Imagens da página
PDF
ePub

its meetings annually at various places in the State, and as often publish their proceedings in pamphlet form.

STATE BOARD OF PUBLIC HEALTH.

This board was established in 1873, and consists of seven members, appointed by the Governor, the Secretary ex officio, a member and principal executive officer. It is the duty of this board to make sanitary investigations and inquiries respecting the causes of disease, especially of epidemics; the causes of mortality, and the effects of localities, employments, conditions, ingesta, habits and circumstances on the health of the people; to advise other officers in regard to the location, drainage, water supply, disposal of excreta, heating and ventilation of any public building; and also to advise all local health officers concerning their duties, and to recommend standard works from time to time on hygiene for the use of public schools. The secretary is required to collect information concerning vital statistics, knowledge respecting diseases, and all useful information on the subject of hygiene, and through an annual report, and otherwise, as the board may direct, to disseminate such information among the people. These interesting duties have been performed by Dr. Henry B. Baker from the organization of the board to the present time. The board meets quarterly at Lansing.

CHAPTER IX.

MICHIGAN AND ITS RESOURCES.

The pig metal produced by the upper peninsula furnaces during the year 1880 had an approximate market value of $1,941,000 and the whole of the total output of the Lake Superior iron mines for that year was about $19,500,000. The aggregate product of these furnaces and mines between the date of the Jackson discovery and the close of the last calendar year was more than $118,000,000. The product of 1881 promises to exceed $20,000,000 in value.

THE IRON AND STEEL INDUSTRIES.

In what are called the iron and steel industries—including in these terms furnaces, rolling mills, steel-works, forges and bloomaries, and excluding minesMichigan ranked as the eighth State in 1880 according to the figures collected for the United States census of that year. It was surpassed by Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, Illinois, New Jersey, Wisconsin and West Virginia. Its increase in this production from 1870 to 1880 was sixty-five per cent., and the totals of the returns for 1880 were as follows:

[blocks in formation]

At the close of 1880 the Lake Superior copper districts had produced $301,654 tons of refined copper valued at $142,616,137. The total output of that year was 24,869 tons valued at $9,947,673, which was taken from thirty mines. The production of 1881 will surpass that of any previous year. A paragraph which appeared in an upper peninsula newspaper stating that "the net earnings of the Lake Superior copper mines for the first half of the year 1881 exceed those of any precious metal mining state or territory in the Union," was submitted for verificacation to Eastern mining authorities, and elicited in reply the following statement, fully substantiating the assertion of the newspaper referred to. The figures given show the net earnings of the gold, silver and copper mines of the States and territories embraced in them for the first six months of 1881:

[blocks in formation]

The natural products of the State in 1879-the latest year concerning which statistics are complete-were estimated by Gov. Jerome in his message to the legislature at the beginning of 1881, to amount to a valuation of nearly $170,000,000, made up of the following items:

[blocks in formation]

MICHIGAN CROPS FOR 1881.

Returns received from 913 correspondents, located in 664 townships in December, 1881, show the estimated acreage and condition of wheat sowed in 1881 as compared with 1880, the estimated yield in 1881 of corn, clover seed, and potatoes, and the condition (as regards flesh) of cattle and sheep on Dec. 1, as compared with Dec. 1, 1880. The estimates show that the present acreage sown in 1880 by two per cent, and in the counties north of the southern tiers by six per cent., indicating a probable acreage in the State of about 1,834,529 acres. The condition Dec. 1 in the southern four tiers of counties was about 132 per cent., and in the northern counties about 117 per cent., of the condition Dec. 1, 1880. This excellent showing is supplemented in numerous instances by statements that the wheat presents an unusually fine appearance, having started well and obtained large growth. The white grub and Hessian fly are reported present in various localities, but while they undoubtedly did injure individual fields, the reports do not indicate that their ravages noticeably affected the aggregate product of the State. Wheat seldom, if ever, has gone into the Winter in better condition than this year.

The yield of corn in 1881 is estimated at 40,460,901 bushels of ears, or about 20,230,450 bushels of shelled corn. These figures are based on the acreage as estimated in September, and the yield per acre as estimated in December. At the date of making the reports but a small portion of the clover seed had been hulled, and correspondents in the counties in the southern part of the State, and in Grand Traverse and Newaygo counties in the northern section, report the clover seed greatly damaged by the wet weather, many fields being entirely ruined. Some of them estimate one-fourth of the crop destroyed. One correspondent in Cass reported fifteen per cent. rotting in the fields, and another thinks not a bushel will be saved in his township.

The yield of potatoes is estimated at fifty-five bushels per acre in the southern and 109 bushels in the northern counties.

The average condition (as regards flesh) of cattle in the southern four tiers of counties is about the same, and of sheep two per cent. better, while in the northern counties the average of each is about seven per cent. better than on Dec. 1, 1880.

The following statement shows the Population for 1880, Number of Acres of Land Assessed in 1881, Aggregate of Real and Personal Estate as Assessed in 1881, Aggregate of Real and Personal Estate as Equalized by Boards of Supervisors for 1881, Amount Added or Deducted by State Board of Equalization, Aggregate of Real and Personal Estate as Equalized by State Board of Equalization for 1881:

sto

[graphic][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed]

THE VESSEL INTEREST.

According to the tonnage statistics of the United States for the date of June 30, 1880 (as given in the American almanac for 1881), not one of the States located away from the ocean coast equals Michigan in the number of vessels owned by its citizens or in their aggregate tonnage. The exact figures are given in this table:

[blocks in formation]

Michigan also surpasses, in this respect, the seaboard States of Connecticut, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Oregon, and all the cotton and gulf States, while it far outstrips in tonnage both Virginia and Maryland, although surpassed by them in the number of vessels. It exceeds California in the number of its vessels, but not in the tonnage total. The coast line of Michigan is only surpassed by that of Florida, and it has ports upon four of the great lakes. Its coasting traides exceedingly valuable, and its vessel interest represents much capital and nterprise, and deserves an important place in a catalogue of its sources of employment for labor. In this connection the fact should be mentioned that ship yards are located at Detroit, Wyandotte, Port Huron, Bay City, Marine City, St. Clair, Grand Haven and other shore towns and ports.

THE GROWTH OF FORTY YEARS.

A subject of such vital interest demands the first attention of every agricultural society and every agriculturist in the State, and to present at a glance the growth and magnitude of the industry, we have prepared from authentic sources, a little table showing the acreage, the yield per acre, when possible, and the aggregate bushels grown at intervals for the last forty years:

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]
« AnteriorContinuar »