Misc. Records
Where to Emigrate and Why - Frederick B. Goddard, Peoples Publ. Co., 1869
MICHIGAN.
THE State of Michigan consists of two disconnected peninsulas, between which are the upper ends of Lakes Michigan and Huron. It extends from the States of Ohio and Indiana on the south, to Lake Superior on the north, which divides it from the British Possessions. The northern division, lying between Lakes Superior and Michigan, is 316 miles long, and from 36 to 120 wide, comprising about one-third of the area of the State. The southern peninsula, included between Lakes Michigan, Huron, and Erie, is 416 miles long, and from 50 to 300 wide. The State has a lake shore line of 1,400 miles, and an area of 36,128,640 acres, of which more than 5,000,000 acres are yet unsold, and in the hands of the General Government.
The population of the State is not far from 1,000,000.
The surface of the northern peninsula is rugged and picturesque, diversified with mountains, valleys, and undulating plains. The Porcupine Mountains form the dividing ridge between Lakes Superior and Michigan, and are upward of 2,000 feet high. " The greater portion of the peninsula, the sand plains excepted, is covered with immense forests, principally of white and yellow pine, a portion of spruce, hemlock, birch, oak, and aspen, With a mixture of maple, ash, and elm, especially upon the rivers. Of the pine lands, there are millions of acres stretching between the Sault Ste. Marie, the Ontonagon, and Montreal rivers. To convert this material into lumber, there are discharging into the lakes forty large and sixty smaller streams, which will furnish a hydraulic power sufficient for all purposes. These streams, the largest of which does not exceed 150 miles, irrigate the country abundantly, and by their facilities for navigation furnish easy access to the interior. The head branches of the opposite lake streams often interlock, and when they do not communicate, furnish an easy portage from one to the other, by which navigation between the lakes is easily effected with the lighter craft. The lake coast of this section of the State has been estimated at between 700 and 800 miles in length, and that five-sevenths of the entire peninsula may be reached by the common lake vessels. This peninsula (the northern part of which has sometimes been called the Siberia of Michigan), it is probable, will never be noted for its agricultural productions, or immediately for the density of its population. With the exception of the fertile intervals on the rivers, the soil of the northern portion has all the evidences of sterility, as is exhibited in its mountains and barren sand plains. The southern part is more congenial in climate and soil. This is the limestone region., which extends to an undetermined line, separating the primary and secondary formations. Throughout this region the sugar-maple tree is abundant, interspersed with the white and red oak, the beech, and occasionally tracts of spruce and other forest-trees. It is here that the more even and. fertile tracts of land are found, and where, at some future day, will cluster the agricultural population of the peninsula. The soil is admirably fitted for grasses and all esculent roots; the potato also finds here a congenial locality, and the ordinary garden vegetables grow luxuriantly. Wheat and other small grains may be cultivated, but for corn the country and climate appears to be uncongenial. The lake fisheries, on both sides of the peninsula, are destined to be of no mean importance to the welfare of the settlers. In variety numerous, and in the greatest abundance, the fisheries in these waters have long attracted the attention of those counting the resources of the section. The Indians formerly derived a considerable portion of their subsistence from this source, and from the first settlements of the French to the present day their value has always been asserted. But this peninsula is also a great mineral region―not only of the State, but of the Union, and on that interest will its future prosperity mainly depend. Iron and copper are found in all the western and northern parts, from the Pictured Rocks and the Keweenaw Point to the Montreal River, the iron being chiefly a magnetic ore, equal in purity and quality to that of Missouri, and the copper, often in native bowlders, more plentiful than elsewhere occurring."
The southern peninsula presents, in most respects, a striking contrast to the northern. Its surface is generally level or rolling, and its soil is characterized by extreme fertility. Along the shore of Lake Huron is a strip or belt of territory, extending inland from ten to twenty miles, which may be called flat. This plain gradually becomes undulating, until it culminates in a low dividing ridge, or water-shed, which passes through the eastern portion of the peninsula from north to south, whence there is a gradual and unbroken slope toward Lake Michigan, furnishing excellent drainage. "To the traveler the country presents an appearance eminently picturesque and delightful. Through a considerable portion the surface is so even and free from brush as to admit of carriages being driven through it with the same facility as over the prairie or common road. The lowering forest and grove, the luxuriant prairie, the crystal lake and limpid rivulet, are so frequently and happily blended together, especially in the southern section of the peninsula, as to confer additional charms upon the high finishing of a landscape, the beauty of which is not excelled by that of any other part of the Union."
