GRAYLING INSTITUTE. 317 



:^11 except in the garden for the table, because we can raise peas so much 

 easier. The crop can be harvested much easier and threshed with a machine 

 and then it is done with, and the peas are in the bin all ready for grinding or 

 feeding, and we think them as good or better than corn for horses or cattle. 

 The chairman then introduced Dr. R. C. Kedzie, who presented the fol- 

 .lowing paper on 



THE AGRICULTURAL PROBLEM OF THE PLAINS. 

 BY E. C. KEDZIE. 



The agricultural possibilities and probabilities of the northern counties of 

 "this State where lumbering has ceased to be a leading industry, and men 

 turn their eyes from the trees on the land to the soil out of which they grew, 

 'have occupied the minds of many persons in our State. What will be the 

 history of these new counties when the forest*? have been swept away ? Will 

 -they be remanded to the care of nature until clothed with new forest growth 

 for the use of a new race of lumbermen, or will the plow and the reaper take 

 the place of the ax and the saw-mill ? 



Their northern position, their elevation above the level of the sea, and the 

 ■peculiarities of climate arising from these causes have complicated the ques- 

 tion somewhat, but the general conclusion has been that a soil and climate 

 that will produce vigorous forest growth can likewise produce crops if prop- 

 erly handled. 



But when we turn our attention to "the plains," destitute for the most part 

 of forest trees, or producing Jack pines and scrub oak, with here and there a 

 Norway pine, the signs for a bright future for agriculture are less obvious. 

 A wide diversity of views prevails in regard to their value. Some regard these 

 lands as utterly useless — smitten with perpetual barrenness — and any attempt 

 to bring them into notice for agricultural purposes is only to excite hopes 

 incapable of fulfillment, inducing the improvident and credulous to embark 

 in an enterprise whose only outcome is failure and ruin. '' Why encourage 

 •poor devils to settle on these lands, invest their all in a hopeless undertaking 

 and waste years of toil, when the certain result will be bankruptcy and heart- 

 break ? Why hold out a hope 



That leads to bewilder and dazzles to blind ? " 



A suflBcient reply will be that it is not proposed or desired to either awaken 

 hopes or cause fears, but to gather facts upon which to found an intelligent 

 ^nd reliable opinion in regard to the soil of the plains. Truth will not harm 

 the innocent. If it is true that these lands contain all the elements of fer- 

 tility, only requiring some peculiar mode of treatment to develop their 

 resources, if knowledge, patience and skill shall yet fill these plains with 

 smiling homes, and these pine barrens shall yet be clothed with flocks 

 -and wave with grain, this should be known, and the State receive the full 

 benefit of such knowledge. 



On the other hand, if these plains are worthless and useless for agricultural 

 j)urposes, a snare and a delusion, if there is anything in their composition, posi- 



