416 RURAL MICH 10 AN 



drainage projects $5,917,G10.50, and the area as- 

 sessed for this work amounted to 3,214,500 acres. ^ 

 Among these counties only three, Mackinac, Menomi- 

 nee and Ontonagon, are in the Upper Peninsula, 

 where, as yet, little artificial drainage has been under- 

 taken. In his most recent report on the lands of 

 the northern twenty-nine ctrftiitics of the Lower 

 Peninsula, Leverett estimates their area of lake, 

 swamp and wet lands at 4,3G5 square miles. The 

 State Geologist calls attention to the fact that some 

 22 per cent of the soils of the southern peninsula are 

 clay and thus susceptible of improvement through 

 drainage ; and he also points out that of the lands 

 capable of drainage, extensive areas may be unsuited 

 to agriculture, because of the presence of a saudy bot- 

 tom or sub-stratum. 



* "Drainage in Michigan," facing p. 25. 



