FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 399 



lire ; like tlie merchant and business man, for it pay day comes and inevitable 

 bankruptcy unless payment is made at the time. No matter liow good an in- 

 dorser is offered, Nature never renews a bank note for annual crops. Frost 

 and drought are never accepted as pleas for an extension in Nature's banking 

 house. "What thou doest do quickly," is nature's mandate to the cereal. 



DIVERSITY OF SOILS. 



Do not suppose that the northern counties are all made up of caving sands. 

 The numerous lakes and streams show a sufliciently tenacious soil ; it is only 

 in isolated spots that I found this curious sand formation. Nor would I un- 

 dertake to say that these caving sands may not produce good crops. I only 

 call attention to these peculiar sands to draw out information which I was un- 

 able to obtain during my hasty trip through the country. The real test must 

 be the result of cultivation of the soil, and a bushel of wheat raised on this 

 soil is worth more than a straw stack of scientific guess raised elsewhere. 



I found in this northland a great diversity of soil ; for example, in some 

 parts of Isabella and nearly all parts of Mecosta county (No. 22 and 29), I 

 found the same boulder clay which is so characteristic of the strong and endur- 

 ing soil of the north part of Eaton and south part of Ionia county, a soil that 

 naturally clothes itself with a strong sod of June grass or white clover. In 

 other places, for example Lake and the eastern half of Mason county (No. 11, 

 13 and 15), the soil is sandy and but little tendency is manifested to form a 

 sod ; the roadside of the railway was covered with creeping blackberry, like 

 certain soil I have seen in some parts of Van Buren county. In other j^laces, 

 as in Midland county (No. 8) the soil is sandy, but it turfs over easily where 

 hay seed has been scattered. John lieardon, of Coleman, told me that he had 

 cut four or five tons of hay last summer from last winter lumber roads, these 

 roads having been seeded by the hay drawn over them during last winter. No 

 farmer need question the virtue of any soil that with instinctive modesty cov- 

 ers its nakedness with a robe of grass. When I speak of grass I do not include 

 the sedges like the "bunch-grass" which usually grows upon very poor soil. 



In some places, such as the vicinity of Baldwin, Walton Junction and Kal- 

 kaska, the soil is very sandy and the vegetation is mainly brake, sweet fern, 

 dwarf huckleberry and bunch grass. These soils have a very unpromising look ; 

 but we soon pass from these weary sands to rich loams and strong clays which 

 will make the husbandman's heart sing for joy. 



It would seem unnecessary to point out the fact that the soil of this State 

 often passes by abrupt transitions from one kind of soil to a very different kind. 

 No prudent man desiring a given kind of soil will buy a farm " tmsight ajid 

 wisee?i," as boys trade jackknives, but will carefully examine the soil to see 

 if it be the kind he seeks. For one kind of farming he desires a strong clay, 

 for another he wants a quick and warm sand. The great variety of soils found 

 in our State seems to show that nature designed it for a widely diversified 

 industry. 



"the wheat belt." 



In former years there Avas quite a rivalry between the different tiers of 

 counties in the southern part of our State to know which was "the wheat 

 belt." The State Department has prepared a very valuable wheat map of 

 Michigan, in which are exhibited the number of acres, the total production and 

 the average number of bushels of wheat to the acre for every county in the 

 State for each of the years 1870 and 1877. The center of wheat production 



