm the south four tiers of counties,
but for IL of these and for half of the
townships north of the south four tiers
that made no report, the secretary has
estimated the yield of wheat in 1878
from the acreage on the ground as re-
ported in the spring of that year, and
the average yield per acre in other town.
ships in the same county that reported
both the acreage and yield: The wheat
statistics must therefore be very COM
plete.
The several state totals were published
i'm the Republican of Dec. and the sta
tistics for Ingham county on Sept. Is,
1879.
The statistics show that the area of
improved land i'm farms in 1879 was 244,-
263 acres greater than the entire area of
improved land i'm the state i'm 1874. OF
south four tiers of counties and 1S7,701
acres in the counties north of the south
four tiers. The increase in the northern
counties was 81 per cent of the improved
land reported i'm them i'm 1874.
Df ,nof Ix.r
the past few years has been enormous.
The crop of 1S7S,-1,57o,5S0 acres-was
263, 228 acres or 20 per cent more than
the acreage harvested in 1877. The
census of 1874 shows the crop of 1873 to
have been 290,603 acres more than the
crop of 1853. This is only 27,375 acres
more than the increase of 1878 over
1877.
The year 1873 has been considered
one of the best wheat years in our his
tory, and such it was, but the statistics
show it not to have been quite equal to
that of 1877. The total yield i'm 1878 was
5,718,S50 bushels more, and the average
yield per acre twO-thirds of bushel
more than i'm 1877, yet nearly every
county in the lower peninsula, outside
of those that were devastated by the fly
i'm 1877, produced less to the acre than in
1877. The increased total yield is mainly
due to the greatly enlarged acreage.
The following counties produced over
million bushels each: IOnia, Wash
tenaw, Clinton, jackson; Calhoun, Oak
land. Kalamazoo, Lenawee, Kent, Liy-
ingstOn, Barry, and GeResee.
The average yield of wheat per acre in
the first or south tier OF counties was
1853 bushels. in the second 1871 oash
els, in the third 1926 bushels. and in
the fourth 2l.51 bushels. Ii will be no
ticed that the average yield per acre in
creases with each advance nOIthwGrd.
The wheat acreage of 1878 of the
counties north of the south four tiers
was 80 per cent more than in 1877, and
178 per cent more than i'll 1873. The
average yield per acre in the northern
counties for the four years 1873, and
1858 is only 24-lG0thS of a bushel
less than in the counties comprising the
south four tiers.
The number of acres of corn harvested
in 1878 was 761, l23 against 1926 in
1877; the number of acres of oats 453,-
$50 against 431,629 in 1877, and the
number of acres of barley 40,168 against
1859 in 1877. There are no late statistics
of other crops with which comparisons
can be made.
The number of horses reported, 272,-
653 and of milch cows, POI ,243, are con-
! siderably less than the number in the
state, as but few reports were received
from tho citipS