tion to the above we find the following industries and manufactures represented: One tannery, six breweries; capital invested in latter, $22,500; one salt works, capital invested, $12,000; establishments of all kinds in county, 208; number of persons employed per month, 832; months of labor, 7,929; wages paid, $228,891; capital invested, $659, 160.

The following is the report of the cereal products of Macomb County for 1877-78:

The following statistical information is taken from the report of the Secretary of State, dealing with the farms and farm products of Michigan for the year 1880, relating to this county:

Horses, 8,829; milch cows, 9,549; other cattle, 8,527; hogs, 11,761; sheep, 104,871; acres devoted to apple orchards, 5,821; to peach orchards, 1,131; acres under clover, 4,274; under barley, 2,178; peas, 1,215; potatoes, 2,847; hay, 29,792; wheat, 34,308; corn, 18,010; oats, 21,035; number of acres of improved land, 158,746; of unimproved, 83,629; total number of acres, 242,375; number of farms, 3,083; average number of acres per farm 78.62.

The taxes, as apportioned for 1880-81, are set forth in the following table:

The total tax levy in this county for the years 1881-82 is $81,105.51, which sum is divided as follows: State tax, $21, 161.76; county tax, $35,650; town tax, $26,293.75.

Richmond..

Harrison..

Erin...

Washington.

Chesterfield.

Armada...

Bruce.

Clinton..

Shelby.

Sterling.

Warren.

Lenox

Macomb..

Ray

33,950 46,990

$45,519 $46,048 $ 47,161 $231,763 $256,559 $374,820 $430,000 $1202,000 23,928 25,132 22,389 115,530 91,297 97,684 98,000 288.090 31,987 34,426 40,664 230,429 236,972, 340,000 385,000 1121,000 76,427 97,973 116,914 730,816 678,771 697,790 730,000 1738.000 60,666 382,857 398,379 423,090 440,000 914,000 59,617 63,766 67,508 385,125 403,486 416,090 440,000 1122.000 63,861, 88,931 94,238 653,333 694,925 712,550, 790,000 1788,000 53,263 106,391 113,586 573,771 580,173 668,160 735,000 894,000 72,553 88,655 87,643 527,435 446,165 465,200 470,000 1014.000 45,190 48,687 49,880 272.341 232,227 340,348 340,000 973.000 42,812 31,237 35,032 231,170 204,285 294,900 340,000 1014.000 42,169 40,338 43,225 221,622 212,090, 315,000 335,000 993,000 49,899 50,287 53.987 266,510 276,721 336,000 350,000 953.000 59,856 64.604 63,353 369,784 362,741 386,430 380,000 894,000

NOTE-In addition to te figures for 1881, the equalized valuation of the city of Mt. Clemens was $1,092,000.

The liquor tax in this county, as finally reported and collected, December, 1881. stands as follows:

The population of the district, organized as Macomb, from 1810 to 1880, is estimated as follows:

A man may wander into remote parts of the earth as a traveler, where for the time being he will lose sight of farms, and where he will be obliged to deny himself the food and comforts they afford. He may consent to prosecute a lucrative business in an inhospitable clime, or where farming is wholly neglected, and its products can only be obtained by long transportation at exorbitant prices, but he will not prolong his sojourn after he has satisfied his curiosity, or succeeded in his temporary purpose.

Permanent and successful agriculture pre-supposes the local existence of every condition essential to popular enjoyment and prosperity. Whatever else of value may distinguish a place, there can be no substitute for this. Agriculture is necessary for the economical development and to the localization of the proceeds of every other resource. However rich any locality may be in timber, salt water, or other substance convertible into marketable commodities, it cannot afford to ignore agriculture. It is true that, beyond the vicinage of a farmer, lumber may be manufactured, mines disemboweled and salt produced; put the money which is realized will take to itself wings. Such an undertaking will require the exportation to a foreign source of agricultural supplies, of the means necessary to procure them. The large sums paid for them, instead of going into the pockets of those who reside in the neighborhood of the consumer to be there expended in improvements, in supporting other branches of industry, and in sustaining an increased trade, go to the remote producers.

AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT.

A paper on the development of the agricultural interests of Macomb County was read before the Farmers' Institute, at Utica, by Judge James B. Eldredge. The subject, as treated, is replete in data and event, and therefore forms a valuable addition to this section of the work. 'Our county,' says the Judge, is one of the oldest in the State, yet it is barely a half-century old. As to its agriculture, it was organized in 1818, and then comprised, in addition to its present territory, a part of Oakland, Lapeer and Sanilac and all of St. Clair. The probable first settler was a Frenchman, one of a body of emigrants, sent over by the French in 1756, to settle about the fort at Detroit to strengthen it. We learn from the State papers' that along the shores of Lake St. Clair in this county, were set

