1883.] “ The Plains” of Michigan. 253 
at least in the narrower sense of the term. Over considerable 
portions of their surface it is impossible to find a single white or 
even “ Norway” pine, but wherever the soil changes from the 
light sand already described to one containing a slight admixture 
of gravel or loam, and often even when no such change is dis- 
tinctly obvious, the scrub pine is replaced by the red or “ Norway” 
pine (Pinus resinosa). With this, or scattered through hardwood 
timber, and indicating a soil still somewhat further improved in 
quality, is the white pine (Pinus strobus). Both of these are dis- 
tributed in tracts of greater or less extent through the plains, but 
attain a larger development on the better lands beyond them. Itis 
these two species that have given their great value to the pine lands 
of Michigan, and for the last quarter of a century have furnished 
such immense quantities of lumber to the markets of the world. 
Their rapid destruction, with no attempt on the part of any one to 
replace them or to provide for a future supply, is looked upon 
with alarm by those who take an intelligent interest in the 
financial prosperity of the State. It has become a question of 
immediate and pressing importance, what can be done with these 
large areas that have already been stripped of their most valuable 
timber and, abandoned by their owners, are now run over by fires 
from year to year that exhaust the soil of what little fertility it may 
have had and leave the whole region a blackened scene of deso- 
lation, 
=~ The “pine belt,” within which these lands Jie, is bounded 
i nearly enough for practical purposes by the 43d parallel of 
latitude on the south and the 45th on the north. As a whole, it 
is by no means the worthless region that it is still quite generally 
regarded, but contains extensive areas of hardwood lands, valu- 
able for farming purposes, that are passing into the hands of 
settlers whose crops of wheat and oats and fruits of various kinds 
rival those of the older and more favored portions of the State. 
2 The future of these better parts of the pine region is already 
: determined. The well-fenced farms, with good buildings and 
beautiful fields of grain, that are already found in the very midst 
col $ i oe that a few years ago was reported to be “one great 
: AES are a sufficient guaranty that these lands will be 
Permanently and profitably devoted to agricultural purposes. 
eo or 
not this may be less profitable to the State at large 
si continued production of timber will not affect the case. 
