THE INFLUENCE OF SOILS 45 



Genesee County with lake clay in the vicinity of 

 Flint. Lapeer County has bowlder clay, lake clay, 

 moraines and swamp lauds, returning again to lake 

 clay in the river area of St. Clair County. The 

 elevations in this second and third tier of counties 

 do not run quite so high as those to the southward, 

 Grand Eapids standing at approximately 50 feet 

 above Lake Michigan, Flint 135 feet above Lake 

 Huron, Lapeer more than 100 feet higher, St. Johns 

 less than 200 feet, and Charlotte nearly 350 feet 

 above the same datum. 



Along the shore of "The Thumb" east of Saginaw 

 Bay is a belt of lake clay and, farther back, another 

 belt of sand, with areas of bowlder clay and morainal 

 soils. A wide and deep bed of lake clay surrounds 

 Saginaw Br.y and projects itself southwestward 

 through Saginaw and Gratiot counties. Moraines 

 and dunes appear here and there in this region. This 

 area has a very low elevation above Saginaw Bay, 

 and this fact, together with the character of its soil 

 and topography, rendered the whole district one of 

 the wettest in the State before cultivation and ar- 

 tificial drainage made it one of the most productive. 

 The normal fertility of the clay areas is reinforced 

 by the frequent inundation of parts of the region. 



North of this Saginaw Bay-Grand Eiver section 

 lies a country in which to the Straits of Mackinac 

 sandy soil predominates, although it is at points 

 interspersed with clay. It is the area in which the 

 glacial drift lies deepest and in which the morainal 

 elevations are the highest. Cadillac stands at more 



