THE OCCUPATION OF THE LAND 143 



merous wild-cat operations by private agencies and 

 of a defective public policy on the part of the State 

 government itself. No one doubts that there is 

 much excellent agricultural land in Michigan, but 

 this is often segregated in tracts of moderate propor- 

 tions, without any trustworthy indication of its true 

 extent and general desirability for the home-seeker. 

 The State is at present without a comprehensive and 

 detailed classification of its lands, and it remains to 

 be seen whether the soil survey now in progress under 

 the auspices of the Michigan Agricultural College, 

 the Michigan Department of Agriculture and the 

 United States Bureau of Soils is really to be of 

 very much help in determining the relative desira- 

 bility, ultimate productiveness and most economi- 

 cal use of each parcel of land. The legislation of 

 1917 made provision for a soil classification of 

 this character, but for reasons variously set forth, 

 the work, then assigned to the Geological Survey of 

 Michigan, was not proceeded Avith, and the present 

 survey is under quite diff^erent auspices and lacks the 

 cooperation of all agencies that might naturally be 

 expected to partici])ate. If the various types of land 

 are clearly differentiated and classified, it should 

 have the effect of more chjsely approximating land 

 prices to worth as related to productivity in the eco- 

 nomic sense of the term. 



With one-third of the area of the State in unpro- 

 ductive cut-over lands, and these in the hands mainly 

 of a few large owners, the problem of their disposi- 

 tion remains unsolved. Marquette County is one of 



