FARMING ON CUT-OVER LANDS. 
DESCRIPTION OF THE AREA. 
The cut-over district in the northern part of Michigan, Wisconsin, 
and Minnesota extends in a broad belt from St. Marys River and 
Lake Huron on the east to the Red River Valley on the west. The 
shaded portion of the map (fig. 1) shows in a general way the bound- 
aries of this district. 
The high price of lumber in recent years has brought about the 
destruction of most of the pine forests in this region and has caused 
big inroads to be made into the forests of hardwood. Fires have 
also played an important part in the destruction of these northern 
forests. The harvesting of the crop of timber and its manufacture 
into lumber has made a few men very wealthy and for a long time 
Tig. 1.— Map showing cut-over district (shaded area) and location of farms studied. Squares show areas 
where farm surveys were made and round dots areas where farm practice studies were conducted. 
has furnished employment to a large force of laborers at reasonably 
good wages. 
Strange as it may seem, the lumberman rated the land that pro- 
duced this heavy growth of timber as having little or no agricultural 
value. While this may be true of some of the swamp land and sandy 
belt areas, it is by no means generally true of this extensive cut-over 
district. At present prices for farm products the very sandy lands 
can not be farmed successfully by the ordinary methods now in use 
and the swamp lands must be drained before they can add to farm 
profits, but a large percentage of both these soil types can and will 
eventually be brought under successful cultivation. 
The soils of this region are largely of glacial origin, as the ice sheet 
at one time covered the entire district. There are large areas of 