"Not only is this State surrounded by lakes, but the interior is interspersed with them from one border to the other. The country indeed is literally maculated with small lakes of every form and size, from an area of 1 to 1,000 acres, though, as a general rule, they do not perhaps average 500 acres in extent. They are sometimes so frequent that several of them may be seen from the same position. They are usually very deep, with gravelly bottoms, waters transparent, and of a cool temperature at all seasons. This latter fact is supposed to be in consequence of springs which furnish them constant supplies. Water-fowl of various sorts inhabit their shores, and their depths are the domain of abundance of fish, such as trout, bass, pike, pickerel, dace, perch, catfish, sucker, bull-head, &c., which often grow to an extraordinary size. It is usual to find some creek or rivulet originating in these; but what is a singular fact, and not easily accounted for, many of these bodies of living water have no perceptible outlet, and yet are stored with fish. A lake of this description, with its rich stores of fish and game, forms no unenviable appendage to a farm, and is properly appreciated. But, with all its length of lake coast, Michigan can boast of but few good harbors, yet there are several that afford excellent shelter from the storms that frequently sweep over these great inland seas, and lash them into turmoil."
The copper and iron mines of the northern peninsula of Michigan are known throughout the world. The existence of native copper in this region was noticed more than two hundred years ago, and referred to in books published at this period. In the year 1771, an English trader, named Alexander Henry, spent considerable money in the effort to obtain copper near the forks of the Ontonagon River; but it was not until about the year 1844—after the Lake Superior mineral regions were ceded by the Indians to the United States, and surveys and geological explorations had thoroughly demonstrated the existence of this mineral in large quantities—that private enterprise was stimulated to such efforts as resulted in the profitable working of the Lake Superior copper mines.
The region containing copper was limited to a range of hills, about two miles wide, and from 500 to 1,000 feet high, commencing at the coast on Keweenaw Point, running down the promontory in a southwesterly direction, and extending at least forty miles to the westward of the Ontonagon River. These hills are formed of strata of trap, alternating with sandstone and conglomerate rock, which dip and disappear to the north, to again become visible upon Isle Royale, forty-five miles distant in a northwesterly direction. There are other similar formations in the peninsula which are known to contain copper, but all the mines at present profitably worked are within the area above indicated.
Throughout this region the copper is only found in a metallic state, copper ore being found so rarely as to be considered as a cabinet specimen. Lumps of all sizes and shapes are found in the veins mingled with quartz. These masses are, never alloyed, but are frequently associated with native silver. The writer has in his possession a specimen weighing three pounds, nearly one-half of which is pure silver. During the summer of 1858, a mass of native copper was exposed, 48 feet in length, 20 in thickness, and weighing more than 150 tons. The management of these immense masses is very difficult. They must be reduced to lumps of five or six tons before they can be hoisted up the shafts; and as they can not be separated with powder, they are cut with long steel chisels, upon which two workmen strike alternately, while the chisel is held by a third. Sometimes a month is required to complete a single cut.
The Lake Superior mines yielded from the commencement of mining in 1844-45, to January 1, 1858, a total of 24,525 tons, which, reduced to ingot copper at 67 per cent, is 16,432 tons, valued at $8,216,000. The copper interests are in a very depressed state at present, owing to the low price of copper, and various other causes.
Iron mining has assumed immense importance in northern Michigan. The principal deposits are found in Marquette County, from twelve to fifty miles back from Lake Superior. The ore is obtained by open quarrying, and is very pure, much of it yielding 68 per cent of iron, without a trace of sulphur, phosphorus, or manganese. The ore forms ridges raising to the height of forty or fifty feet, sometimes 1,000 or more feet wide, and extending for miles. At one point is a mountain or hill 180 feet in height, consisting entirely of alternate bands of pure, fine-grained, steel-gray peroxide of iron, and deep red jasper ore. The layers are generally less than one-fourth of an inch thick, and curiously contorted. This deposit is estimated to be 1,000 feet wide and more than a mile long. A railroad runs through this district connecting Marquette on Lake Superior with Esconaba on the waters of Lake Michigan.
This region offers many inducements to the summer tourist, and is annually visited by health and pleasure-seekers, who return invigorated with the pure air and charmed with the grand and picturesque scenery around Lake Superior. The Commissioner of the General Land Office says:―
The shores of Lake Superior abound in striking and romantic views, the "pictured rocks" being objects of special interest. They are composed of party-colored sandstones worn by the attrition of the waves into fancied resemblances of ruined temples and castles. They are sixty miles from the Sault Ste. Marie.
SOIL.—The soil in the middle and south of the lower peninsula is very rich, generally free from stones, of a deep, dark, rich, sandy loam, often mingled with gravel and clay. The northern part is well timbered, arable, and fertile.
The agricultural character of the northern peninsula has not been determined. Portions of it are densely timbered, furnishing immense quantities of lumber, for domestic use and for exportation, the trees being the white pine, spruce, hemlock, birch, and oak. In the lower peninsula are heavily timbered tracts of black and white walnut, sugar-maple, oak, hickory, ash, basswood, locust, and poplar.