tled here and there French families in 1796, and that in that year were found houses so old as to be untenantable from decay at various points-one at Point Aux Crapeaux, near the present site of New Baltimore. This body of immigrants was, on starting out, furnished with a full supply of grain, seeds and fruits to enable them to test the soil of the new land. Early, these Frenchmen located homes along the watery highway, cleared a few acres very few--erected log houses, tested seed and planted fruit trees; but it is well known that such were the enticements of the chase, that farming was not a material part of their labors. The gun and spear were oftener used than the plow or spade. The woods and waters more easily furnished food and raiment than the field. The early settlers had no market but their own mouths, no care but their own enjoyment. Agriculture did not thrive in those days. The canoe was the only vehicle, the stream and lake the only highway. The labors of the day consisted in the sports of the chase. Food and raiment were gathered from the woods and waters. This state of affairs continued in the main until the year 1820. Prior to this time, nearly all the settled lands in the county were held either as squatters or as purchasers from the Indians, or as 'private claims.' Those settlers who could show a possession in themselves or grantors, back to 1796, were allowed by the United States to survey off not to exceed 640 acres, and to receive a patent therefor. Those private claims fronted on the river or lake, and were mainly held by descendants of the immigrants of 1796. Now and then one of another nation had taken title to these private claims, or had set down beside the Frenchmen, like the Conners and Tuckers, who were early on the Clinton River. It was not until about the year 1720 that there began a flow of farmers into the county-men who came to clear and build, and plow, and cultivate and it is from that year we may date the commencement of the development of the agricultural interests of our county.

The land outside of the private claims was surveyed into sections about the year 1817, and, as a matter of curiosity, we go to the records and note who were the first to take up lands thus surveyed into sections. Let us see who were the first locators outside of the private claims in each town and where they chose. This will enable us to form some idea of where the first settlements and farming began. It is doubtless true that the first lands taken up were not in all cases the first improved, but it was so mainly. Bearing in mind that along the lake shore and up the Clinton River a few miles was a string of hamlets, whose occupants were not farmers, but hunters and fishers, with little garden spots and a few fruit trees, we strike out into the wilderness of sections and see where farming in the county began.

Some of

We table the first three locations in each township, by whom and when. them were mere speculators, but, as I name them, many of you will recall them as pioneers. I take the towns in order of time:

Clinton--Daniel Leroy, September 7, 1818, Section 14; D. G. Jones, February 18, 1822, Sections 3 and 10.

Erin-Christian Clemens, October 7, 1818, Section 14; Villiam Forsyth, May 11, 1820, Section 22.

Macomb G. and D. Greichir, August 12, 1820, Section 35; Alfred Ashley, June 26, 1821, Section 35; David B. Ford, May 22, 1822, Section 25.

Chesterfield-Robert Jean, August 28, 1820, Section 11; James C. Edgerly, June 24, 1823, Section 30; Antoine Rivard, September 8, 1824, Section 21.

Washington-Asahel Bailey, July 3, 1821, Section 33; Gideon Gates, July 5, 1821, Section 27; George Wilson, September 1, 1821, Section 33.

Sterling Eleazer Scott, September 1, 1821, Section 3; James C. Underwood, August 12, 1823, Section 24; Andrew Leon, October 4, 1823, Section 24.

Shelby-James Hazard, November 20, 1821, Section 5; Ezra Burgess, May 13, 1822, Section 7; George Hanscom, June 8, 1822, Section 3.

Bruce-Daniel Hill, November 20, 1821, Section 35; A. Bailey, April 16, 1822, Section 35; Leander Trombly, September 4, 1822, Sections 29 and 20.

Armada John Proctor, November 4, 1823, Section 31; Peter Daniels, June 23, 1824, Section 31; Chauncey Bailey, June 23, 1824, Section 30.

Ray--Benjamin N. Freeman, June 23, 1824, Section 5; Joseph Chubb, October 14, 1824, Section 22; Nathaniel Thompson, October 18, 1824, Sections 8 and 9.

Warren-Charles W. Groesbeck, June 24, 1830, Section 33; Charles Rivard, June 18, 1831, Section 35.

Lenox--Phineas D. Pelton, June 4, 1831, Section 6; Joseph Comstock, September 19, 1831, Section 33; Roswell Green, August 13, 1831, Section 33.

Richmond John Hale, December 1, 1832, Section 30; Edwin B. Rose, December 1. 1832, Section 30; Anson Pettibone, May 13, 1833, Section 19.

What a

Let us picture to ourselves these settlers over so widely scattered locations. map we have! These men, I dare say, did not quarrel about line fences. Around these locations, in time, collected neighborhoods; forests were cut down, buildings erected, fields cleared, harvests grown, needed mills sprang into existence, markets and larger harvests followed; churches and schoolhouses sprang up first among the buildings, to the great surprise of the French, who had been in a line from Detroit to Lake Huron for a half-century and over. From the opening of these locations to 1840, the progress of this county was marked by many improvements in lands and buildings, and the growth of increased crops was rapid and surprising. In 1827, the county consisted of five townships, viz., Washington, Shelby, Ray, Clinton and Harrison. Improved lands in Harrison and Clinton were valued at $10 per acre, and in the other towns at $8 per acre, and all wild lands at $2 per acre. The county tax of that year was $557.59.

In 1832, the first towns were valued, real and personal together, at $263,304; in 1833, at $314,672; in 1834, at $366,962; in 1835, at $474,678; in 1838, $1,226,962. Quite evident here we can see the influence of being the 'eastern end' of the Clinton & Kalamazoo Canal. 'Wildcat' days jumped the value of the county from $474,670, in 1835, to $1,250,000, in 1837. I have been unable to find any reliable statistics prior to the United States census of 1840. I know that figures are dry, but in no other way can we so plainly place in view the growth of the past, as by a table showing the amount of