GOTERXMEXTAL MORE FOR COUXTRY LIFE 409 



or levees installed by individual farm owners, 

 supplemental to the works of the enterprises, nor 

 the works of flood protection or levee districts that 

 had not undertaken the construction of ditches or 

 tile-drains. There are three pumping districts for 

 land drainage among the enterprises in Michigan. 

 The Census found the principal crojis grown upon 

 the drained lands to be wheat, corn and sugar-beets. 

 The aggregate area of the farm land that was re- 

 ported as provided with drainage is 3,156,632 acres. 

 The area of farm land reported as needing drainage is 

 given as 2,070,387. The area requiring drainage only 

 is 579,813 acres, while that requiring both drainage 

 and clearing is given as 1,490,574 acres. The total 

 land in operating drainage enterprises, which include 

 the completion of drainage works authorized or which 

 had begun actual construction work on or before 

 January 1, 1920, is 9,729,171 acres, which includes 

 7,182,352 acres of improved land, and which consti- 

 tutes 55.6 per cent of all improved land in farms. 

 The timbered and cut-over land in these enterprises 

 is estimated at 2,195,562 acres, and of other unim- 

 proved land, 351,257 acres. The area of land that 

 is swampy or subject to overflow in these enterprises 

 is 1,020,207. The area that suffers a loss of crops 

 from defective drainage is put at 692,224 acres. The 

 total assessed acreage is 15,766,478. The aggregate 

 capital invested in or required for the completion of 

 operating enterprises is $25,048,980. 



Michigan's first comprehensive drainage law was 

 enacted in 1839, but the present county drain sys- 



