GENERAL INFOEMATION RELATING TO THE UPPER PENIN- 

 SULA EXPERIMENT STATION. 



Six'cial Bulletin No. 00 



P,Y R. S. SHAW^ DIRECTOR. 



The following notes of an historical character relating to the Upper 

 Peninsular Station are reproduced from information contained in ])ulle- 

 tin number 186, published in 1900. They convey a detailed description 

 of soil and other conditions pertaining to tlie original 160-acre farm 

 donated by the IMunising Railway Company (Cleveland Cliffs Iron 

 Company). 



The State Legislature, at its regular session beginning January, 1899, 

 passed an act appropriating |5,000.00 for the establishment and main- 

 tenance of an Experiment Station in the Upper Peninsula, the purposes 

 of which are described in a portion of Section 4, of Act No. 114, as follows, 

 viz.; "The said Board (State Board of Agriculture) shall carry on such 

 experiments pertaining to agriculture and horticulture as in their judg- 

 ment will be most beneficial to the agricultural interests of the Upper 

 Peninsula." 



"Late in July, 1899, the State Board of Agriculture, obeying the 

 mandates of this law made a rapid survey of some of the agricultural 

 sections of the Upper Peninsula and chose as the site of the Tapper 

 Peninsula Experiment Station the 160 acres constituting the southeast 

 quarter of section 28 ; range 46 north ; 21 west. 



"This tract lies along the Munising railroad at Chatham, eighteen 

 miles south and west of Munising, in Rock River Township, Alger 

 County. It lies eight miles south of Au Train Bay, on the south shore 

 of Lake Superior, and from 250 to .300 feet above its level. The farm 

 is practically surrounded by a large belt of hardwood timber and. the 

 climatic conditions are similar to those existing over the major portion 

 of the central section of the L^pper Peninsula. Heavy snow covers the 

 ground during the relatively long winters, preventing deep freezing of 

 the soil. The snow lies on the ground continuously during the winter 

 and until late in the spring when the sudden oncoming of the warm 

 weather forces a rapidity of growth in the vegetable world unknown 

 in regions farther south. The summers are hot and moist with no 

 severe drouths. The autumns are long and usually delightful, although 

 in areas surrounded by forests there is always danger of late frosts 

 in the spring and early frosts in the fall, except along the shores of the 

 great lakes. This danger, however, disappears with the removal of the 

 forests. 



"The soil on the tract selected is far from homogeneous. Near the 

 little creek, which flows east through the center of the 160 acres and 

 divides the tract into two approximately equal parts, there is an area 

 of black muck, while on the terraces, which rise one above another on 



