450 RURAL MICHIGAN 



area in these counties has occurred, it must be as- 

 sumed that there is a retrograde agricultural move- 

 ment in this section of the State. 



On the other hand, the counties in the northern 

 portion of the southern peninsula and throughout the 

 northern peninsula have displayed an agricultural 

 advance in the decade. Thus Arenac County showed 

 an increase of 31.1 per cent in improved farm lands; 

 Clare County an increase of 22 per cent; Gladwin, 

 of 34.9 per cent; Mason, 7.2; Manistee, 13.7; Lake, 

 7.3 ; Newaygo, 0.9 ; Montmorency, 30.2, and Ogemaw, 

 21. These counties are without large cities but with 

 a much smaller proportion of their land in farms, 

 because of the poverty of the soil or the presence of 

 forest lands, public or private. Thus Arenac County 

 has only 135,334 acres in farms, while Van Buren 

 has 341,089 acres, and Branch County 308,805. 

 Manistee County has 147,569 acres in farms, as 

 against 308,805 acres in Branch County, although 

 Manistee exceeds Branch County in area by 65 square 

 miles. Although the farm area in these northern 

 counties is proportionally less, the census returns 

 indicate that it is materially increasing. 



An even more striking situation appears for the 

 counties of the Upper Peninsula, where soil condi- 

 tions on the whole are believed to be much more 

 favorable than in the northern counties of the south- 

 ern peninsula. Thus Gogebic County in the decade 

 showed a total farm area increasing by 109.2 per 

 cent, and an improved farm land area increasing by 

 107.3 per cent; but the acreages themselves were 



