66 composed of pioneers who, in the language of one of their few surviving members, were trying to work out the problem which continues to this day to be exemplified in the financial policy of the State, earn your money before you spend it." The population of the territory at the beginning of this period was 31,639. When the ten years had elapsed it was found to have increased nearly seven-fold, its inhabitants numbering 212,267. The rate of increase had been 570 per cent. In no subsequent decade has it exceeded 92 per cent. This enormous accession was the element which stamped the civilization of the State. A large portion of it came from New England -most of it from the rural counties of New York-all of it bore the impress of genuine American thought and character. The institutions of the State, the nature of its laws, the ideas which control popular expressions and the tendency of sentiment which generally prevails, modified in their actual application by the enlarged conditions of a fresh and advancing society, as well as many of the names of its towns and villages, betray the origin of the element which is paramount in Michigan. The characteristics it introduced have never been lost. There have been large and welcome additions to the population of the State from many parts of this country and from most of the countries of Europe. They came to Michigan expecting to find a moral, intelligent and industrious American State, and they have not been disappointed. The process of assimilation has gone harmoniously forward, and no sectional or national distinctions disturb its citizens of either native or foreign birth. The prizes of business and political success are open alike to both, and even differences of language are lost after the lapse of a generation. But the fundamental sentiments and ideas which formed Michigan character nearly fifty years ago are respected still, and there are few among its people who desire a change. GROWTH OF THE MANUFACTURING INTEREST. The expansion of the manufacturing interest of the State is exhibited in the subjoined figures. They are taken from the Census Reports of 1850, 1860 and 1870, that for 1880 not being completed. All kinds of manufactures are included: INCREASE IN FARMING AND ASSESSED LANDS. There were 34,089 farms in the State in 1850, in which were included 1,929,110 acres of improved land. "Compared with 1870," the Secretary of State said in his report of December 14, 1880, "the total area in farms has increased 866,974 acres, or 8.58 per cent. Of this increase 785,304 acres are in the counties north of the southern four tiers. The area of improved land in farms is 1,128,252 acres greater than in 1870, of which 552,460 acres are in the northern counties. In other words, in that portion of the State known as Northern Michigan, which is here taken to include all counties north of the southern four tiers, where ten years ago the total area in farms was only 1,923,550 acres, and the improved lands in farms only 411,217 acres, there is to-day an aggregate acreage in farms of 2,708,854 acres, and the improved land amounts to 963,677 acres. This was said more than a year ago. The number of farms in 1881 was 119,769, containing 11,077,165 acres, of which 6,374,385 were improved. This increase is steadily going forward, and the northern counties of the State are receiving large additions to their population constantly. A very considerable amount of land has been taken up for agricultural purposes in the upper peninsula, and the indications point to a more rapid settlement of all the northern portions of the State than ever before. There were assessed for taxes in 1881, 29,306,820 acres. In 1861 the number of acres assessed was 15,162,710; in 1871 it was 20,515,388. The rate of increase during the last ten years has been more than 42 per cent. The total number of acres in the State, including the large extent of mineral lands on Lake Superior and 784,000 acres covered by inland lakes, is 37,705,600. AVERAGE SIZE OF FARMS. The sig The average size of the farms in Michigan is a fraction over 92 acres. nificance of this showing will be better appreciated in those countries of Europe where large land-holders engross most of the soil and the actual farmers are only tenants. Here a tenant-farmer is scarcely known. Whether large or small, the farmer's fields are his own. The exceptions are not numerous enough to note. THE PRODUCTS OF A YEAR. The natural products of the State in 1879 were estimated by Gov. Jerome in his message to the Legislature at the beginning of 1881 to amount to a valuation of nearly one hundred and seventy millions of dollars, made up of the following items: Agricultural Products... Timber Copper Iron.... Salt Fish.. $88,500,000 60,000,000 8,000,000 10,000,000 2,000,000 1,000,000 THE REALIZED WEALTH OF THE STATE. The Constitution of 1850 required the Legislature to provide "for an equalization by a State Board in the year 1851, and every fifth year thereafter, of assessments on all taxable property except that paying specific taxes." The statements made by this board at each successive meeting indicate the progressive increase in the amount of taxable property. The valuations it has established during the 30 years of its existence have been as follows, the figures representing both real and personal estate. An extra session was held in 1853 by direction of the Legislature, to revise the action of 1851: The general depression prevailing throughout the business of the country between 1873 and 1876 caused large depreciation in the values of many kinds of property, and left the valuation of 1876 the same as that of 1871. During the last five years the mining and navigation interests have revived, pine lands have increased in value, manufacturers have largely extended their scope, real estate has enhanced its prices, and business of all kinds has attained an unprecedented prosperity. The advance of nearly 30 per cent in the valuation of taxable property in that period fairly represents a legitimate growth. A very large amount of the property of the State is excluded from its assessed valuation. All the railroads, aggregating over four thousand miles in length, with their rolling-stock, machine-shops and other accessories, and some other corporations, pay taxes at specific rates, and are out of the scope of the assessment officers. All houses of public worship and cemeteries; the personal property of all library, benevolent, charitable and scientific institutions, and such real estate as they may actually occupy; the public property of counties, cities, villages, townships and school districts actually used for corporate purposes; property of the State and of the United States, including unoccupied lands; land grants made to promote public communications (for limited terms), and liberal allowances of household goods, are exempt from taxation. It was the estimate of Gov. Croswell in his retiring message to the Legislature, January, 1881, that, including the interests which pay specific taxes and those which are exempt from taxation, the aggregate property of the State was not less than Twelve Hundred Millions of Dollars. LABOR AND ITS INDUCEMENTS. There is nothing in either the soil or the climate, or other