of the Huron Bay district in Baraga county, in the upper peninsula, are of excellent quality and cannot be surpassed in the American market in durability and color; these quarries can be developed to a practically unlimited extent and must certainly become the center of a large and thriving industry. The iron district produces a quartz rock which is supplanting the foreign quartz long imported for the lining of Bessemer steel converters, and similar purposes. Clays and sands of commercial value are found everywhere in abundance. Brick and tile yards are numerous and successful potteries are in operation at different points. At Raisinville, Monroe county, is found a superior quality of glass sand, suitable for use in the manufacture of the finer grades of cylinder and plate glass. This has been shipped in large quantities to Pittsburg and Ontario, and is also used in the manufactory of window glass located at Delray, below the city of Detroit. This establishment is, as yet, the only one of its kind in Michigan; in 1880 it employed 54 workmen, paying them $30,000 in wages, and its product amounted to 30,000 boxes of glass of the value of $90,000, its works, which were destroyed by fire in the fall of 1881, are being rebuilt with improved facilities. Lime kilns are common throughout the State. Valuable marbles are among its rocks, and vast quantities of peat exist and must ultimately become valuable for fuel.

GOLD AND SILVER.

Gold bearing quartz has been found near Ishpeming at what is known as the Ropes gold mine. Developments have been made with very encouraging results, and arrangements are being completed for the continuation of the work. Native silver has been found in small quantities in the upper peninsula. It was taken from time to time from the openings of the Minnesota and the Cliff, and in the stamp mills of some of the mines upon the Pewabic lode the washed mineral is looked over for this metal. Seams of rock carrying granular silver have also been found in the Iron river district of Ontonagon county and occasioned some excitement at the time of their original discovery. The systematic mining of this metal has never been attempted in this State with profitable results.

FISHERIES.

That Michigan has the most productive fresh water fisheries in the United States is easily explained by its geographical position. All the important towns on the shores of the great lakes and their connecting straits are the centers of a fishing interest which employs annually several thousand men, uses many steam and sail vessels of small tonnage, and has a large amount of capital invested in nets, shanties, ice-houses, boats, and their outfit. The catch is principally confined to whitefish, lake trout, sturgeon, bass, pickerel, and herring, and is marketed fresh, salted, or frozen. Oil is also obtained in considerable quantities from the offal and unmarketable fish.

GAME AND FOOD FISH OF THE INLAND LAKES.

The inland lakes of which there are more than 5,000 in this State, and the numerous streams also abound in the smaller varieties. Brook trout and grayling are plenty in some of the small rivers of the northern counties, and black bass are caught in many of the lakes. Sportsmen in great numbers flock annually into the thinly settled regions toward the straits of Mackinac in quest of game fish. Perch, eels, pike, and other common varieties contribute to the food supply of the State.

ARTIFICIAL PROPAGATION.

The State has shown its appreciation of this interest by the passage of general laws for the protection and preservation of the best varieties of food fishes, and by the creation and maintenance of a Fish Commission. This board is charged with the artificial propagation of fish, which are planted in what are believed to be suitable waters for their

natural development. It has hatcheries at Detroit, and at Paris in Mecosta county, and Boyne Falls in Charlevoix county, and up to the close of 1881 had planted in lakes and rivers 67,702,761 young fish, including 48,100,000 whitefish in the Great Lakes and Detroit river; 15,118,709 whitefish in inland lakes, 2,107,352 salmon, 1,472,000 eels, 427,400 brook trout, and smaller numbers of California trout, grayling and bass. Excellent results have thus far followed this work in the cases of whitefish, eels, and brook trout.

FISHING AS AN INDUSTRY-MICHIGAN EMPLOYS ONE-THIRD OF THE AMERICAN LAKE FISHERMEN.

At the federal census of 1880, a large amount of information was obtained concerning the fisheries of the great lakes, which has been compiled and tabulated, and given to the public in Census Bulletin 261, under date of September 1, 1881. This information covers the statistics of the fishing industry, as connected with the great lakes, of eight States, viz.: Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York, and the general summary of the number of men and vessels engaged and the amount of capital employed is given in the table which follows: Number of Men and Vessels engaged in Lake Fishing, and Capital employed in 1880.

It will be seen by this statement that the number of fishermen employed in the Michigan fisheries is more than 70 per cent greater than that of any other lake State. If the number incidentally connected with the trade should be added, the aggregate would be largely increased. The number of gill-nets used here is stated to be 20,330, with a value of $113,900. Wisconsin, which stands second in this item, has 10,959

gill-nets, valued at $49,920.

