can you keep off "the shakes" if you inhale the miasma of a mill pond. Health is individual and local. As pertaining to ourselves individually, it is in a measure beyond control. It leaves us unbidden. The most skillful are baffled in recalling it. As local, it can be improved by the changes that we make, by the better drainage we secure, the better houses we build and the better places we select for them. Health is so far controllable, and for our present purpose comparative, and a matter of choice. MICHIGAN A HEALTHY STATE. Michigan as a State is healthful. The record of its soldiers in the Rebellion, for size, strength, and endurance, is noteworthy. Their attainments were not of a sickly kind. Some counties having large marshes, and which twenty years ago were not favorable to health, are entirely changed in this respect by the complete drainage which has been effected. And those counties not then much settled are proving the sanitarium of the State, and of other States. The thousands who frequent the many summer resorts, and drop their lines into the clear streams and beautiful lakes of these northern counties, let them testify. Verily they would say, "Our lines have fallen in pleasant places." We would not delude the stranger with any fancies, but let him know what others know who leave business every summer to get a sniff of delightful northern air, and go back all the better for it. We would let him know how many who reside here will say that northern Michigan has been to them the very gateway to a new life. It is not true that there is no ague at all here. The cases are very rare, though. This year there have been more than usual, perhaps owing to the extremely hot season; most of these cases are traceable to removable causes. The selection of lands with their healthfulness especially in view is entirely practicable. Notice the surroundings. Is the spot high? Is it well drained? Is the water pure? Are there stagnant marshes or mill-ponds flooding the adjacent lands or great quantities of saw-dust in decay? What report can you get about the locality generally? PRACTICAL EXPERIENCES IN NORTHERN MICHIGAN. From what has been said the reader may infer that we think Michigan is a good State, and the northern part of it as good as any. That there may be no mistake, we say yes, decidedly so! Why should we not, after living here over twenty years and knowing every portion of it as a surveyor? The best reason we can give for seeming partiality to this region is that we are writing of what we are most familiar with. Let others do the same. These counties will have a bright future, a vigorous, hardy, and thriving population. All the grains, fruits, and vegetables common in this and most of the northern States can be raised here, and some with much success. Wheat, oats, barley, rye, peas, and buckwheat do well. Corn does not grow as large as further south, but dent corn is raised, and this year was ripe and cut up as early as August 27. It yields from 30 to 50 bushels, shelled, per acre, the latter figure being not uncommon with good culture. Recent reports from various points in the northern counties convey such information as this: 'The agricultural element is rapidly developing this section, and many choice fields of clover are to be seen to-day, where two or three years ago stood the mighty forest. Manufacturing establishments are springing up and opening a market for our acres of choice hardwood timber, thus encouraging the settler to clear his land. Those who became interested in early orchard planting are now enjoying the fruits of their labor." "Two years and a half ago one of our young men contracted for forty acres of wild land. With nothing but his hands and an axe he has paid $7 per acre for said land, cleared twenty acres of the same, is out of debt and is building a fine residence which will be completed from cellar to garret by the first of January." "There are many thousands of acres in hard-wood timbered land in northern Michigan yet for sale that will in a few years be valuable; and in some localities there is a good market for it now. 'Birdseye' and curly maple are quite plenty in this county and of the best quality. A few years ago it was a difficult matter to get people to believe that farming could be successfully carried on in this northern country. It was thought to be too cold, the seasons too short, to accomplish anything in that direction; but after a few years of trials it has been found to be one of the best locations for men of limited means. All kinds of crops do well and bring a good price. What it will cost a man to go west and locate land and buy teams and tools, and build a house, etc., and then perhaps only get a good crop about once in three years, will pay for 80 acres of land and leave quite a sum for improvements, buildings, etc., with a prospect of a good crop every year. The writer of this article has been here three years and has not scen a failure yet in crops." A gentleman 77 years of age took a neglected place in this county this season, employed what help was necessary to fix up fences, plowed the land, and put in 200 bushels of seed potatoes. He will have not less than 3,000 bushels estimating by what has been dug, and can get 75 cents per bushel for them here. The place will be in good culture, and is much better to sell or to keep than it was when he commenced. It ought to be stated, however, that potatoes are higher this year than usual. WHAT CAN BE DONE WITH LIMITED MEANS. Let us see. But you say "he had means to go on with and I have not." Lands as good as that have sold in the past summer for $3 per acre. A young man, who had saved up a small sum from working by the month, bought 80 acres of nice hard-timbered land for $3.50 per acre, or $280, paying $100 down, the remainder to be paid in two years at 8 per cent. Keeping it one year, he will have paid about $20 in taxes and interest, and at the end of two years his land will have cost him, taxes included, about $332. But he will have had the use of it for two years, and as there were ten acres from which the wood had been sold, he will have the small brush cleared from that and put it all in crops next year. This land in any ordinary season, if planted to potatoes, ought to yield at a low estimate 120 bushels to the acre, or 1,200 bushels, and these at 25 cents per bushel, which is a low price, would be worth $300. The cost of clearing in this case is very small, and so would be the cultivation of the crop, being on new land. Try it in another way: If this land was sown to winter wheat a low estimate would be a yield of 16 bushels to the acre or 160 bushels. (Thirty-two bushels to the acre have been harvested on new land here.) At the present price-$1.22 per bushel-this would bring $195. The wheat, being less expensive to market at a distance, might give as much profit as the other crop. Can the young man pay for his land? Take a different case: Land was bought at $10 per acre, one-quarter down, the remainder bearing seven per cent interest. An average of 50 cords per acre of furnace wood was cut from it, and 20 cents per cord was paid for it standing, it being situated in a favorable place. Thus