great fair of the Northern Union Society in Grand Rapids, the breeding animals of the best full-blooded cattle have become very deficient in our county,-a deficiency that cannot too soon be remedied. We strongly recommend that more attention be given to this important interest, believing that it will be found a good paying investment. Horses.-Genesee County never was better supplied with fine horses. Unlike the horned cattle, the interest in this class of stock increases rather than diminishes, and we can point with pride to the very many superior horses kept by nearly all classes of our citizens. In common with those of the rest of the country, our horses were affected with the universal epidemic which prevailed over the continent; but usually the malady did not visit them heavily, and we have heard of but a very few fatal cases. Sheep and Wool.-The appreciating value of wool has given a fresh impetus to the rising interest felt in sheep culture We believe there are no better flocks of fine-wooled sheep to be found in the State than Genesee County can exhibit; and the flocks of middle and coarse wools are increasing in numbers and quality every year. The wool clip was a fair one. Most of the large sheep-farmers declined to sell their clip at the usual time for marketing wool, feeling confident that its value would increase over the prices then offered, before the close of the year. In this they were not disappointed. The bulk of the clip of this county was thus held until the month of November, about which time it was sold at an average of fifty-eight cents. Swine. In swine, the smaller breeds are fast superseding the large ones, with the majority of farmers. Suffolk, Essex, Berkshire, and their crosses, seem to be the favorites with those who bestow most attention upon the improvement of this line of stock, the reasons for this preference, set forth in former reports of this Board, still commending themselves to approval. The quantity of pork marketed has been and continues to be large, and the quality good; the average weight of the same breeds being considerably over that of last year. MANUFACTURES. The manufacturing interests of the county exhibit no new features; but those existing continue to increase in extent, value, and importance. TRANSACTIONS. In the transactions of the year there was nothing of especial note. At the twenty-second annual meeting, held on the second Wednesday of January, 1872, you elected the following officers: President-Charles Pettis of Davison. Secretary-F. H. Rankin of city of Flint. Directors-To fill vacancy for one year (caused by the election of Charles Pettis president)-H. G. Conger of Burton; for two years each-L. P. Andrews of city of Flint; E. W. Rising of Richfield; Y. E. Benton of Fenton; F. H. Kellicut of Clayton. The board of management met on the 13th of March for revision of the premium list, and completed the same on the 1st of June. Numerous additions and modifications were made in the premiums offered, so as to extend the range of the list as far as the financial liabilities of the Society at that time would seem to admit. There is no matter to which this Board gives more careful consideration than the selection of the original committees of judges appointed to award the premiums at the fair, and no part of our duty which presents more difficulties in arriving at satisfactory final results. In making the appointment we have to consider: 1. His being well qualified to judge in the particular class to which he is appointed. 2. The probabilities of his being himself a competitor in that class, which would exclude him, under our by-laws, from being a judge in the class where he competes. 3. A due distribution of the appointment throughout the county, as far as practicable, so as not to seem to favor any sections above others. 4. A pervading indisposition to serve as such judges, partly from unwillingness to spare the time it ties up the member from the general enjoyment of the occasion, partly from the proneness. of unsuccessful competitors to find fault with the decisions of the judges when made, and to charge them with partiality. There are in the neighborhood of 120 such appointments to be made, and in making them, we have thus to avoid, if possible, unqualified persons, competitors, the location of the appointees too near together, and the appointment of those likely to refuse to act. Having, with all these considerations. in mind in each case, completed our appointments, the usual experience is that not over one-third of the judges selected will be present to serve. Then, the only resource of this Board is to fill the vacancies to the best of their judgment, from such persons as they can find upon the grounds willing to act. If those who think they have reason sometimes to take exception to the judges would reflect a little upon these obstacles, we think they would be less inclined to fault-finding. The Annual Fair held on the 1st, 2d, 3d, and 4th of October was well attended, and very successful,-except on Wednesday, the second day, which was wet and disagreeable, the weather was all that could be wished for. In several of the classes of exhibition, as working oxen, sheep, swine, fruit, vegetables, carriages, farm implements, and others, the display was never excelled, and in some of them has not heretofore been equalled in this county. The show of handsome. carriages, buggies, cutters, etc., manufactured in Flint, was so extensive that we found it necessary to erect a separate shed for their accommodation. The exhibition of agricultural implements was also unusually large and complete. The awards of the judges, upon review, were all confirmed, and where they recommended discretionary premiums we have conferred them upon all articles eligible to receive premiums under the constitution and by-laws of the society. The awards and reports of the committees of judges have been published in full. For a statement of receipts and disbursements, and financial condition of the society, we would refer you to the report of the treasurer and of the finance committee. All of which is respectfully submitted for the Board of Management. Flint, December 31, 1872. F. H. RANKIN, Secretary. HILLSDALE COUNTY. To the State Board of Agriculture for Michigan : GENTLEMEN-In presenting the twenty-second Annual Report of the Hillsdale County Agricultural Society, for the year 1872, we are again reminded of the fleetness of time, the brevity of life, and the uncertainty of human calculations. Since our last report, many of the strong pillars of advancing science in agriculture have taught their last lessons in the ennobling work, and it is left for others to carry forward the interests they so nobly begun. It is a pleasure to speak of home interests as being in a prosperous condition, even if they are not as elevated as we would desire to see them. The steady, every-day progress in life is in the end the sure victor. The history of agriculture in the centuries past show it a plant of slow growth, subject to the vicissitudes of the elements, and the freaks and fancies of man. It is pleasant for us to contrast the present with the short period of thirty years past, although it spans a chasm in our history, and in the history of the whole country, inimical to all the drawbacks of civilization, refinement, and high progress in the arts and sciences; adverse to the advancement of the husbandman in numerous ways; yet, with all these impediments, great and noble results have been reached, and stand as monuments, attesting the intelligence and energy of our people. In no section is this more clearly demonstrated than in our own Peninsular State. The progress made in the last thirty years in developing her agricultural, mineral, and mechanical resources, challenge comparison. The intelligence of her people, with her facilities for spreading it to the rising generation, are proverbial. Her university, colleges, academies, seminaries, and union schools, with her noble experimental college and farm, all speak her greatness now and in the future. Our county of Hillsdale claims an interest in these institutions. From her infancy she has been the advocate and supporter of all,-in her manhood she endows and supports the second of the number. And, being of the first in the State to put our union school system into successful practice, it is little wonder that her people are found ready for every prospective improvement. Our greatest want is a higher intellectual development of our tillers of the soil, in their favorite pursuit. Many, very many, were educated, "if at all," in the old school; they do as their fathers did before them, and feel they have done all things well, when in fact they have been far behind in originating and carrying forward measures for the advancement of science, even in their own agricultural interests. Our adaptations in soil and climate require a mixed course of agriculture. Destitute of the large motive power possessed by many other counties, and without the mineral products of a vast portion of the State, we are brought to the level of making our living from the products of the soil, our mechanical productions being auxilliary thereto. From the three years of excessive drought with which we |