336 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



REPORT OF THE UPPER PENINSULA SUBSTATION FOR THE 



YEARS 1905 AND 190,6. 



LEO. M. GEISMAR^ SUPERINTENDENT. 



Special Bulletin No. 38. 



The hope of being able to present at this time some definite results 

 from winter wheat investigations, which have been carried on since 

 1904, led to the postponing of an earlier report for 1905, and the bien- 

 nial report of the past two seasons is herewith presented. Unfor- 

 tunately, these results, as hereafter related, are far from being definite 

 as yet, though this is merely one of the disappointing instances which 

 show that the solving of agricultural problems is frequently and often 

 discouragingly slow. 



The Upper Peninsula Substation was originated by an act of the legis- 

 lature, approved in the early spring of 1899. The work, as far as ex- 

 periments are concerned, began in the spring of 1900, but the area then 

 cleared was so small and the season so adverse, that little work of 

 permanent value could be expected. Plans were laid out whereby the 

 first five years were to be spent in determining what could grow in 

 normal seasons in the Upper Peninsula. The results obtained in 1905, 

 therefore, represent the work of the fifth and concluding year of this 

 series. Hereafter the energies of the station are to be devoted more 

 largely to cultural methods, and to the adaptation of selected varieties to 

 the peculiar conditions of this new country, the size of which, it must 

 be remembered, includes two-fifths of the 58,915 square miles consti- 

 tuting the entire State; thus making the area of the Upper Peninsula 

 alone greater than that of Connecticut, Rhode Island, I\Iassachusetts and 

 Delaware combined. The altitudes range from the level of the great 

 lakes, or about GOO feet, to about 1,600 feet along the mineral ranges. 

 It is obvious therefore that it will require many years to obtain the 

 accurate records needed to determine either what to grow as the prin- 

 cipal crops or how to grow them. Meanwhile it will not be strange 

 if during the course of investigation there will be offered for solution 

 some new problems which, directly or indirectly, may be related to 

 the peculiar and in some respects unique features of the climatic con- 

 ditions of this vast region. 



The area available to crops is still too small to permit the growing 

 of the great varitey of crops on areas large enough to compare safely 

 the yields of adjacent plots. Draining and clearing, partly done recently 

 and partly under way, will, to some extent, remedy this defect. Per- 

 haps the most necessary work for the immediate future is that which 

 would enable this station to determine the value of stump lands for 

 agricultural iun'])oses. The increasing corresi)ondence of the station 

 shows that, within the ]»ast three years, many portions of the Upper 

 Peninsula are being rapidly settled by a progressive class of farmers 



