20 RURAL MICHIGAN 



cold northern sea never come from the southeast, 

 for in that direction lies Lake Michigan, fifty miles 

 away but yet sufficiently close to exercise, it is pre- 

 sumed, a positively ameliorating effect. 



The Lake Superior country is favored with sea- 

 sonal sunnner rains almost without fail, this being 

 attributed to the prevailingly northwesterly course 

 of the summer winds. The fact that the winter 

 temperatures do not reach the low points one would 

 expect so far to the north and does find at points 

 due west in Minnesota and North Dakota, is plainly 

 due to the proximity of the tempering, if chilling, 

 influence of this master lake. To realize how much 

 of Michigan is exposed to this influence of the Great 

 Lakes on its climate, one needs to bear in mind that, 

 without measuring closely every indentation and 

 projection of the shores, the coast-line of the Lower 

 Peninsula is some 905 miles in length; that of the 

 Upper Peninsula, 810 miles (a more precise meas- 

 urement of the line of contact between land and water 

 would considerably extend this distance).^ 



Factors other than the Great Lakes affect the 

 conditions of life and agriculture in the northern 

 and southern peninsulas. The extension of the 

 State through six degrees of latitude affords the 

 northern portions more daylight and more twilight 

 in the growing period than is enjoyed by the south- 

 ern counties. L. M. Geismax, county agent of 

 Houghton County and formerly in charge of the 



' The coast-line of the St. Mary's, St. Clair and Detroit 

 rivers is included in tlie foregoing figures. 



