According to the census returns of 1840, the State of Michigan produced 2,157,108 bushels of wheat, there were 190 flouring mills at work, employing 491 hands, and producing 202,880 barrels of flour annually. In 1853 this State produced 7,275,032 bushels of wheat, there were 245 flouring mills at work, employing 604 persons, and manufacturing 1,000,000 barrels of flour in a year. It will be seen that the flouring mills have increased greatly both in number and capacity since 1840, and that very large quantities of flour are now manufactured in the interior of the State, a circumstance which partly accounts for the comparatively small quantity of wheat that is now exported. The number of flouring mills have doubtless increased since 1853, and as steam power has been applied in many instances their manufacturing capacity must now be very great. Farmers are beginning to understand the importance of disposing of their produce near home, and having the surplus exported in a manufactured state, instead of sending away the raw material; the bran and "shorts" being very valuable for mixing with the food of horses, cattle, and swine. A flouring mill is a great benefit in a rural district, it furnishes the farmer with a home market, and when he receives the price of his produce, there are many domestic wants which must be supplied, and on this account we always see stores and mechanics' shops clustering around a mill, and villages springing up in places where the solitude of the forest was, until lately, unbroken by a sound. It is evident that the mill power of Michigan is increasing rapidly, and that in future the greater part of the surplus grain crop will be exported in a manufactured state.