It will be seen that the check received by the cattle industry during the decade in which the great civil war occurred has not yet been recovered from. The rate of increase in the cattle supply during the ten years ended in 1860 was 7.3 per cent. per year. In the next following decade it was only seven-tenths of 1 per cent. per annum, and since 1870 the rate of increase has been only 4.33 per cent. per year, although the cattle business of the Western plains has in the last fifteen years made the greater part of its growth. From these facts it seems to be safe to conclude that the supply of beef and of dairy products is not likely to so greatly exceed the requirements of the future as to lead to any marked decline in prices of these products. The progress of the cattle interest in the State of Michigan, since the completion of the first trustworthy census of the agricultural industries of the United States, is shown by the statement which follows:

In the table above given the figures presented for the years 1881 and later are from statistics furnished bythe Secretary of State. In those years the working oxen were included in the account of "other cattle."

Of the eighty counties reported in Michigan six had less than an average of 1 milch cow for each 100 acres of improved land; twenty had between 1 and 2 cows per 100 acres; thirty-eight had over 2 and under 3 cows, and sixteen counties had over 3 cows for each 100 acres improved. Óf other cattle three counties had, in 1884, less than 1 cow per 100 acres; fourteen counties had from 1 to 2; twenty-six had from 2 to 3, and thirty-seven had 3 or more for each 100 acres of improved land. Only one county in the upper peninsula showed the possession of 4 cattle other than milch cows for each 100 acres. The distribution of cattle in the State in the year 1884 was, according to very full figures furnished by the Hon. H. D. Conant, Secretary of State of Michigan, as shown in the statement which follows. For convenience the report has been arranged to show a grouping in five geographical divisions, of which the mineral and forest district of the upper peninsula forms one.

The relations which have existed between the population of the State of Michigan and the cattle supply of the State at various times, suggest the changes that have taken place in some of the industries of the State. They also recall the changes that have resulted in the dairying and beef-producing interests of other States, as well as of Michigan, from the settlement of the grassy plains of the States west of Indiana. In the census of 1850 it was shown that Michigan had then 250.6 milch cows, 139.2 working oxen, and 800.5 other cattle for each 1,000 of her population. In the census of 1860 there were 239.7 milch cows, 82.3 working oxen, and 318.5 other cattle for each 1,000 people then in the State. In 1870 the census showed that the number

of milch cows was 211.8 of working oxen 30.8, and of other cattle 219.8 per 1,000 of population, and in 1880 the supply of cows rose to 235 per 1,000 inhabitants, the number of working oxen had dwindled to 24.7, while of all other cattle there were 285 per 1,000. The total supply of cattle of all classes in the State in 1850 gave for each 1,000 inhabitants then in Michigan 690.3 animals. During the next following decade the number shrank to 640.5, and in the ten years during which the civil war made so serious inroads upon the live-stock supply of the whole country there was a further falling off to 462.4 cattle to each 1,000 people. Between the years 1870 and 1880 there was a tendency to restore the supply to the old standing, and the number of cattle rose to 544.7 per 1,000 inhabitants. The whole country had in 1880 some 716.3 per 1,000 inhabitants; but while Michigan had 171.6 fewer cattle of all kinds than the general average of the country, in the total supply of milch cows per 1,000 people she falls only 13 short of that general average.

In the year 1880 the State could muster only 24.7 working oxen for each 1,000 people, while in 1850 there were 139.2. Of cattle of this class there were then in the whole United States only 19.8 for every 1,000 people. The largeness of the supply in Michigan of stock of this kind is accounted for by the fact that considerable numbers of yoke cattle are used in Michigan in lumbering, which forms the occupation of many of the people of this State, and also in the task of clearing away the forests and converting the lands into cultivated farms. This work is going on at a reasonably rapid rate. It is worthy of note that, whereas in nearly every other State there has been a marked falling off year by year in the supply of working oxen, there was an actual increase of 10 per cent. in the number in Michigan between the years 1870 and 1880, the increase having amounted to 3,894. Between the years 1860 and 1870 the supply shrunk very nearly 41 per cent., or 4,126 animals. In this connection may be mentioned the fact that between the years 1860 and 1870 the number of farms in the State was increased by the addition of 36,364 farms, or 58 per cent. Between 1870 and 1880 the increase was 55,222, or 56 per cent. Assuming that the rate of increase in oxen has been maintained during the six years which have passed since the gathering of the last census, there should now be in Michigan 42,816 yoke cattle. If the rate of increase in the number of farms had been kept up in the same years, there would now be in the State 205,755 farms; but the report of the Secretary of State shows the existence of less than 150,000 in 1884.

CHARACTER OF THE CATTLE.

A very large number of the cattle in Michigan are of the common or unimproved class, only 138,500, or 19 per cent., having in their veins the blood of improved or purely bred animals. The common stock is rather larger and of better form and quality than are those of some of the timber-covered States of the Gulf region; but they are inferior to the native or unimproved cattle of the prairie States, where the forage has been more abundant than it is in Michigan. A number of herds of purely bred cattle have been in the State for some years, and have had great influence upon the general character of the cattle of the neighborhood where they have been kept. This work of improvement began by the introduction of Shorthorns many years ago; but little progress was made before the end of the late war. Then high prices and ready sale for beef and for dairy products stimulated the cattle industry greatly, and at the same time gave promise of means

with which to pay for the stock required in the work of improvement. In the years following 1865 a marked activity was observed in the movement of purely bred cattle into the State, and this lasted until the financial reverses of 1873 and following years checked the work for a time. Jerseys, Ayrshires, and Holstein-Friesians, Devons, Galloways, and Shorthorns were taken to many places where no cattle of pure breeding were before kept; and although the fluctuations in the markets for dairy products and for beef have tended to retard the work of improvement, the result from those importations has already been of great value to the commonwealth. A careful canvass of the subject in the year 1884 showed that the cash value of the cattle of Michigan was not less than $7,068,900 more than it would have been had no good blood been introduced. It will be apparent that if the improvement of 19 per cent. of the stock caused an increase of more than $7,000,000 in their value, the increment of value in the whole supply, if good bulls had been used to the exclusion of all others, would have been equal to fully $37,204,720. To have effected that improvement, and to keep up the breeding of the stock, about 8,700 bulls would have been an ample supply. At $500 each, that number of bulls would have cost $4,355,000. This would have left a gain of $32,850,000 in the actual productive value of the stock.

Ayrshires were introduced in Michigan between ten and fifteen years ago, but seem to have failed to win the lasting favor of the farmers, for only a very few animals of that race are mentioned by correspondents, and only one or two herds of purely bred Ayrshires are noted as being kept in the State. The State Agricultural College has long kept a few Ayrshires, and for several years herds were maintained in Clinton and one or two other counties.

Shorthorns are mentioned as having been taken to the southeastern counties of Michigan fully forty years ago. It is not unlikely that grade cattle sired by Shorthorn bulls went to that district even earlier, and that no record was made of the importation. Washtenaw and Livingstone Counties obtained purely bred Shorthorns twenty years ago. Other southern counties were only a few years later in importing animals of that breed, but movement in the direction of improvement had not much force before the year 1875. In Michigan, as in most other States, the breed named spread more widely and rapidly than did any other race, except, perhaps, the HolsteinFriesians. There was in the size, color, and readiness to fatten exhibited by the Shorthorns that which readily attracted the attention of farmers and led them to try the cattle. The genuine worth of the stock gave sufficient reason for continuing to use them. The race has many warm friends among the farmers and dairymen of Michigan. In the year 1852 an importation of Galloway cattle into Canada. was made from Scotland. This led to the purchase, in Canada, by the Agricultural College of Michigan, in 1854, of a Galloway bull. This animal was used for some time at the college, and left a large number of descendants. Since his purchase the college has always had a representative of the Galloway race on its farm. The next importation of stock of that breed was made by J. N. Smith, of Bath, and George Coleman, of Howells, who were for years almost the only farmers in the United States who owned representatives of the breed. From this center the Galloways spread slowly. People seemed to feel a prejudice against the stock because they were hornless and black. Since the year 1875 several herds of Galloways have been established in widely separated parts of the State, and the breed seems