404 STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE BULLETINS. 



marshes by their being thinly covered with a sward of grass, by walking 

 on which evinced the existence of water or a very thin mud immediately 

 under their covering, which sinks from six to eighteen inches from the 

 pressure of the foot at every step and at the same time rising before and 

 behind the person passing over. The margins of many of the lakes and 

 streams are in a simular situation and in many places literally afloat. On 

 approaching the eastern part of the military lands towards the private 

 claims on the straits and lake, the country does not contain so many 

 swamps and lakes, but the extreme sterility and barrenness of the soil 

 continues the same. Taking the country altogether, so far as has been 

 explored and to all appearances, together with the information received 

 concerning the balance, it is so bad there would not be more than one 

 acre out of one hundred, if there would be one out of one thousand that 

 would, in any case, admit of cultivation." 



From the number of persons who have continued to decry Michigan in 

 whole or in i:)art it would seem that the surveyor general of Ohio had a 

 large family. But as settlers poured into the new territory they were sur- 

 prised and delighted to find, instead of impassable bogs and sterile sand- 

 hills, a region of wonderful beauty and fertility. Thus one county after 

 another was rescued from the supposed dominion of chimeras dire, and 

 pronounced to be the best farm lands on which the sun shines. But jvho 

 shall say how many persons have been deterred by such ignorant and reck- 

 less assertions from making their home in the best state in our union? 

 Sin drove the first pair from the primal Eden, but ignorance has barred 

 out thousands of their children from many an earthly paradise. 



GEOGEAPHICAL POSITION. 



When we cast our eyes upon the map of our country we are struck with 

 the unique position which our peninsula occupies in comparison with other 

 lands in the same latitude and mark how Nature clasps with her protecting 

 arm of water the "beautiful peninsula" and pours out the vast " unsalted 

 seas " a rampart against the cold. Its geographical position and surround- 

 ings point it out as eminently fitted for productive industry, while its 

 easily available water carriage will save it from the blighting influence of 

 monopoly in transportation. The watered-stock of railways find more 

 than a match in the water ways of our system of lakes, drowning out 

 monopoly of transportation. Michigan is planted on the highway of 

 nations — the highway of commerce that must last " as long as grass grows 

 and water runs." Such a region must occupy a prominent position in the 

 w^orld's industries and commerce, unless these exceptional advantages are 

 offset by unusual disabilities. 



LUMBERING VS. FARMING. 



The vast wealth of Michigan in lumber has so filled the public eye that 

 it could not see the greater wealth of its soil. Men seemed to assume that 

 the better it was for lumber the worse it must be for agriculture — as if a 

 soil that could sustain such a wonderful forest growth must be incapable 

 of growing anything but wood. As a consecjuence men seeking for new 

 lands to make new homes have turned their back on rich soils, well watered 

 lands, ready markets, available transportation, schools and churches, 



