(io-i . JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



Utilized for grazing purposes, when the proper methods of handhng, 

 seeding, and improvement are solved, which they surely will be." "The 

 sand areas, underlaid with a clay subsoil near the surface, give promise 

 of usefulness for horticultural and crop production, as well as for graz- 

 ing purposes. Where the sand exists as such, without a clay sub- 

 soil, . . . the problem of agricultural production is still an un- 

 solved one." 



The very long and very unhappy history of land exploitations in the 

 State ^'^ is dismissed sadly with the remarks: "It is a great misfortune 

 for Michigan that some of her pure sand lands have been sold by un- 

 scrupulous speculators to city citizens, who have been parted from their 

 savings of years and left without experience or a soil with which to 

 recoup their lost savings. Experienced farmers could not make a living 

 on these types of soils by operating small areas only, and could not be 

 induced to buy them in this way. It is unfortunate that people, par- 

 ticularly those without experience, will persist in buying poor lands. 

 . It is also equally unfortunate that the laws of our country do 

 not afford protection from the misrepresentations of the dishonest 

 speculator." ^^ 



But this joyous official future must be considered as an almost unduly 

 lugubrious view of the prospects when compared with a still unrecalled 

 publication of the U. S. Department of Agriculture ; for, although 

 "The sandy jack-pine plains (of the Lake States) have long been an 

 agricultural problem," and "although more people have left these lands 

 during the last thirty years than are now living on them," . . . "it 

 would seem that the key to the successful farming of these lands has 

 been found," thus settling "the problem whether these lands can ever be 

 farmed profitably or whether they had not best be used for forestry 

 purposes." . . . "With clover for a start, . . . the land can 

 soon be built up into almost any state of productiveness," and this in 

 spite of the acknowledged fact that "this sandy soil needs a little nurs- 

 ing," and that "it lacks nitrogen," is "likely to suffer severely in time 

 of drought," "needs protection from the wind," and "is likely to be a 

 little leachy." ^^ 



The official soil survey of the State ^^ refers to certain widely dis- 

 tributed areas as "outwash plains, sand, or gravel, . . . soil usually 



"■ Report of Commission of Inquiry, 190S, Lansing. 

 " Special Bulletin, No. 70, Michigan Agricultural College, 1914, p. 9. 

 " U. S. D. A. Farmers' Bulletin 323, 1908. 



" Surface Geology and Agricultural Conditions of Michigan, Board of Geo- 

 logical Survey, Lansing, 1917. 



