396 



STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



drifts. Becanse of the intolerant oharactor of the foliage of all tliese plants 

 and further because of their short jieriod of activity and vigorous life, 

 they are not able to permanently maintain the control. Consequently the 

 tenn temporary type is a]tplied. Fortunately the temporary type fixes the 

 sand and prejiares the way for the reception of long lived durable timber 

 trees which are able to find suflicient moisture and form a peruuinent 

 type or forest. In this way occurs the very gradual reforestation of 

 those great sand shore belts of Michigan. 



Fig. 5. Break over top of a wooded dune caused by a road which led from the water 

 edge to the top. Wind soon caused the destruction here shown. This dune is burying an 

 orchard. 



EARLY CONDITION AND TREATMENT OF DUNES. 



When the coloniziation and settlement of Michigan began early in the 

 eighteen hundreds it seems probable that the West shore was generally 

 covered throughout its length with heavy stands of timber. With the 

 removal of this cover through clean cutting, breaks in the crust occurred. 

 The slash burnings which commonly followed lumbering made extensive 

 tracts as bare as when first formed by wind and water. Construction 

 of roads and clearing into fields help to hasten the formation of the 

 large active or traveling dunes. If nature could be left alone she would 

 finally reclaim the Michigan dunes but this has not been allowed. The 

 sad part of man's interference is that much of the damage done to the 

 natural cover and crust has been unnecessary. Little concern and less 

 care often attended the burning of slash and undergrowth on these sands 

 with the result that the accumulated humus and other sand binders were 

 removed. All chance for a new crop of vegetation was thus destroyed 

 because of the destruction of the seed. Often these burnings were 

 cleared, plowed and cultivated for a few years until nothing could longer 

 be produced. Such handling has prepared the way for heavy shiftings of 

 the original dunes. Repeated cases were studied, which had been caused 