the land was paid for and left with only the brush and refuse timber to be cleared and could be put into spring crops. Take still another case: A man living on a railroad at a new station, where a sawmill was being built, bought 40 acres at $12.50 per acre on the 9th of February last. The snow was then deep, but he cut ten acres and hauled the best timber to mill, getting $3.50 per thousand. He cleared the lot in spring hurriedly, plowed it with a shovel plow among the green roots, and by June 15th had it half planted with potatoes and half sown with Hungarian grass. The potatoes had no hoeing, but by the last of August the tops entirely covered the ground. Three weeks after the potatoes were of the finest quality, with an average yield. The grass was three to three and a half feet high where it was not sown too thick, as we measured it on September 1. It will be seen by this example that some crops may be raised very soon after taking the land. A very good plan is to cut all the small timber in the fall (called “underbrushing ") and in the winter dispose of the best timber if possible; if not, "fall it" in large windrows, cut the tops down well, and burn it when dry. The elm and basswood timber may be sawed into rail cuts, and when the frost is out of it in the spring split for fencing. Where cheap lumber can be had, the best fence is made of cedar posts and hemlock or pine boards. Cedar is generally abundant. Let us look a little farther: Out on one of our railroads, less than a mile from a good school, are 80 acres of land timbered with large sugar maple, elm, and basswood, with some beech and hemlock; the soil is gravelly loam, and water is readily obtained. It can be bought at $7 per acre, one-quarter down and the remainder on time, at 7 per cent interest, or one-tenth less for cash. If you can, you had better pay all down, $504. If you buy the other way it would cost: One-quarter down... End first year, with interest. Cost of land.. In this time the taxes might also be... To commence with you would need Cash for the land.. For a good ox team.. For a wagon.. $140 00 169 40 159 60 149 80 $618 80 20 00 $140 00 $150 or 160 00 $65 or 70 00 A log house, shingle roof, 2 board floors, doors and windows, need not cost over. A cow will cost. A stable need not cost over.. All farming tools needed for the first year.. Total cash needed to commence with................... 50 00 $25 or 30 00 10 00 40 00 $500 00 You have then a good start, but we have not given in this estimate the cost of clearing, of seed, and of feed and provisions. These can be offset by what the team will be able to earn, and the land to produce, as estimated before. WAGES AND PRICES IN NORTHERN MICHIGAN. Those who do not expect to engage in farming will not be interested in the examples given, but may wish to know whether general laborers, mechanics, and tradesmen can find a place in northern Michigan. We will let you answer. Suppose you find here, as you will, a vast country of good, low priced lands; of new settlements growing rapidly; of pine and other timber going out from here by the millions of feet every year; of lands being cleared and drained, with roads, bridges, railroads, and buildings to be built, do you think you could get a place? The very common question here, aside from talks about the weather, is, Where can I get help? How long this will be so depends on business conditions at large, very much, and the increase of population. In a new country improvements are constant and labor in demand; all classes find enough to do, and so may you. Nearly all materials and supplies are higher than a few months ago; these are the present prices: Common pine lumber, $9.00 per thousand; fine common pine lumber, $12.00 per thousand; for dressed lumber add $1.00 per thousand. Flour per barrel, $7.75; pork retails at 11c; butter, 25 to 30c; potatoes retail at 80c, from farm wagons 70c, and are unusually high; so with corn, 88c, and oats 58c, the farmers getting 70c and 50c; stove wood, dry, $1.50, and green, $1.25 per cord delivered; hay $10 to $12 per ton. We have not attempted to tell big stories to deceive the unwary, and hope readers may not be disappointed. You have our opinion of Michigan as a State for the immigrant, from the experience of some hardships and many pleasant days spent in its frontier settlements. Come and see! October 17, 1881. 19 MICHIGAN AS A HOME. A SETTLED SOCIETY. Persons who are drawn towards Michigan by the attractions of cheap farms will find many advantages here which do not often accompany the possession of low-priced lands. Our northern counties contain thousands of acres as good in quality and as moderate in cost as those that are offered in States and territories hundreds of miles further from the seaboard, while they are all that distance nearer to the great markets of the continent. Our institutions and society are not those of a new and unorganized community, but of a rich, prosperous, and well-established State. We have over four thousand miles of railway; great public buildings for civil, educational, and benevolent purposes, including a new State capitol, and all paid for; nearly 7,000 school-houses, capable of seating nearly half a million of children, are scattered over every county in the State; two thousand churches of almost every known denomination afford conveniences for the stated ministrations of religion. The habits of the people are settled; no rankling public questions disturb their harmony; they are attached to the State and are proud of its importance. Justice is reverenced, life and property are protected, legislation is honest and public-spirited, education is generously cared for, there is a good standard of morality and intelligence, and taxes are low. The advanced civilization of the older States, and the great opportunities to labor and enterprise that are presented in the newer communities of the west, harmonize and co-operate here. A WESTERN HOME FOR EASTERN MEN. The New Englander or New Yorker who comes to Michigan finds himself at once in a community whose structure is precisely like that he has left. Our civil and social organizations are those to which he has been accustomed. Town and county officers have the same scope of duties and nearly the same designations. The school systems are practically identical. Public business and the administration of law are conducted on the same principles and in the same routine. Our forms are those into which he was born, and our traditions are inherited from the same source as his own. It does not take long for an eastern man to feel at home in Michigan. FREEDOM OF CONSCIENCE AND OF SPEECH. A fundamental principle of every American community, founded on one of the plainest rights of human nature, is absolute freedom of conscience. Every intuition of the people maintains it, and it lies at the basis of all our laws. The constitution of this State only declares the united sentiment of its population in the provisions it contains bearing upon this subject: "The Legislature shall pass no law to prevent any person from worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of his own conscience, or to compel any person to attend, |