natural advantages of Michigan, which exempts those who settle in the State from the common conditions of success in every part of the world. If a man without means chooses to lead an idle and thriftless life, he can starve to death here as soon as anywhere else. But there is no portion of the Union, either in the States or territories, which offers larger encouragement to industry and economy. The laborer, seeking employment with an honest desire to earn a living, and willing to render a fair day's work for a fair day's wages, can always, under ordinary business conditions, find something to do for which he will be well paid. A few years of labor and frugality, in which steadiness and growing experience will, as in every other pursuit, enhance from year to year the value and compensation of his services, will ensure savings enough to buy land. If he has chosen one of the newer sections of the State for his residence he may readily secure a farm in the neighborhood to which he has become accustomed, at low prices and on easy terms, and the same qualities which gave him a start will establish his prosperity and independence on a sure and enduring basis. The mines, It is not alone the work of the farm that affords openings to labor. furnaces, lumber camps, mills, manufactories and mechanic arts of the State, continually increasing in number and variety, furnish a growing and diversified demand for every kind of employment that a man can pursue either with his head or his hands. And there is no region on earth where brains and muscle can work more advantageously together. THE INDUSTRIES OF MICHIGAN. Although agriculture is the chief producing interest of this State, and engages the attention of the largest share of its people, fertile farms and prolific orchards have not alone contributed to its prosperity. Noted for its wheat, its wool and its fruit, it is also the first of the United States in its production of lumber, salt, charcoal pig iron, and copper, and in the extent of its fresh-water fisheries, certainly first in the value and probably first in the amount of its yield of iron ore, and among the most advanced in its general manufacturing and commercial development. While a few States excel it in the volume of their crops, and some in the aggregate of their industrial statistics, none can equal it in the magnitude and diversity of its resources, taken together. Its forests, mines, mills and factories, while offering employment to all grades of labor, from the unskilled worker with the pick and shovel to the most expert mechanic, also create a large and constant local demand for the farm products of the State, and thus doubly promote the general progress. The full extent of the invitation Michigan thus proffers to the laborer and the artisan in search of work and to the farmer of small means who desires to purchase new lands, and to secure a home market for his surplus produce, can be best made plain by brief accounts of the history and condition of its leading industries. LUMBER. Before the axe of the lumberman commenced its work on the forests of Michigan, the northern part of its lower peninsula surpassed any known region of the same area in the richness of its stock of timber. Interspersed with the best varieties of pine were extensive growths of oak, maple, beech, ash, walnut, cherry, whitewood, hickory and elm, while the less valuable cedar, hemlock, basswood and tamarack grew, in some sections, in equal abundance. In the upper peninsula pine existed also in large quantities, and broad tracts of hard wood invited the erection of furnaces for the manufacture of the best grades of charcoal iron. Magnificent forests of hard timber covered the greater part of the southern counties, now so rich in agricultural wealth. A more comprehensive account of the timber resources of the State is printed on succeeding pages, from the pen of Prof. W. J. Beal, the accomplished botanist of the Agricultural College. Much of the timber product of the State has been of an exceedingly superior quality. Its cork pine ranks among the best of the soft woods, and commands the highest market price. Its common grades of white and Norway pine are of standard value, while its harder woods are in demand in the ship-yards, factories and cabinet shops of this and the European continent. Two-thirds of the best lumber sold in the markets of New York, Philadelphia and Boston goes from its mills, which also supply the heavy building demands of this and neighboring States, especially the prairie States; and it exports annually to foreign countries large shipments of hewn oak and pine timber, staves and veneering stock. THE CHIEF MANUFACTURING INTEREST OF THE STATE. For more than a score of years lumbering has been the chief manufacturing interest of Michigan, and no American State equals it at the present time in the extent and value of its lumber product. The State has never collected and compiled the annual statistics of this industry, and the most trustworthy sources of information upon the subject are the elaborate publications of journalists connected with papers representing that interest, or issued at the centers of the manufacture. Even these are deficient in statistics covering the trade in spars, staves, heading, and long timber, and the thousands of cords of fuel chopped and sold annually have gone unrecorded, as also have the heavy shipments of railroad ties, cedar telegraph poles, piles, paving blocks, spool stock, and hard woods for the furniture maker. But since 1863 the statistics of the manufacture of pine into lumber have been gathered with intelligence and thoroughness. ITS GROWTH AND MAGNITUDE. The history of this great industry covers a period of only about thirty years. In 1854 the Hon. Wm. L. Webber, of East Saginaw, made the first estimate of the extent of the operations of Michigan lumbermen, whose activity was then chiefly confined to the valley of the Saginaw river. He reported the existence of 61 mills, many of them using water-power, and placed their entire annual product at but 108,000,000 feet. Eighteen years later, in 1872, it was estimated that the lumber product of Michigan for twelve months included 2,560,000 feet of oak timber, 12,700,000 staves, 300,000,000 lath, 400,000,000 shingles, and 2,500,000,000 feet of sawed pine. The number of sawmills in the State at that time was about 1,500, employing more than 20,000 persons, and representing $25,000,000 of capital. There were also 200 shingle-mills and 80 stave and hoop factories with an annual product of $4,000,000 in value. The lumber trade suffered materially during the following years of commercial depression, but in 1879 the total amount sawed in this Stato reached 3,100,000,000 feet, and Gov. Jerome in his inaugural message estimated the value of the entire timber product of that year at $60,000,000. The product of 1881 is estimated by the lumber journals to have been: Michigan Central R. R.-Mackinac and Bay City Divisions.. 85,000,000 Flint & Pere Marquette R. R.. 145,000,000 Miscellaneous... 200,000,000 Total. 3,919,500,000 This large total is that of sawed pine lumber alone and is exclusive of shingles, lath, staves, and long timber, whose product possesses an annual value of many mil |