acre.

Thousands of industrious farmers could go there and lay the foundation of a home with very little expense of money. The difficulty of access to these lands is at present largely removed, as several railroad lines intersect that country. I see no reason why in another period of 40 or 50 years this northern part of the State should not fill up with as dense a population as the southern half has done within the same time; soil and climate are nearly the same and other conditions are more favorable than ever. The first pioneers of the country had to go through all the hardships of frontier life; the settlers of the present day can begin their work in the very centre of civilized society and participate in all its advantages.

THE UPPER PENINSULA AND AGRICULTURE.

Turning our eyes from the Lower Peninsula to the Upper we find also here immense tracts of land covered with hardwood timber of unusually large size, which certainly also indicates a very rich soil. Only few, however, of the thinly scattered inhabitants of that country are found engaged in agricultural pursuits, but the few I met with doing so raised prolific crops of oats and sometimes also of wheat. Grass and potatoes are the best remunerating staple products of these farmers, and their smaller gardens with luxuriously growing peas, beans, turnips, cucumbers, cabbages, and even Indian corn and tomatoes, plainly demonstrate that the climate is not too severe for the culture of all the ordinary farming products, and that even sometimes the Indian corn and the tomatoes ripen there in well protected positions.

As at present various railroads are under construction which intersect a large portion of these rich hardwood lands of the Upper Peninsula, I do not hesitate to recommend them to the attention of the immigrant farming population, and feel confident that they will not be disappointed by selecting such lands for a home, provided they are a diligent and energetic people.

SEPTEMBER, 1881.

Respectfully yours,

C. ROMINGER,

State Geologist.

SOIL, PRODUCTIONS, AND CLIMATE.

BY R. C. KEDZIE, PROFESSOR OF AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY IN THE STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE.

To the Commissioner of Immigration:

In compliance with your suggestion I have prepared a brief statement of some of the facts which will enable a person to make an estimate of the agricultural capabilities of the State. For any person who has visited it, and seen them, no statement of this kind is necessary, for "to see is to believe." But to those who have never visited this part of our country, and whose ears are filled with the groundless assertions of parties who are interested in hurrying the stranger to the far west, a candid and reliable presentation of the natural resources and advantages of Michigan will be of real worth.

SOIL.

The soil of Michigan is of drift formation, and secures the benefits incident to this intimate intermixture of the residues from decomposition of the rock formations. A small part of the soil is prairie, but the greater portion was originally covered with a dense forest. The soil varies in composition from strong boulder-clay to light sand, shading by slight gradations from tile clay loam, to sand; but the great body of soil inclines to clay and loam, though drifting sand is occasionally found.

COMPOSITION OF SOIL.

In order to have reliable data for estimating the agricultural capabilities of our soil three years ago I gathered 31 specimens of representative soils from different parts of the State and submitted these to careful chemical analysis. Specimens of all these soils with a statement of the results of analysis are in your office for inspection by all persons interested. Some persons will not readily interpret these results of analysis, and will need some suggestions to enable them to make up their minds concerning the value of a soil.

A large portion of every soil contributes little or nothing to the plants growing on it, acting only as a mechanical support to the plant, or affording it certain conditions for moisture and heat. But there are certain other substances present in small amount in the soil which are of the greatest importance in plant growth, and without which no plant will grow and arrive at maturity. These chemicals of plant growth are potash, lime, phosphoric acid, and sulphuric acid. Let us see how much of these substances must be present to make a productive soil, and how much is present in these representative soils.

(a.) Potash. The amount of potash in a soil is often intimately associated with the quantity of clay, but even in deep sandy soils the amount should not fall below one part in a thousand. The smallest proportion found in any of these soils was five in a thousand, and in many of them there were more than twenty parts in a thousand.

(b.) Lime. In sandy soils the lime should not fall below one part in a thousand, and in heavy soils five parts. In the lightest sandy soil examined there were three and a half parts of lime, in clays from six to twenty parts.

(c.) Phosphoric acid is most intimately associated with fruitfulness in any soil

and less than 5 parts in 10,000 of soil would be regarded as a serious deficiency, and to secure good crops 10 parts should be present even in sandy soils. The smallest amount found in any of these soils is 13 parts in 10,000, and in clay and prairie soils it amounts to 30 to 44 parts.

(d.) Sulphuric acid should be present in a fertile soil to the amount of 2 to 4 parts in 10,000, while the smallest found in any of these soils was 8 parts.

It is thus seen that the lightest of these soils contains enough mineral matter to sustain paying crops.

An examination of the physical properties of these soils, especially their capacity to imbibe and retain moisture, shows that most of them are capable of producing large crops.

WINTER WHEAT

can be grown in all parts of our State, and indeed Michigan is distinguished as the winter wheat State. The fact that the State averages not far from thirty million bushels of winter wheat each year, and that the average production for the whole State is 17 to 19 bushels per acre, is proof of the capability of the State in this respect. Corn, oats, barley, and potatoes can be raised in all parts of the State.

FORESTS.

With the exception of a few prairies in the southern part, and a few plains in the northern part of the State, Michigan was originally covered with a dense forest. The trees were mostly hard wood, consisting of oaks, elms, ashes, cherries, hickories, walnuts, maples, and beeches, with some basswood, whitewood, and soft pine. In some low grounds the tamarack is found. These tamarack swamps used to be held up as the especial opprobrium of Michigan, but it is now found that when cleared and drained they afford the best meadows, giving two to three tons of excellent hay to the acre. I know of some clear-headed men who have bought and subdued these tamarack swamps, and the first crop of hay yielded a net profit sufficient to pay for the land and all the improvements. They thus had good farms without cost save a shrewd foresight and the use of wide-awake brains.