CLIMATE AND PRODUCTIONS.—The climate of Michigan is less severe than that of other portions of the country between the same parallels of latitude, being softened by the immense freshwater surface on the borders of the State.
The colder and less genial climate of the northern peninsula, though admitting good crops of winter grain, is not favorable to maize. The lower portion of the State, however, produces large aggregates of all kinds of cereals.
The agricultural yield of the State is immense in wheat, rye, maize, oats, barley, buckwheat, potatoes, beans, and hay, also the products of the orchard (apples, peaches, pears, and plums), and of the dairy. The yield of maple-sugar, sorghum-molasses, and honey, is abundant and increasing.
Tobacco is cultivated to some extent, and large quantities are imported for manufacture.
Wool raising is an important branch of husbandry. The clip of 1866 was estimated at 9,750,000 pounds, an increase of 2,500,000 pounds over the clip of 1864, notwithstanding an immense exportation of sheep to Iowa.
The lumber trade of Michigan is of great value and extent; the extensive pineries, after satisfying the home demand, supply a large surplus for exportation. The quantity cut in 1866 was largely in excess of the product of the previous year—at least 30 per cent; the total amounted to 1,125,000,000 feet.
MINERALS.—The upper peninsula, rich in minerals, prominent among which is copper, is mostly of primitive geological character; the lower exclusively secondary. The copper deposits among the primary rocks of the northern peninsula are the richest in the world, the copper belt being one hundred and twenty miles long and from two to six miles wide. A block of several tons of almost pure copper, taken from the mouth of Ontonagon River, has been built into the wall of the Washington monument at the national capital. A mass weighing one hundred and fifty tons was uncovered in 1854 in the North American mine.
Isle Royale abounds in this mineral; one house in that district, during five and a half months of 1854, shipped over two millions of pounds, and in the nine years previous there were produced four thousand eight hundred and twenty-four tons. The yield of copper in the State has risen to an annual average of eight thousand tons, with promise of steady increase. The opening of the St. Mary's Canal and the clearing of the entrance into Portage Lake have given fresh impetus to this branch of mining industry, which is becoming one of the most cherished interests of the State. Silver has been found in connection with the copper in the proportion of from twenty-five to fifty per cent of the precious metal. Iron of superior quality has been discovered in a bed of slate from six to twenty-five miles wide, and one hundred and fifty long, extending into Wisconsin. In the production of this mineral in 1863, Michigan was only second to Pennsylvania, having produced two hundred and seventy-three thousand tons of ore. Bituminous coal is mined on an enlarging scale to meet the demand of manufactures. Salt also exists in quantities repaying the investment of capital.
The high prices lately prevailing have caused a rapid development of the salt fields around Saginaw, a basin some forty or fifty miles square, in which by boring some eight hundred feet, an inexhaustible supply of brine is obtained, yielding eighty or ninety per cent of salt.
MANUFACTURES.—The manufacturing interests in the year 1860 were represented by three thousand four hundred and forty-eight establishments, with a capital of $23,808,226. The cost of labor and the raw material amounted to $24,370,658, the total value of the products having been $32,658,356, giving a surplus over cost of labor and materials of $8,287,698, or nearly 35 per cent on the capital invested. These establishments were mostly engaged in the working of the heavy products of the mines and the forest into forms for the more elaborate processes in the older States. Yet the increase of labor and capital is such that the intelligent industries of the people are finding occupation in the higher branches of manufactures.
MISCELLANEOUS.—The lakes around the State abound in fish, consisting of white fish, pickerel, siskiwit, trout, bass, herring, and muskallonge. The yield of 1865, was 35,200 barrels, averaging sixteen dollars each, amounting to $563,200, the legislature having forbidden seine-fishing in order to prevent injury to this branch of industry.
Upward of eight hundred miles of railroad have been completed at a cost of about thirty-five millions of dollars, and six hundred more are in course of construction or projected, the completion of which will add largely to the prosperity of all the industrial interests of the State.
Lansing, the capital, on Grand River, one hundred and ten miles northwest from Detroit, was, when selected as the seat of government in 1847, an unbroken wilderness. It is now a city of nearly five thousand inhabitants, containing churches, banks, newspaper establishments, and institutions of learning, male and female.
Detroit, settled by the French in 1670, situated on the strait connecting Lakes Erie and St. Clair, is a splendid city, with a population in 1865 of sixty thousand, now rapidly increasing. It is well built, gas lit, and provided with ample street railways, possesses a very efficient system of public schools, accommodated in neat and commodious edifices, while its churches embrace several specimens of elaborate and tasteful architecture.
Its position is admirable for commerce, of which it has a considerable share, having lines of trade with Liverpool. Monroe, Saginaw, Port Huron, Ste. Marie, and New Buffalo, are also important places.
