The Root Side of an Old Fashioned Stump Fence. 



A STUMPER OF A FENCE 



By Edward F. Bigelow 



A N easterner visiting Michigan is 

 / \ attracted by the stump fences 

 ^ V more than by ahiiost anything 

 else. Aside from these stump 

 fences, the farms, the uplands and the 

 marshes are not much different from 

 those of New England. One misses 

 the characteristic stone walls of New 

 England but finds in their place the 

 most novel fences in the world — those 

 made of stumps that have in recent 

 years been pulled out of the ground by 

 powerful machines constructed for that 

 purpose. The force required to pull 

 such stumps from the ground is enor- 

 mous, but it is applied slowly, in submis- 



mission to the decree of Nature that 

 what is gained in power must be lost in 

 speed. These stumps are relics of the 

 liveliest lumbering ever seen anywhere 

 else in the United States and that ended 

 about thirty years ago, in Big Rapids, 

 Grand Rapids and their vicinity. Old- 

 timers entertain the visitor by the hour 

 with reminiscences of the amazing num- 

 ber of logs that were cut in that region. 

 Logging somewhat similar, but not 

 nearly so extensive, still continues in 

 the northern part of Michigan, but does 

 not equal in extent nor in picturesque - 

 ness that which formerly took place on 

 the famous Muskegon River. 



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