FISHING FOR FOOD AND COMMERCE --NEARLY ONE-HALF THE PRODUCT OF AMERICAN LAKE FISHING TAKEN IN THIS STATE.

Another table compiled by the same authority gives the

Quantities and Values of Fish taken in the Great Lakes in 1879.

Pounds. Value. Pounds. Value. Pounds. Value. Pounds. Value. Pounds Value.

Total. 68,742,000 $1,652,900 21,463,900 $778, 100|| 6,804,600 $221,700 15,356,300 $117, 100 7,012,100 $116,300

Notes attached to this table state that the values are estimated on the basis of the prices of fresh fish, and that of the sturgeon credited to Illinois probably 750,000 pounds came from Wisconsin and a similar amount from Michigan and Indiana, reducing by those figures the general total of Illinois. It will not escape notice that the value of the fish taken by the fishermen of this State in 1879 was more than double that of any other States on the lakes. The reason for this difference, in face of the fact that the total weight caught by Ohio fishermen exceeds that taken here, will be readily comprehended by those who know the difference between whitefish and herring. Of the former variety there were caught in Michigan nearly 13,000,000 pounds, and in Ohio a little over 1,000,000. Of herring Michigan took about 1,500,000 pounds, and

Ohio more than 11,000,000.

Other figures given in the census table are valuable and instructive in their relation to the food supplies of the State, as well as for their commercial character. It appears that of the twenty-four millions of pounds and upwards which formed the total catch of 1879 in this State, nearly sixteen millions of pounds, having a value of more than $466,000, were sold while fresh, most of it, presumably, for home consumption, and nearly one-half of this large supply was composed of whitefish, the finest lake fish known to epicures or in commerce. The salted fish of that year put up in Michigan amounted to 5,349,400 pounds, and were valued at $173,725. Something more than a million and a quarter of pounds of fish were frozen for preservation and sought a market in that condition, its value being $69,360.

THE FISHING SEASON, PRICES, ETC.

Whitefish are

The fishing season on the lakes covers the season of navigation. most abundant in the spring and fall months, but are taken in the upper lakes, where the water is always cool, whenever the ice is out. They are never caught with a hook, but in gill-nets and seines. Large pounds are kept for their security, and a considerable trade is maintained through the winter by taking them from holes made in the ice for that purpose. Improved processes of freezing are growing in use, and fish are regularly supplied to eastern markets which have been preserved in this manner with their best qualities unimpaired.

The ordinary retail price of fresh fish sold near the fishing stations during the season is about five cents per pound, and this includes whitefish, lake trout, bass, and pickerel. Whitefish taken through the ice out of season, or preserved by freezing, will bring 10 to 12 cents per pound in the Detroit market, and 15 to 16 cents in New York. The quotations of salted fish per 100 lbs. at Detroit early in October, 1881, were for whitefish $5.50, trout $4.50 to $4.75, and herring $3.00.

THE VESSEL INTEREST.

According to the tonnage statistics of the United States for the date of June 30, 1882 (as given in the American Almanac for 1883), not one of the States located away from the ocean coast equals Michigan in the number of vessels owned by its citizens or in their aggregate tonnage; the exact figures are given in this table:

Michigan also surpasses, in this respect, the seaboard States of Connecticut, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Oregon, and all the cotton and Gulf States, while it far outstrips in tonnage both Virginia and Maryland, although surpassed by them in the number of vessels. It exceeds California in the number of its vessels, but not in the tonnage total. The coast line of Michigan is only surpassed by that of Florida, and it has ports upon four of the great lakes. Its coasting trade is exceedingly valuable, and its vessel interest represents much capital and enterprise, and deserves an important place in a catalogue of its sources of employment for labor. In this connection the fact should be mentioned that ship-yards are located at Detroit, Wyandotte, Port Huron, Bay City, Marine City, St. Clair, Grand Haven, and other towns and ports.

GENERAL MANUFACTURING.

