190 
$9 per acre; quality excellent, gently rolling, half timber and half oak open- 
ings ; soil varying from light sand to heavy clay; swamp lands of little market 
value, though they contain inexhaustible stores of peat and marl. Ingham, 
greater part of the wild land is wet, mostly black muck, highly productive when 
drained ; there are also dry farming tracts, well timbered. Gratiot, $6 per acre, 
chiefly farm land, very fertile, producing large crops of grain and grass. 
Macomb, $25 per acre, various qualities, nearly all susceptible of high cultiva- 
tion. Lapeer, $5 to $20; in the south, oak openings, northern portion heavily 
timbered; nearly all good farm land. Mackinaw, $1 25 per acre; little farm- 
ing done in the county. Bay, $7 per acre, well timbered. Iosco, $4 to $15 
per acre. Alcona, $1 25 per acre, though holders of pine land reserve it at 
that price. Alpena, a large portiun of the farming lands belong-to the govern- 
ment, and can be purchased at $1 25 per acre, while land in second hands com- 
mands from $3 to $20, according to quality and location. In several counties 
all the unimproved and timber lands belong to farms, and are not in the market 
separately. 
3. The geological structure of Michigan varies extremely, the southern pénin- 
sula being exclusively secondary in its formation, while the northern peninsula, 
bordering on Lake Superior, is primitive, but the portions bordering on Lake 
Michigan and Green bay are secondary. Primitive boulders are found in every 
part of the State, and there are many evidences of the land having once formed 
the bottom of the lakes, the waters of which have receded. 'The rocks of the 
southern peninsula consist of horizontal strata of limestones, sandstones, and 
shales, the limestones being generally found in the beds of the rivers near the 
lakes, and sandstones mostly in the interior. The upper sandstone oeenpies the 
central and more elevated portions of the peninsula. The stratum underlying 
the sandstene is a gray colored limestone. Associated with this rock are found 
calcareous spar, strontian, barytes, gypsum, &c. In localities where the car- 
‘boniferous limestone exists, there are indications of the formation of bituminous 
‘coal. 
The -mineral resources of Michigan are chiefly confined to the northern 
‘peninsula, the copper and iron regions of which are too widely known to need 
‘detailed description here. The great copper deposits are principally located in 
‘the Keweenaw peninsula, but the beds extend along the lake from Ontonagon to 
Schooleraft in greater or less quantities. Che extreme length of the copper beds 
is said to be 135 miles, with a width varying from one to six miles, though the 
mineral:does not exist in every portion of this extent, miles sometimes interven- 
ing with no traces of the ore. The rich deposits of iron ore are found chiefly 
in Marquette county, where there are literally mountains of this metal. Iron ore 
is also found in Delta, and to some extent in Berrien and Branch counties. Coal 
abounds in Jackson, and is found in limited quantity in Ingham, Bay, and other 
counties, but as yet has been but slightly developed. Gypsum is reported in 
Van Wert, Iosco, &e.; salt wells in Ingham and Van Wert; clay and lime in 
Jackson, Alpena, &c. Marl is also abundant in some localities. ‘There is an 
abundance of timber in great variety in all sections of the State, and in several 
counties lumbering is an extensive business. In Gratiot county large forces of 
men are employed every winter in lumbering off the pine, and during the past 
year 8,000 to 10,000 acres have been cleared up and put in crops or in readi- 
ness for seeding in the spring. Large forests of sugar maple exist in this 
county, and many thousands of pounds of maple sugar are made annually. 
Our Alcona cofrespondent says that county “is almost a solid body of pine 
timber, interspersed with small tracts of farming lands of the best quality, cov- 
ered with a heavy growth of birch and sugar maple.” 
4, Wheat, corn, oats, hay, potatoes, hops, &c., are grown generally through- 
out the State, no county or section being entirely devoted to any particular 
crop, though wheat is the leading product in many counties, potatoes and hay 
