The improved is seventy-three per cent of area, or the improved to the unimproved is as 73 to 27. The proportion of the improved land in the group, to aggregate improved land in the State, is two per cent, and of unimproved it is 2.5 per cent. The area of improved land never can be materially increased, and must always maintain the same relative position to the unimproved that it does. now. There are no extensive tracts of forests or swamps to be cleared or reclaimed; hence there will be no perceptible increase of improved land, because the exigencies of an increasing city or village population will absorb quite as much as may be reclaimed from marshes and swamps which are now being improved. The excess of city and village population-equal to 67 per cent, indicates the tendency to concentration into large towns or around manufac turing centres, and that the consumers largely exceed the producers, so far as agriculture is concerned. The proportion of population of group to aggregate population of State, is nine per cent, and of rural population three per cent. The average population to aggregate square miles, is 105 persons per square mile. The gross population to improved square miles, is 143 persons to one square mile. The rural population to the improved land, is 49 persons to the square mile. VALUATIONS. Cash value of farms, stock and, implements, by State census of 1855, The incorporated cities are Troy, Hudson and Poughkeepsie; 'the villages are numerous, and both city and villages possess the elements of increasing population and wealth. The valuation of real estate by the State Assessors, and of personal, by the town assessors, whereon the report of the board of equalization was .based, for the years 1862 and 1863, are as follows: The details of the cash of the above statement are tabulated and shown in tables B and C of the appendix to this group. The average value of farms, stock and implements, per acre is: The average number of acres of improved land to each farm, is 78. The total miles of natural and artificial routes of traffic are: The proportion of traffic route to the square mile of area, is 5.5 square miles to 1 mile of route. Of the improved land, the pasturage is 40 per cent, being 4 per cent above the average of the whole State. The meadow is 23 per cent, or 1 per cent below the general average. Owing to the hilly condition of the surface, this excess of pasturage is accounted for, as well as the preponderance of meadow and pasturage, which is 63 per cent of the whole improved land. The course of farming also requires the excess of pasturage. But the straw of the rye, wheat, and oat crop forms an article of com- Total value of vegetable products..... Which is $11.61 per acre of the land in tillage. $9,961,871 Of the improved land there is only 27 per cent. under the plow annually and in grain crops, while there is 63 per cent. of meadow and pasture. The meadow only falls 4 per cent, below the plowed land. Nearly 3 per cent. of the land planted to wheat in the State is grown here, yet, at the beginning of the present century, some of the most productive wheat lands in the State were found in the counties of this group. Nor has their fertility been exhausted to such an extent as to prevent the cultivation of this cereal. On the contrary, it could be grown as well now as fifty years ago, so far as the mineral constituents of the soil are concerned. Its neglected cultivation may be traced to two causes. The first is in the depredations of the midge or fly, which has rendered the crop so uncertain that its cultivation ceases to be profitable; and the second is, the great increase of population, has made a different system of farming more profitable, and therefore more desirable. The soil is so constituted that it must ever remain a first class wheat soil. The corn crop forms 15 per cent. of the general crop of the State, and 75 per cent. of all the improved lands of the group. The average product per acre is, however, only 20 bushels, being 3 bushels per acre less than the general average. It is in defective cultivation that it is not as much above, for the soil is genial for it. The precarious nature of winter wheat cultivation is shown in the fact that the average yield was only 5 bushels per acre, while the general State average was 12 bushels. But still much is due to the very defective system of its cultivation. Of the straw-producing crops, rye forms the most important in their system of farming, though the most exhaustive: for not only is the straw sold from off the farm, but also the grain. It however receives the most care of any crop cultivated, having the benefit of the scanty supply of manure usually saved, and is the most productive in acreable yield. The potash and lime abounding in the soil, makes the cultivation of this grain more productive than it otherwise would be under their exhaustive system. of cultivation. Six per cent. of the cultivated land is in rye, and the yield is at the average rate of 14 bushels per acre, or 4 bushels above the general average. This only shows what might be done with other crops if they were properly cultivated, or if their cultivation furnished a profitable return. Over 35 per cent. of the land sown to rye in the whole State is sown here, and over 45 per cent. of all grown is also grown here. The acres in oats are 9 per cent. of its cultivated land, and 11 per cent. of the general average, and the yield was 18 bushels per acre, being 2 bushels less than the general average. Barley is not a favorite among the straw crops, from the fact that its straw has little or no value for market. Only nine acres in one thousand of the improved land were devoted to this crop, and the average yield per acre was 17 bushels, being equal to the general average of the State. Buckwheat was more largely cultivated, the hilly and mountainous surface furnishing much land congenial to this plant. The proportion is ten per cent. of the general average, and the average product is 8 bushels per acre, which is that of the whole State. The same reason given as in the case of barley, for the moderate cultivation of this plant, is, the straw has no market value. The cultivation of the potato forms an important part of the farming in all the counties of this group, and especially in Washington county, yet the proportion is only 16 per cent. of the general aggregate, while the average yield is sixty bushels per acre, being nine bushels less than the general average, caused by the defective cultivation, as the soil is admirably adapted to the cultivation of the tuber. ANIMALS AND VALUE OF THEIR PRODUCTS. Reducing sheep to cattle equivalent, and they represent cattle...... 51,643 Whole number of cattle or their equivalent................ $202,523 The aggregate of improved land to cattle is seven acres to one animal, though the general average of the State is one animal to four acres. Add value of swine over 6 months old, as that would represent the The eattle killed for beef, 23,379 at $20 per head.... $663,672 266,660 80,652 One-twentieth of the horses supposed to be sold annually, 2,555 Total annual value of surplus products of animals...................... To this may be added the value of vegetable products, which represent a surplus, viz: Meadow products in hay..... 76,650 $3,537,893 do grass seed. do spring wheat $3,956,700 49,464 138,135 25,332 .......... .......... 140,418 26.120 214,895 75,210 114,497 1,390,870 $9,679,740 Total value of annual surplus products of agriculture...... This sum is equal to $6.07 per acre of the improved land, and makes the annual average surplus of the farm $473, which is not far from 7c profit on capital invested. The proportions which each bear to the aggregate of the same item in the group, or to the whole State, is as follows: The neat cattle are 8 per cent. of the general aggregate. Of these, those under one year are 12 per cent. of the aggregate of the group, and 3 per cent. below the general aggregate. Of those over one year, exclusive of cows and oxen, there are 21 per cent. or 5 per cent. below the gen eral aggregate. Of the aggregate of cattle in the group, 12 per cent. are working oxen, and the oxen are 16 per cent. of the general aggregate. |