350 STATE BOAKD OF AGRICULTURE. 



were in good condition in tlie spring, some of them having been slaughtered 

 for beef in June. Some of the horses died towards spring from liaving remain- 

 too long feeding on the green rushes. 



In the meantime, I removed my frame house from Green Point, on the ice, 

 to a point at the southern extremity of the grove of timber on the east side of 

 the river opposite Crow Island, a distance of seven miles, and prepared fencing 

 to enclose the prairie, intending to cultivate portions of it, for that year, 1835. 

 All the land between Bay City and Saginaw, except the creeks and bayous, 

 could have been cultivated. Benoit Tromble raised a fine crop of corn and 

 potatoes that year between the grove of timber last referred to and the river, 

 on the present site of the Oneida salt and lumber company's improvements. 

 A heavy body of snow fell during the winter of 1835-6, but it commenced to 

 thaw early, so that in April I broke up some of the prairie preparatory for 

 cropping, and gathered the stock with a view of having it inventoried on the 

 lease. But as the warm weather continued the water arose rapidly, floating 

 away my fencing timber, and on the first of May, when my lease should have 

 commenced there was not an acre of land on the whole tract that was above 

 water. I had previously driven the cattle and horses to the highland to provide 

 for tliemselves. The water remained high during most of the summer of 1836, 

 and I wrote to Mr. Dorr, describing the situation and requesting to have the 

 lease cancelled, which he consented to, and authorized the stock to be deliv- 

 ered to otlier parties, to be sold for his benefit. I abandoned the place, and no 

 attempt has since been made to cultivate it. The water rose to a higher stage 

 in 1837 than it attained in 1836, and in 1838 it was higher than I have ever 

 seen it before or since. The low lands were flooded during the whole summer, 

 destroying large tracts of timber, especially a variety of valuable ash timber 

 that skirted the prairies. From 1838 the water gradually receded, till 1850 it 

 was quite low again. In the spring of 1853 it arose to almost the hight it 

 attained in 1838, but did not remain high so long. Before coming west 1 had 

 heard of a regular periodical rise and fall of the waters in the great lakes. My 

 experience has shown me that there is a great difference in the height of 

 water at different periods, but the periods of the rise and fall are not at all 

 regular. 



J3efore mentioning the improvements made by Mr. Daglish and myself, I 

 will give a brief sketch of the work done by Thomas H, McGraw, of the late 

 firm of John McGraw & Co. He was really the pioneer in improving the Sag- 

 inaw marshes, by pumping the wattr from them. Having been relieved from 

 the expense of diking by reason of the main track of the F. & P. M. 11. R. 

 and a branch of the same, running to McGraw & Go's. mill. This made an 

 embankment on two sides of a triangle, whicli encloses a tract of about three 

 hundred and fifty acres of march land, which is bounded on the third side by 

 high land and the mill improvements. In 1877 an attempt was made to pump 

 tlie water from the inside ditch of the branch railroad, but the work was aban- 

 doned on account of a leakage in the bank. It was ascertained that tlie leak- 

 age occurred at a point where edgings had been put into the embankment. 

 Mr. McGraw caused a trench to be cut across the edgings and filled Avith pud- 

 dle clay, thus making the embankment secure, when he again commenced 

 pumping in the latter part of July, 1878. lie u.sed a screw pump two feet in 

 diameter and thirty feet long, which was worked with power from the engine 

 in the planing mill, with which the water was drawn from the surface of the 

 ground, two hundred and fifty acres of which was covered about four inches 

 deep, and settled in the ditch five or six feet below the surface of the river, in 



