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The crops of 1863, as returned to this office, were gathered from about one-half of the "cleared lands" in the State. But it by no means follows that the other half is fallow. In the non-returned half are orchards, vine yards, pastures, and small crops. A portion of it, certainly, is fallow.

MIAMI VALLEY.

The lower portion of this valley rests directly upon the Silurian limestone formation, and the upper portion upon the Corniferous lime-stone. In the immediate vicinity of the Miami and Mad rivers the soil contains the shells of many species of fresh water mollusca in a state of disintegra tion. These shells will furnish lime to the soil for many years to come; the soil is deep, and an additional inch to the usual depth in plowing produces a very marked effect upon the succeeding crops.

The following statement shows the agronomic condition of the valley. Its population per square mile exceeds that of any other valley in the State; but it must not be forgotten that Cincinnati, the Queen City of the West, is situated in it, and in which is concentrated fully one-fourth of the entire population of the valley:

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From this it will be seen, that if the entire area of the valley was in a state

of cultivation, and estimating to each individual the same number of acres in

Wheat, rye, barley, buckwheat, corn, oats, flax-seed, and potatoes.

+ Tobacco, sorgho, clover, and meadow.

crops as in 1863, then the valley could contain 1,772,829 inhabitants and the industrial product per capita remain the same as at present. From the number of miles of railroad in comparison with square miles of area, it will be seen that this valley enjoys more facilities for the shipment of sur plus products than any other equal portion of the State.

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In the annexed table is a detailed statement of the specific crops returned, together with the acreage, aggregate product, and product per acre. The fourth column shows the per centage or proportion of area in bearing in each particular crop. Thus, it will be observed, that 32.40, or nearly 33 per cent. of the entire area in crops was devoted to wheat, nearly 37 per cent. to corn, and less than 10 per cent. was in meadow. From this we naturally infer that comparatively little grazing is done here.

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Notwithstanding the fact that this valley, in 1863, produced more than one-half of the tobacco grown in the State, yet it employed no more than 11 per cent. of the area in crops, or about one-half of one per cent. of the entire area; that is, in other words, about half an acre in one hundred.

This fourth column solves another very important problem, namely, what relative proportions of one hundred acres of cleared and tillable land are put in the several kinds of crops. Whether the farmers in this valley have adopted the system of growing such crops only as are most successful on each individual farm; or whether they have by experience learned which is the best relative proportion in which to grow crops; in either event the valley taken as a whole shows that a farmer having one hundred acres to put in crops, divides them as follows, viz:

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And the next table will show that, in addition to these crops, nearly 11 head of horses, almost 17 head of cattle, 31 head of sheep, and 31 head of swine are kept on the same 100 acres. The amount of horses is considerably above the normal average, owing to the large number of horses in the city of Cincinnati; probably 4 or 5 horses are as many as really are kept on the farm of one hundred acres of cropping land.

The fifth and sixth columns exhibit respectively the proportion of the entire crop of the State which is grown in the valley, and the proportion of the land in crops in the State in each particular crop in the valley. Thus, the Miami valley produces 27 per cent., or more than one-fourth of all the wheat produced in the State in 1863, on just one-fourth the amount of land in wheat in the State. This proves that the wheat crop in the valley is fully 2 per cent. more than an average yielded in other portions of the State. About 40 per cent. of the area in barley in the State, is grown in the valley, and yields nearly one half (45 per cent.) of the barley grown; this shows that either the barley crop is well adapted to the soil of the valley, or else the farmers here understand how to grow it suecessfully-better than their co-laborers elsewhere do. Neither clover nor meadow crops appear to have done as well in the valley as elsewhere, because there is a greater proportion of the area in these crops in proportion to their products than in some other valleys. Corn, rye and tobacco appear to be well adapted to this valley, but potatoes do not do so well; onefourth of the entire area in potatoes in the State was cultivated in this

valley, whilst it yielded one-fifth only of the entire product. But the per centage of the yield of buckwheat is just double the per centage of the relative amount of land in this crop.

Now, we take it for granted that the crop returns made by the assessors are equally reliable from all portions of the State. Is it then true that the farmers in the Miami valley understand the culture of some crops better, and of others not so well, as farmers of other valleys, or, is the soil in this valley better adapted to the growth of these extra average crops, and not so well adapted to those which fall below the average? We are well aware that the frost in August seriously injured the corn, sorgho, potato and tobacco crops, but that would affect the gross product but not affect the pro rata, from the fact that the frost extended over the entire State.

We have now, including Table No. 3, analyzed the crop and live stock returns of the Miami valley, and from this the agronomic condition of the valley must be apparent to the careful reader.

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Now, if we suppose each family to consist of five persons, we have the following as the agronomic condition of each family, including the city of Cincinnati, viz:

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From these tables in the aggregate it will be seen that the valley is in a

condition to export much of its "bushel" crops and largely of tobacco, yet it must import much butter, sugar, syrup and hay.

SCIOTO VALLEY.

This valley is composed of the counties of Adams, Delaware, Fayette, Franklin, Hardin, Highland, Jackson, Madison, Marion, Morrow, Pike, Pickaway, Ross, Scioto and Union. These counties embrace within their limits all the waters of the Scioto, and form a "valley" of about 160 miles in length, and an average breadth of less than 50 miles. The soil and topography of this valley varies much more than in any other valley in the State. The counties of Jackson and Pickaway contrast strongly in their topography, as well as in their soil and comparative perfection in agriculture. The geological formation of the lands west of the right bank of the Scioto differs from that on the east of the left bank. The formation west of the stream does not differ materially from that of the Miami valley, whilst that on the east almost embraces the lower series of the carboniferous formation. On the west of the river the lands are very level, on the east more "rolling," and from Pickaway county to the Ohio river the lands are very "broken," with many pleasant, fertile and extensive vales intervening.

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Amount of acres in crops in 1863, measured by the bushel.......

886,419

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Notwithstanding the fact that the Scioto has nearly half a million more acres of taxable lands than the Miami, it has fully half a million acres more woodland, and in 1863 had 337,459 acres in crops less than its rival. In

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