GOYERXMEXTAL WORK FOR COUNTRY LIFE 415 



is now under the control of the county drain com- 

 missioners. 



As a factor in development, the drainage of the 

 Avet lands of Michigan is extremely important. Col- 

 lating the results of studies by Miller and Simons 

 and by Leverett, it is estimated that in the Lower 

 Peninsula ll.C) per cent of the area is swamp and 

 lake. In the northern peninsula 25 per cent of the 

 area is estimated of the same character, but infor- 

 mation is less definite here. This works out to 4,146 

 square miles of lake and swamp in the Upper Pen- 

 insula. Leverett suggests that one-fourth of this is 

 capable of drainage. Miller and Simons' estimate is 

 similar to Leverett's, namely, 2,598,000 acres, which 

 amounts to 24.6 per cent of the area of the Upper 

 Peninsula. However, these investigators, in the ab- 

 sence of sufficient data, did not estimate the reclaim- 

 able wet lands. Leverett estimates that one-fourth 

 of the wet lands of the northern peninsula are ca- 

 pable of drainage. 



In the southern peninsula, Leverett estimates the 

 lake and swamp area at 11.6 per cent, while Miller 

 and Simons approximate this area, with their in- 

 clusion of 2,175,000 acres, which works out approxi- 

 mately 12 per cent of the aggregate southern penin- 

 sula area. In the northern twenty-one counties of 

 this peninsula, which is also the area of sandy waste 

 lands, Miller and Simons estimate that there are 

 661,000 acres of reclaimablo wet land. During the 

 five-year period, 1913-1917, fifty-seven counties of 

 both peninsulas expended on the construction of 



