THE DESTINY OF NORTHERN MICHIGAN. 57 



one graud swamp. You remember the report made by the Surveyor-General of 

 Ohio, iu 1815, quoted by IIou. "William A. Howard in his oration on the occa- 

 sion of laying the corner-stone of the new capitol, iu which it is said, among 

 other things, that the country was very low and swampy, witli intermediate 

 spaces of poor, barren, sandy land, on which scarcely any vegetation grows, 

 except very small scrubby oaks, and that taking the country altogether, so far 

 as explored, and to all appearances, together with information received con- 

 cemiog the balance, it was so bad that not more than one acre out of 100, if 

 there would be one out of 1,000, would in any case admit of cultivation. 



With our present knowledge of the country we can afford to laugh at this 

 report ; but the same information, or want of it, which would justify the Sur- 

 veyor-General in making such a report and placing it on file as official would 

 lead the people generally to believe that Michigan was substantially uninhabit- 

 able; and such beliefs once popular yield only to absolute demonstration of 

 their falsity. When i^roved to be false in part it did not seem to be considered 

 as evidence that they were false altogether. 



AN" EARLY AXD MORE RELIABLE REPORT. 



There were those, however, who seemed to be better informed concerning 

 Michigan, even in that early day. In a work on geography by Jedediah Morse, 

 D. D., thirteenth edition, published in 1813, the Territory of Michigan is thus 

 mentioned: "In 179G the port of Detroit was ceded by the English to the 

 United States, and this fine peninsula was formed iuto a county called the 

 County of Wayne. In 1805 itreceived the name of the Michigan Territory, was 

 formed into a district government and a governor appointed over it. The 

 country is improving, and when the lands are put on sale it is thought the 

 population will rapidly increase. The greater part of the inhabitants of this 

 country are Catholics. The Protestants have no settled minister. * * * 

 According to the census of 1810 the population was 4,762. * * * The 

 climate is cold and healthy. Winter gets in about the middle of November, 

 and lasts till the middle of March without much variation. The general face 

 of the country is flat. Nothing like a mountain is known. It is estimated 

 that upwardsof 20,000,000 acres of this Territory is excellent. The agricultural 

 products of 1810 were 20,000 bushels of apples; 10,000 bushels of maize; 

 12,000 bushels of wheat; 8,000 bushels of oats; 100 bushels of barley; 1,308 

 bushels of buckwheat; 12,540 bushels of potatoes; 3,024 bushels of turnips; 

 1,000 bushels of peas, and 1,500 barrels of cider." 



Let the curious compare this agricultural production of 1810 with the census 

 tables of the present. Of course, we have no means of knowing from whence 

 the reverend doctor obtained his information concerning the face of the coun- 

 try, but certainly it was much more reliable than that furnished by the official 

 report above alluded to. 



The writers of those days spoke from what information they had before 

 them, but they had no hnoivledge on the subject. They spoke of it as the 

 early geographers mentioned the "Great American Desert," — from report. 

 Now, however, we can speak from actual knowledge, and it is well known that 

 the Lower Peninsula of Michigan furnishes as great an area of tillable laud 

 Taluable for agricultural purposes in proportion to the number of acres within 

 its boundaries as can be found anywhere within the United States in like 

 limits. 



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