The Western Reserve farmer, with one hundred acres to put into crops, makes the apportionment somewhat different from the farmers in the Scioto and Miami valleys. His land in crops in 1863 were as follows:

The Reserve farmer puts in one-half the number of acres in wheat, twice the amount of rye, rather more than half the amount of barley, about the same amount of buckwheat, less than half the amount of corn, one-half more oats, one-half the amount of flax, almost twice the amount of potatoes, about one-twentieth of the amount of tobacco, one-fourth as much sorgho, one-half more clover, and nearly five times as much meadow as does the Miami Valley farmer. Hence arises a very pertinent question, "Does the Reserve farmer and the Miami farmer each grow such crops as are best adapted to their respective soils, or do they grow such crops and in such proportion as pay best in their immediate markets?" What is the cause of this great disproportion in the acreage of each in crops?

The average agronomic condition of each family of five persons on the Reserve is as follows:

This valley is smaller in superficial area than any other in the State, and is composed of the following counties: Athens, Fairfield, Gallia,

Hocking, Lawrence, Meigs, Vinton and Perry. This valley is well watered by numerous streams, of which the Hocking, or rather Hockhocking, is the principal one. The entire region is very "broken," and its mineral resources are perhaps greater than its agricultural. Lime, coal, iron ore and salt abound in almost inexhaustible quantities. Every county except Fairfield is located in the great Allegheny coal field.

The agronomic condition of this region, for it can scarcely be called a valley except in the sense of a hydrostatic basin, is as follows:

Next to the Scioto Valley, it has the least number of miles of railroad in proportion to its superficial extent, but then it enjoys a greater extent of river navigation than any other valley; four of the eight counties of which it is composed border on the Ohio river.

Being situated in one of the oldest settled regions of the State, it is natural to expect agriculture to have attained a greater degree of perfeetion than elsewhere. The acreage and products for 1863 are submitted in the following table:

Three-sevenths only of the area is "cleared," and less than half of this aleared was in crops in 1863, thus reducing the actual amount of acreage in the valley in crops to twenty per cent. of its entire area. The topography of this region does not differ essentially from that of the eastern portion of the Muskingum Valley, where so many sheep are kept; yet from the small comparative number kept in the Hocking Valley, it is very evident that sheep growing is not held in the same estimation as in the adjoining and more northern valley of the Muskingum. Cattle, horses and swine compare in relative proportions very favorably with the Mus kingum, as may be seen from the following table:

So far as the wheat and corn crops are concerned, the Hocking farmer seems to be following the same relative proportions in area that is adopted in the Miami. The Hocking farmer apportions one hundred acres of crop land as follows:

In grain and root crops he harvested 18.22 bushels per acre, and keeps a little over ten head of horses, twenty-five head of cattle, seventy-two head of sheep, and about twenty-five hogs.

The average agronomic condition of each family of five persons in this region for the year 1863 is as follows:

The agricultural condition of the families in this region compare very favorably with that of any of the vallies.

In making this somewhat elaborate and extended analysis of the annual returns of crops and stock, we have steadily ignored every other element which might enter into the estimate, except that which is strictly agricul tural, and for this reason have not deducted the population of cities, towns, and villages, but have regarded every individual in the State as being engaged in an active agricultural occupation. From one point of view this is really the only correct method of determining the supply produced for each family or individual in the State; on the other hand, however, it shows that the product or allotment to each family (if all were actually engaged in agriculture) would be contemptibly small.

Again, there are in every valley or district several counties, whose products are far above the average as returned, but their abundance is

neutralized by the failure of very poorly cultivated crops in another portion of the same valley or district. Hence the analysis of the following four counties will perhaps be more satisfactory than the analysis of a valley consisting of sixteen or twenty counties.

RIVER COUNTIES.

In dividing the State into valleys or hydrostatic basins, four counties, viz: Belmont, Columbiana, Jefferson, and Monroe, could not well be included in any of these basins, because in the range of counties immediately adjoining them on the west, the waters flow westward and southward, while the streams which water these counties as a general thing take their rise within their own boundaries, and flow into the Ohio river on their eastern boundaries; at the same time there are ten other counties which might with equal propriety be termed "river counties," but then all of the other ten have streams which rise in and flow through a portion of the valley or region in which they are included. These four counties are continuously situated on the right bank of the Ohio river, immediately below the confluence of the Beaver river into it in Pennsylvania. This entire area is very hilly: sometimes these hills present sides too steep to admit of successful operations with the plow. The following is the agronomic condition of these counties, viz: