erect, or support any place of religious worship, or to pay tithes, taxes, or other rates for the support of any minister of the gospel or teacher of religion.

"No money shall be appropriated or drawn from the treasury for the benefit of any religious sect or society, theological or religious seminary, nor shall property belonging to the State be appropriated for any such purpose.

"The Legislature shall not diminish or enlarge the civil or political rights, privileges and capacities of any person on account of his opinion or belief concerning matters of religion.

"No law shall ever be passed to restrain or abridge the liberty of speech or of the press; but every person may freely speak, write, and publish his sentiments on all subjects, being responsible for the abuse of such right."

The spirit of these provisions is exemplified in the management of our public institutions. The first president of the State University, a devout Christian clergyman, when pressed to make appointments on denominational grounds, declared such appointments to be wrong in principle and injurious in practice. "They mistake egregiously," he maintained, "the character and ends of this institution who imagine that because it belongs to no sect or party in particular, it therefore belongs to all sects and parties conjointly and of equal right. It not only does not belong to any sect or party in particular; it belongs to no sect or party at all. The prime object of a seminary of learning is not like that of a church, to inculcate religion or perform its services, but to afford education. There is no safe guide in the appointment of professors save in the qualifications of the candidate.”

RELIGION AND RELIGIOUS WORSHIP.

While all religious worship in this State is voluntary, it is nevertheless protected by law and cherished by the prevailing sentiment of the people. The sessions of the Legislature are opened by prayer. A time-honored and venerated custom requires the Governor to designate a day for annual thanksgiving, and in times of disaster and tribulation people assemble under similar appointment to invoke the Divine protection. At all great public observances, and in the commemoration of the national holiday, religious exercises are the opening proceeding. Chaplains of every denomination officiate at the State institutions. Daily prayers are offered in the chapel of the University during the academic year, but students are not coerced into attendance e; and it in no wise conflicts with the sentiments of the first president of that institution, heretofore quoted, that, as reported by his successor, the late acting president, sixty of the eighty officers belonging to it are "communicants in the churches of several Christian denominations," and "every Sunday-school in the town, with one exception, is under the superintendency of some one of them."

Under a system so purely voluntary as this, religious belief and practice mark the character of our legislation and give tone to the moral sentiment of the community. The outward signs of their existence are visible in every village and hamlet. When the census of 1870 was taken there were 2,239 religious organizations in Michigan, 1,415 church edifices, and 456,226 church sittings, and, in the apportionment of the latter, 104,929 were held by the Methodist Episcopal denomination, 69,542 by the Baptists, 62,585 by Roman Catholics, 43,575 by Presbyterians, 38,355 by Congregationalists, 26,800 by Episcopalians, 23,150 by Lutherans, the remainder being divided among numerous other bodies in smaller numbers. This was in a total population of 1,184,059. The published returns of the census of 1880 are yet incomplete, but the enumeration of inhabitants showed an increase of nearly 40 per cent over 1870, and there is no doubt whatever that there was a corresponding advance in the religious institutions of the State.

POPULAR INTELLIGENCE.

In 1881 the number of circulating libraries belonging to the public school system of this State was 1,651. In some of the larger places where several schools are combined into one district these libraries have attained considerable proportions. The public library of Detroit contains 42,413 volumes. That at Grand Rapids has 11,952 volumes. At Kalamazoo there are 8,332; at Bay City, 8,110; East Saginaw has 4,890; Adrian, 3,381; and Battle Creek, 4,291. As a means of popular education these libraries undoubtedly accomplish much good in cultivating a habit of reading. The books are drawn by any inhabitant of the district without charge, under no other restrictions than are required for their protection. The number of volumes belong

ing to them in 1881 was 274,370.

Besides these there are numerous other libraries in the State, more or less public in their character, belonging to various societies and institutions. That of the University at Ann Arbor contains 38,500 volumes accessible to students; the Agricultural College has about 6,000; the Normal School nearly 2,500; the Institution for the Deaf and Dumb 2,000; the Reform School nearly 3,000; and the Public School for Dependent Children nearly 1,000. The incorporated colleges have an aggregate of nearly 30,000. "The books in the State Library at Lansing number 35,000.

Their local news

The people of Michigan are emphatically a reading community. paper press has an exceptionally high average in the order of merit and enterprise, and is generally well supported. It has increased in numbers nearly 100 per cent in ten years, and in 1881 the entire number of periodical publications printed in the State was 428. Of these fourteen were printed in the German language, six in Dutch, two in French, one in Danish, and one in Swedish. Every village of any pretension has its newspaper, and the local interests and characteristics of nearly every section are well and faithfully represented by them. It is safe to say that in no State in the republic are there more newspaper readers in proportion to the population, or more readers who are better served with general and neighborhood news. Among the 38 States which compose the Union only seven issue as many newspapers as Michigan. Our voters as a class keep closely abreast of public affairs, and no more intelligent ballots are cast by the people of any community than those which are polled here.

A significant indication of the intelligence and commercial importance of a community is afforded by the extent of its correspondence and the amount of its expenditures for postage. The report of the Sixth Auditor of the Treasury Department for 1881 showed that in the year ending on the 30th of June previously there had been a larger disbursement for postage stamps, stamped envelopes, and postal cards in Michigan than in any other State of equal population. In New York, with its enormous commerce, the expenditure per capita was $1.29. Massachusetts, also the centre of great commercial as well as manufacturing and intellectual activity, expended $1.33 for each of its inhabitants. The next in magnitude to New York was Illinois, with its stirring and important city of Chicago and its connections with the entire Mississippi valley, which had paid 93 cents per head. Pennsylvania, rich in its industries and intelligence, had invested 75 cents for each member of its population, and Ohio, abounding in wealth and having eighty years' growth as a State, 72 cents. The per capita of expenditure for postage in Michigan, which was a wilderness when Ohio had a million of inhabitants, was precisely the same as that of the latter in 1880, and one cent higher in 1881, viz.: 73 cents, Ohio having increased six cents during the year for each member of its population, and Michigan seven. No other State or territory paid so much in the aggregate as either of these six States, except Missouri, and in Missouri the population was nearly a third greater than that of Michigan, and its expenditure six cents per capita less.

The census of 1880 showed that the number of inhabitants of Michigan over ten years of age who could not read was less than three per cent of the whole population, and of those who could not write less than four per cent.

THE WEATHER AND THE SEASONS.

There are few things more difficult and unsatisfactory than an attempt to describe climate and the weather, and, however much any region may be favored in these important conditions, the subject is one which will always provoke criticism and complaint. It is the inherent right of all mankind to have a growl at the weather. But it can safely be claimed for Michigan that it has a healthy climate, and one that for twelve months in the year affords a very large average of bright skies and pleasant days. In either peninsula the advance of spring is not very marked before April, but it usually progresses rapidly when it opens, and the summers in the greater part of the State are never too short for the ripening of the crops. The autumn months are the glory of the year. In the lower half of the State the severity of winter is not felt much before Christmas, and on most days, in ordinary seasons, and throughout a territory not confined to the lower half of the State, most kinds of out-of-door work go on with little interruption until nearly the close of the year. One of the most striking phenomena to people freshly arrived from eastern and other States is the great number of bright days especially observable at this period. Fogs are of rare occurrence. Snow falls earlier in the northern counties of the State than in the more southern, and usually before the heavy frosts occur. The results, in the sense most important to farmers, tend largely to equalize the length of the seasons. The grass and fall wheat, where this happens, are protected from freezing, pasturage is ready for stock as soon as the snow vanishes, and when the ground is dry enough it is fit for the plow.

A winter mean of about 25° and a summer mean of 68° Fahrenheit are about a fair average for the lower peninsula for a series of years, with an annual average of 47°. The winter mean is lower on the east side of the State than on the west, and the annual mean of the upper peninsula averages seven to nine degrees lower than it does below the Straits. The winter of 1881-2 was an exceptionally mild season, and observations taken under the directions of the State Board of Health at fifteen points, representing nearly all sections of the State, showed averages in the temperature during January as follows: Marquette, 21 degrees Fahrenheit; Escanaba, 19; Alpena, 20; Harrisville, 21; Port Huron, 24; Petoskey, 21; Traverse City, 21; Grand Haven, 28; Niles, 27; Kalamazoo, 25; Marshall, 26; Hillsdale, 25; Ann Arbor, 24; Detroit, 31: Lansing, 26. The climate of the State has been referred to in previous pages.

The navigation of the lakes is considered to be open when the breaking up of the ice will admit vessels through the Straits of Mackinac, though the river ports are always accessible sooner. During 25 years previous to 1882 the earliest passage of the Straits was on the 15th of March, in 1878, and the latest was on May 3, 1881, just 30 days later than in 1880. The usual time is during the latter half of April. On March 9 of the present remarkable season (1882) the tug Winslow passed Mackinac City westward bound. At that time there was no stationary ice in the Straits, except in the bays, to interfere with navigation. The iron steamer Algomah, a railroad ferry, made regular trips daily throughout most of the winter between Mackinac City and St. Ignace, failing to reach the landings only when prevented by floating ice piled up by high winds along the shore, the stationary ice fields proving no permanent obstruction. The steamer Flora sailed from Detroit on March 21 for St. Ignace and Mackinac

City, was stuck fast in the ice off Cheboygan for several days after breaking her stem, and was towed into that port on the 30th. On the 3d and 4th of April vessels passed through the Straits in both directions. The dates on which the Straits

were opened during twelve years preceding were as follows:

According to the custom of marine insurance companies, policies on the hulls of merchant vessels expire on the 30th of November, which is considered the close of the season.

The States of Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, and Minnesota all lie north of Lansing, the capital of Michigan, and the railroad which passes through Canandaigua, Geneva, and Auburn in New York, is nearly on a line with that which intersects Owosso, St. Johns, Ionia, and Grand Rapids. The Straits of Mackinac are within a fraction of being on the same parallel of latitude with Montreal, and are more than 50 miles south of Quebec. No part of the State lies as far north as Paris.

DROUTHS AND ATMOSPHERIC DISTURBANCE.

It is well known that wooded countries are not subject to the periodical drouths which visit regions where there are no trees. There are occasional periods of dry weather experienced here, usually occurring in the late summer or fall, which prove troublesome in localities where they are most severe, and sometimes injurious to crops. An instance of this happened in 1871, at the time of the great Chicago fire, when the entire northwest suffered to a disastrous extent. In August and September of 1881 a like misfortune occurred, and the forest fires which ensued during the latter month in the counties lying between Saginaw bay and Lake Huron involved large loss of both life and property. The territory which suffered by this calamity was burned over in the fires of 1871, and the dead wood which resulted lay in the partial clearings as dry almost as tinder. The aridity of the later summer months of 1881 was phenomenal both in the United States and in many parts of Europe. So far as the actual damage by drouth was concerned, Michigan was much less afflicted than some of the neighboring States-far less than some of the more remote States. But the unusual and prolonged absence of rain gave fatal opportunity to the progress of the flames which had been carelessly started by settlers who sought this method of clearing the dead timber and underbrush from their farms, and the result was a calamity altogether without precedent in the history of the State, except in the similar disaster of ten years before. But the annual drouths which are so severely felt on the great plains and elsewhere are not known in Michigan. The numerous lakes and rivers which diversify the surface of the State largely mitigate the want of sufficient rainfall when that misfortune happens, and it is seldom that it is followed by more than a local inconvenience.

Neither is the State subject to devastating floods. The large lakes do not overflow, and the spring freshets of the inland streams never reach the ruinous proportions that characterize more mountainous districts.

High winds are not uncommon in Michigan, but the State has never been the victim of such fierce and extended "blizzards" and tornadoes as those which at intervals spread terror and destruction in the prairie country. Atmospheric disturbances are of only local and limited extent, are of infrequent occurrence, and seldom produce serious damage.

VALUE OF A TIMBERED COUNTRY.

There has been a period in the development of the western States when the heavy timber of the Michigan forests constituted an obstacle to its settlement, and the prairies of the Mississippi and Missouri valleys, by reason of their easier subjugation, were deemed more desirable by many immigrants. There is no doubt something very attractive in the idea of a field made ready by nature for the ploughshare, without the intervention of preparatory work, and the settler desirous of immediate results naturally gives weight to the suggestion it offers of diminished labor and early returns. But there are considerations that grow more urgent as experience enlarges, which impart grave importance to reasons for looking at the matter in another light. The timber which costs labor and delay to remove has become a source of income in many localities while in the process of being cleared, and above all it furnishes constant fuel to the household and fences to the fields of the farmer who has it on his lands. The expense and even suffering which are sometimes endured on prairie farms remote from supplies, for want of fuel, are unknown here. The cost of building material in a country without timber is of vital interest to new settlers who have their houses and barns to

provide. The abundance of such material makes it cheap in Michigan. Every year the value of our timber becomes better appreciated. Even now tree planting is being practiced in some of the older counties on farms which a few years ago were covered with large maples and oaks, and which by a short-sighted improvidence have been suffered to become destitute. A well wooded farm is among the recommendations of thrifty agriculturists in our older counties. The judicious cutting of the untouched timber lands will provide for many wants, and one feature which ought always to be remembered should be a bountiful provision for shade in the pasture lands of the future.

The improvements which the experience of forty years has suggested in the art of clearing lands have divested that labor, to those who are informed on the subject, of much that was formidable to the early pioneers. Cross-cut saws, "cant-hooks," "skids," and the ingenious application of ropes and chains, have come to the aid of sheer muscular force, and a pair of oxen, or a single horse, contributing their strength to the power of simple and inexpensive but effective mechanical appliances, easily perform labor which once exhausted the vitality of individuals or depended upon the combined good fellowship of neighborhoods. One man with these advantages now does the work of three in the old methods, and with less fatigue, and the heaviest timber is disposed of with less labor than was required of those who cleared the lighter "openings" of some of the older counties. But even if it takes longer to make a farm in Michigan than in the prairie States, its results will abundantly compensate for the delay.

NATURE'S SUMMER RESORTS.

Michigan abounds in resorts for recreation which are available to the scantiest purses. Besides numerous points on the great lakes and their connecting rivers, which during nearly a third of the year attract multitudes of visitors from distant States as well as from this, there are more than 5,000 smaller lakes, situated in the inland counties, and in almost every section of the State. Most of these lakes are of limited area, and are partly surrounded by a marginal border of marsh land. But a large proportion of them have dry and pleasant shores, and some are more than a day's drive in circumference. The total area covered by lakes and ponds in the State is 1,225 square miles, or 784,000 acres. Several of them are connected by water