Washtenaw As An Agricultural County

The annual report of the Secretary of State, relating to Farms and Farm producís, contains a great mass of statistics from which a few relating to Washtenaw county are extracted: There are seventeen counties in the state in which 1,000,000 bushels of wheat have been raised in some one of the past ten years. Of these, Washtenaw passed that mark in eight years, Calhoun in nine and all the rest a lesser number of times. Lenawee reached it twice and Jackson five times. In 1880, 'Si, '82, '83 and '84, the highest yield per acre was in Washtenaw county, and the highest average for the ten years was in Washtenaw county, the average being 18.91 bushels. In 1880, Washtenaw raised 1,748,087 bushels of wheat, the greatest amount raised by any county in the state in any one of the ten years. Out of 3136 farmers in[the county in 1890, 1978 owned sheep and the average number of sheep to each sheep owner was 60, a higher average than in any other county of the state. Therewere 119,173 sheep in this county in May 1890, and no other county in the state had 100,000. In 1889, 853,767 pounds of wool were sheared. In May, 1890, there were in the county 11,192 horses, 10,592 cows, and 12,324 hogs. Eleven counties had more horses, thirteen had more cows, iïfteen had more hogs, but none could come within 20,000 of us in the number of sheep. In 1888, Washtenaw had a little over 8 cattle to ,every 100 acres of improved land and nearly 46 sheep. In the county, there are 266,096 acres of improved land and 104,456 of unimproved. The average num)er of acres in a farm are 118. 15. The reports show the number of :arms in each township as follows: Ann Arbor, 208; Augusta, 184; 3ridgewater, 192; Dexter, 97; Freedom, 168; Lima, 152; Lodi, 129; yndon, 115; Manchester, 190; Northfield, 158; Pittsfield, 109; Salem, 201; Saline, 142; Scio, 9S; Sharon, 122; Supervisor, 169; Sylvan, 165; Webster, 126; York, 234; and Ypsilanti 177. In 1889, of the townships of the county, Saline raised the most wheat and Lyndon the least, Sharon raised the most corn and Northfield the least. Salem raised the most oats and Lyndon the least. York raised the most potatoes. Superior raised the greatest amount of hay. York had the most horses, Dexter the least. York had the most cows, Augusta the least. York also had the most hogs,Bridgewater the most sheep and sheared the greatest number of pounds of wool. In 1889 Washtenaw raised 101.063 bushels of apples and 13,821 bushels of peaches. There were a number of townships which did not report. Freedom raised the most apples.