POSSIBILITIES OF THE FARM WOODLOT. 57 



ern. In the southern region the farms have generally been cleared for 

 a period of years sufficiently long so the owners know the possibilities 

 of all their land, the quality of the soil, its fertility, kinds of crops it 

 is adapted to, in fact, practically all that they need to know about it. 

 In the middle portion of the State the region has more recently been 

 .settled up, often the owners or occupants of the farms have only recently 

 come to live on them and are unfamiliar with the possibilities of a 

 larger part of their holdings. In the northern part a great manj^ if 

 not the majority, of the farms are but partially cleared, and the owners 

 have but very recently become established upon their farms, and know 

 very little about them. In this region things are still in the pioneering 

 state and as yet only the land is cleared and improved which is easiest 

 to prepare for agriculture, and not that which is the best adapted for 

 the purpose for which it has been selected. It is probable, therefore, 

 that in the central and northern sections conditions are at the 

 present unstable, that much land now uncleared will be in a short time 

 brought under the plow, and that some now tilled, will in a compara- 

 tiveh' short time be allowed to return to the unimproved condition or, 

 at the most, be kept as pasture land. In these regions, except in iso- 

 lated cases, there is no idea as yet, of permanently setting aside a por- 

 tion of the farm as a woodlot. In the southern section of the State then, 

 where possibilities of the land are known and the capacity for crop 

 production of all parts of the majority of the farms have been thor- 

 oughly tested, we would expect to find some areas which have been 

 abandoned entirely 'and left to grow up again to trees. In this section 

 it would be possible to plan deliberately for permanent woodlots and 

 here actually are found some such plans already being carried out. It 

 is also true, that in spite of what has been costly experience in the past, 

 many farmers in this region are still cultivating land which in the 

 majority of seasons, does not yield enough to pay for the time and 

 labor expended upon it, and in very many cases, as may be seen about 

 Ann Arbor and in adjoining counties, land is being cultivated which 

 it is disastrous to plow at all, for, on account of its steep slope and 

 loose character, it washes so badly, that not only is the hillside ren- 

 dered worthless, but the better soil at the foot of the slope is buried by 

 the coarse debris from above and made valueless. It is evident 

 then, that we may class with the unimproved land of all parts of the 

 State as available for woodlot purposes, that which has been improved 

 and then found to be useless for agriculture. In the settled and stable 

 parts of the State the lay of the land has much to do with the avail- 

 ability of it, and with the per cent of it which can be utilized for farm- 

 ing, and in the southern part of the State, as in other parts, we have 

 certain well marked types of country. Most conspicuous in the vicin- 

 ity of the great lakes is the level, or gently sloping plain, which is 

 found to extend back from them for a greater or less distance. In this 

 type of country, the soil is usually of sufficient fertility to warrant 

 careful tillage upon the greater part of it. It is rich and well watered 

 because of its gentle slope and soil composition, and there are no 

 undrainable swamps or deep valleys with steep sides. In fact the only 

 portions of this lake-plain region not suited for profitable agriculture, 

 are the infrequent areas of sand which are found upon it either in the 

 form of long winding ridges or of broad sheets, which, where the depos- 

 its are deep, make poor lands for most crops. The soil upon these flat 

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