Besides an inestimable blessing in the form of an abundant supply of timber and fuel, forests are a great benefit to the State in equalizing the rainfall, preventing floods, regulating temperature, and moderating the force of winds. I will again call

attention to the influence of forests when I speak of the climate of Michigan.

MICHIGAN PINE LANDS.

In the central and northern parts of the State are the most celebrated pine forests of the continent, and our pine lumber has a good reputation everywhere. Many per

sons suppose that these pine lands are valuable only for their lumber and have no agricultural value. In this they are seriously mistaken. Our pine lands differ from the hard-pine forests of the south in the fact that our soft pines are everywhere mingled with an abundant growth of hard-wood trees, and such forests grow on a soil of excellent agricultural capabilities.

I had a conversation with an intelligent member of our Legislature who gave a clear statement of how the lumber camps became farms. "We went there to lumber, and then to quit: we had no more thought of farming than of flying. We planted a

few vegetables in the cleared space around our lumber camps, and the yield was so remarkable that we cleared off a field and put it into grain, and the harvest was so bountiful that before we knew it we were farming. That's the way Sanilac county was settled. Here is my friend, the representative from Huron county, who will tell you the same story for his county." And the same story can be told for a dozen counties more.

I have traveled through many of these pine districts and found that very generally the lands cleared from trees form a strong sward from the grass-seeds accidentally dropped in the soil by hay used to feed the teams employed in lumbering. Some of the lumber roads were so covered with timothy and clover as to afford a considerable quantity of hay, and one lumberman told me he had secured four or five tons of hay from the lumber roads used the previous winter. A soil that will form a dense sward the first season from grass-seed accidentally sown by hay drawn over the road will not disappoint the husbandman.

The assumption that because a district is good for lumber it cannot be good for anything else is most misleading. The fact that a soil can grow such a magnificent forest would justify us in assuming that it would grow grains and vegetables as well as trees. But the enormous wealth of this region in its timber and lumber has so filled the public eye that it could not see the greater wealth of its soil.

LAKES AND RIVERS AND THEIR INFLUENCE.

Michigan is surrounded by lakes on three sides, and only the south has a land border. These lakes of purest water are of such vast extent that they have well been named "the unsalted seas." The influence of such large bodies of water on west, north, and east of our State, fencing us off from the great storms which ravage other portions of the continent, mitigating excessive cold and heat, and giving us the soft and balmy atmospheric characteristics of "water climate," cannot fail of imparting an agreeable climate to the peninsular State. Geographers never tire in discoursing of Europe, honey-combed and penetrated by the sea, in contrast with the unbroken mass of Africa and Australia. The same penetration of water with its control over climate is seen in the configuration of Michigan. This relation of water, with the magnificent forests, gives a climate to our State not found elsewhere away from the sea-board.

CLIMATE.

Michigan lies in the same latitude with southern France and northern Italy. The climate differs from that of European countries in the same latitude for two reasons: 1st, this State has a mean elevation above the sea of about 800 feet, and its temperature is two degrees Fah. lower in consequence of such elevation above the sea level; 2d, like the American climate in general, the climate of Michigan partakes of the peculiarities of the land climate, not being modified and controlled by the warm breath of the Atlantic like western Europe. The American climate is colder on the average than that of European countries lying in the same latitude; the extremes of heat and cold are greater, the winters being colder and the summers hotter than corresponding seasons of European countries having the same mean annual temperature.

MEAN TEMPERATURE OF MICHIGAN.

The mean temperature of Lansing, (capital of the State), as determined by 18 years of continuous meteorological observations taken at the State Agricultural College, is 46°.71 Fah. or 6°54 Reaumur. Lansing has the same mean temperature as Berlin, yet the temperature of the three summer months is the same as that of Vienna, and of its three winter months the same as Stockholm.

METEOROLOGICAL TABLE FOR MICHIGAN.

The following table gives the mean results of tri-daily observations taken at the Agricultural College for 18 years, and affords reliable data for determining the leading features of our meteorology. I know such tables are commonly passed over as dry and unprofitable reading, but if carefully studied this table will give a good insight into the climatic conditions of our State:

Rainfall.

WHAT IT MEANS.

Let us study this table a little and see what is the climate of our State. The mean annual rainfall is a little more than 31 inches and is ample for all crops. It is very evenly distributed through the year, though a little more than half falls in the five months of most active growth, from May to October. This evenness of distribution is a very important condition of productiveness. On one hand we are saved from frequent and protracted drouths such as afflict the treeless west, and on the other hand we are spared from the excessive and sudden rainfalls where everything is endangered by inundation.

This equable rainfall in the State is one of the great blessings we receive from our forests. The water-spouts, in the prairie States, which come down with swift destruction, sweeping away flocks and herds, swallowing up in an hour the crops of the whole year, and flowing out of the country in a few hours to leave it again parched and dry, are unknown in this State. So also are the cyclones and whirlwinds which are the terror of the prairie States of the west during all the summer months, and often cause fearful destruction of property and dreadful loss of life. And so too are the "blizzards" of the western States-wind storms of great violence with tempests of snow and cold such as neither man nor beast can face for any time and yet live. To those who know the nature, frequency, and horror of these storms of the far west, such facts are most significant. Our trees are sentinels of safety,.. and disarm nature of her terrors.

Snow. The average annual snowfall in the center of the State is four feet, but it is rare to find more than 12 inches of snow on the ground at any one time. The snow affords two or three months of sleighing each winter, enabling the farmer to draw logs, lumber and stone, market his crops, and perform the heavy transportation of the year with the least draft upon his animals. The snow is also invaluable in