EXPERIMENT STATION REPORTS. 325 



system of buying explosives wms introduced and saved the farmers thou- 

 sands of dollars. By correcting the.se fanlts the cost of clearing has 

 been and can l)e reduced to a mnch lowei- tignre. 



It was necessary to get the land clearing movement before the eyes 

 of every one in the Upper Peninsula and to spread broadcast, informa- 

 tion that the Michigan Agricultural College was in a position to help 

 farmers in their land clearing work. To do this we chose to visit all 

 county fairs with a land clearing demonstration by means of models, 

 showing the best approved methods and tools as well as featuring models 

 of home made devices. During the fall, twelve counties were visited and 

 a total of 19,575 people viewed the land clearing exhibit. In personal 

 talks with various farmers the need of education was again evident. 



To further the educational end of land clearing and to secure the neces- 

 sary funds to carry on onr jdans, we appeared before nine county boards 

 of supervisors asking them to approj)riate sntficient funds to carry on 

 a series of land clearing schools in theii- counties. We received an aggre- 

 gate appropriation of about SS,()(I() to carry on thirty-eight lalid clearing 

 schools in ten counties of the Tapper Peninsula. In the majority of cases 

 the boards of supervisors were far sighted enough to see the necessity 

 of land clearing and in several cases they attended the schools in a body. 



During the winter a total of 105 land clearing meetings were held in 

 the farming regions with an attendance of 10,045 people. A conservative 

 estimate shows G5% were farmers. Twelve counties were covered dur- 

 ing the winter. Moving ]tictnres ])ortrayed the best approved methods 

 of clearing land and arrangements were made for the land clearing 

 schools to be held in the spring. These meetings demonstrated a good 

 healthy interest in land clearing and our office has been called on con- 

 tinually to aid fanners in their problems. These meetings also revealed 

 that it was necessary to show better uses of material on hand and 

 to bring about a cheaper rate of clearing as well as to get cheaper 

 materials in the hands of the farmer. In many cases it was found the 

 cash outlay played an important part in the manner in which the farm 

 was cleared. In other cases the SPEED of clearing was the determin- 

 ing factor with no particular attention ])aid to the cash outlay. There- 

 fore, that which is economic land clearing for one may be impossible 

 for another, and this is one of the many reasons for bringing land clearing 

 education as near tlie individual's back door as possible. 



Besides interesting farmers, it was necessary to show business men 

 and bankers the direct relation between more cleared acres and more 

 rapid development of their community or city. It was. our privilege 

 to appear before 25 business men's meetings with an attendance of 1,792. 

 By gaining their co-operation and support, the land clearing movement 

 took enormous strides forward. During the winter two county agents' 

 conferences were held where land clearing was the main subject of dis- 

 cussion and in the majority of cases, land clearing was one of the major 

 projects in the year's work of the county agents. From the county agents' 

 reports we find they spent 25.8% of their time on land clearing. 



Since last fall this office has supplied twenty-five newspapers of the 

 Upper Peninsula each week with land clearing material. Our clipping 

 book shows that these ])apers as well as several in the Lower Peninsula 

 and numerous umgazines have been supplied with information. Because 