The miscellaneous manufacturing interests of the State are numerous, extensive, and in thriving condition, but until the figures gathered at the census of 1880 shall be made public it is not possible to give their statistics. The great industrial development of Michigan since 1874 would make any present use of conclusions drawn from the State census of that year utterly misleading, and all that can be done now is to deal with the subject generally and not in details. Treating it in that way it can be said that the State especially excels in its manufactures of railroad cars of all grades; of agricultural implements, from the cheapest hoe to the most costly threshing machine; of furniture, both in soft and hard woods; of stoves, wooden-ware, paper and paper pulp, wagons and carriages, matches and cut tobacco. The annual product of its flouring-mills, planing-mills, sash and door factories, foundries, machineshops, cigar factories, tanneries, breweries, bakeries, boot and shoe factories, and clothing establishments, must in each case be estimated by millions. Other important items in its list of manufactures are confectionery, saddlery and harness, safes, woolen goods, dried fruits, cider and vinegar, butter and cheese, chemicals, picture frames, and essential oils. The leading towns of Michigan are with few exceptions, important manufacturing centers. This is especially true of Detroit, Grand Rapids, Jackson, Bay City and West Bay City, East Saginaw and Saginaw, Battle Creek, Niles, Flint, Kalamazoo, Adrian, Allegan, Big Rapids, Buchanan, Holland, Jonesville, Lansing, Manistee, Muskegon, Grand Haven, Monroe, Owosso, Three Rivers, Lapeer, Ludington, Charlotte, Alpena, Cadillac, Cheboygan, Greenville, Hastings, Ionia, Marquette, Ishpeming, Negaunee, Hancock, Houghton, and Wyandotte.

The growth of the manufacturing interest in Michigan has been healthy and rapid. The State is rich in natural resources, and by reason of its situation commands, through the impulse of active competition, the advantages of cheap transportation. Its industries are unusually diversified in their character, and skilled labor will never be at a loss, under the ordinary conditions of business, to find ready employment and good wages. It adds to the openings of a steadily advancing material civilization the attractions of a settled society and the security of wholesome laws. Its active and governing citizens are working men; its climate is favorable to labor; and that thrift will follow well-directed industry is proved by the experience of its people.

MICHIGAN AS A FARMING STATE.

Notwithstanding the enormous wealth of Michigan in other resources, it is in agriculture, in which at least half of its active population are employed, that it develops its greatest eminence. This eminence, of which ample proof will be given, has for its foundations natural advantages of which the State cannot be divested, and which ensure to its prosperity a permanent and enduring character.

I. The fertility and diversity of the soil. A separate chapter on this subject, prepared by an authority which is recognized in this State and elsewhere as entitled to the highest consideration, both for scientific and practical knowledge, is printed on subsequent pages.

II. The geographical position of Michigan, altogether unique in its character, affecting both its climate and its markets. Lake Superior, more than 400 miles long and the largest fresh water sea in the world, washes its northern shores; Lake Michigan, 345 miles in length, second in size, and the largest lying wholly within the United States, forms the greater portion of its western boundary; and Lakes Huron, St. Clair and Erie, with their connecting rivers, mark its limits on the east. Excepting about 170 miles of its southern extremity the entire lower peninsula is surrounded by water; and excepting a similar distance on its southern and southwestern boundary the same is true of its upper peninsula. With this enormous expanse, varying in depth from a hundred to a thousand feet, and defining a coast line of more than 1,600 miles-half the breadth of the Atlantic-eternally operating upon the soil and atmosphere of a territory, every farm on which lies less than a hundred miles from its touch, and affording during a large part of every year the cheapest transportation known to commerce, the simplest imagination must realize the existence of peculiar geographical conditions unknown elsewhere in the agricultural States. The effect of these conditions on the climate of the State is treated more at large in future pages.

III. The accessibility and nearness to the great markets of the world, taken in connection with the comparatively small capital needed, constitute another and very important reason for the profitableness of farming in Michigan. Every hundred miles saved in transportation to the seaboard adds to the value of the staple agricultural productions. No State or territory in the union has so many cheap and fertile lands within so easy reach of the leading markets.

IV. The wonderful diversity of natural resources in Michigan, and the manufacturing interests to which they contribute, create a constant and increasing home market for the products of the soil. Vast quantities of the yield of the farm and garden go to the mills, lumber camps, furnaces and mines, and find ready and profitable sale. There are few neighborhoods where some of these markets are not found, and the wagons of the farmers of the vicinity bringing hay, oats, potatoes, butter, cheese, eggs, poultry, fresh meat, and fruit are always welcomed and rewarded with good prices.

COMPILATION OF AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS.

The United States Department of Agriculture has organized a system of information which is of great value both to the people of this country and to those who may contemplate settling here. It is based upon the reports of special correspondents, consisting, as the Department explains, of four in each settled county, and numbering