The finances of the State are in a healthy condition, the debt small and in rapid liquidation. Educational endowments are liberal and well administered.
The resources of the State when fully developed will doubtless be sufficient to support comfortably a population of ten millions.
The Report of the Department of Agriculture for the month of April, 1868, contains the following:―
RELATIVE VALUE OF WILD LANDS AS COMPARED WITH 1860.—Of the counties making returns to our circular, but one, Ontonagon, reports a decline in the value of farm lands, depreciation in this case being attributed to the great depression of the copper mining interest. Bay County claims an increase of 300 per cent; Iosco, Alpena, and Gratiot from 200 to 250; Delta, Leelenaw, Cass, Clinton, and Jackson, 100; Kent, 66; Lapeer, Ingham, Barry, Branch, Ottawa, and Muskegon, 50; Berrien, Van Buren, Macomb, St. Joseph, 30 to 40; Alcona, Livingston, and Kalamazoo, 15 to 25 per cent; showing an average increase of about 70 per cent for the State since the estimates of 1860. Mason County has been mostly settled under the homestead laws since 1862, and farm lands have increased from $1.25 to $10 per acre.
PRESENT PRICE OF UNIMPROVED LAND.—Wild or unimproved lands are reported at various figures from the Government minimum price up to $50 per acre, according to location and condition. In Ontonagon in the northwest, on Lake Superior, the average value is $6 per acre, heavily timbered with hemlock, maple, birch, and pine, suited to wheat culture, fruits, and vegetables. Delta County, $1.25 to $2.50; about one-tenth in hard wood, good soil; the remainder pine, sandy, and. poor. Leelenaw, Government lands, $1.25; held by individuals, $5 per acre; soil a sandy loam. Mason, Government land, $1.25 to $2.50; State swamp, $1.25; railroad, about $2.50; the swamp is in cedar, ash, and hemlock timber; when cleared makes good grass land; one-half the county in pine now being cut off, soil poor, light. Muskegon, $8 per acre; soil partly clay loam, remainder sandy. Ottawa, $8.50 on an average, though some fruit lands are selling as high as $50 to $75 per acre. Kent, average value, $15; soil various, some superior wheat land. Van Buren, $16 per acre. Cass, $25, if dry enough for cultivation without draining; wet lands not worth so much; dry lands generally timbered heavily; will produce. grass, wheat, corn, potatoes, &c., in perfection, also fruits suited to the latitude. Branch, $10 to $40 per acre, mostly timber. Hillsdale, $10 per acre, generally broken by hills and swamps. Jackson, but small parcels left, worth $25 to $30 per acre. Calhoun, $15 per acre; three-fourths good farming lands when cleared; one-fourth swamp, mostly without timber. Kalamazoo, mostly oak openings and beach and maple lands; soil fertile, desirable for wheat and grass. Barry, $10 per acre. Clinton, unimproved farming lands are worth $9 per acre; quality excellent, gently rolling, half timber and half oak openings; soil varying from light sand to heavy clay; swamp lands of little market value, though they contain inexhaustible stores of peat and marl. Ingham, greater part of the wild land is wet, mostly black muck, highly productive when drained; there are also dry farming tracts, well timbered. Gratiot, $6 per acre, chiefly farm land, very fertile, producing large crops of grain and grass. Macomb, $25 per acre, various qualities, nearly all susceptible of high cultivation. Lapeer, $5 to $20; in the south, oak openings, northern portion, heavily timbered; nearly all good farm land. Mackinaw, $1.25 per acre; little farming done in the county. Bay, $7 per acre, well timbered. Iosco, $4 to $15 per acre. Alcona, $1.25 per acre, though holders of pine land reserve it at that price. Alpena, a large portion of the farming lands belong to the Government, and, can be purchased at $1.25 per acre, while land in second hands commands from $3 to $20, according to quality and location. In several counties all the unimproved and timber lands belong to farms, and are not in the market separately.
MINERALS, &c.—The mineral resources of Michigan are chiefly confined to the northern peninsula, the copper and iron regions of which are too widely known to need detailed description here. The great copper deposits are principally located in the Keweenaw peninsula, but the beds extend along the lake from Ontonagon to Schoolcraft in greater or less quantities. The extreme length of the copper beds is said to be 135 miles, with a width varying from one to six miles, though the mineral does not exist in every portion of this extent, miles sometimes intervening with no traces of the ore. The rich deposits of iron ore are found chiefly in Marquette County, where there are literally mountains of this metal. Iron ore is also found in Delta, and to some extent in Berrien and Branch counties. Coal abounds in Jackson, and is found in limited quantity in Ingham, Bay, and other counties, but as yet has been but slightly developed. Gypsum is reported in Van Wert, Iosco, &c.; salt wells in Ingham and Van Wert; clay and lime in Jackson, Alpena, &c. Marl is also abundant in some localities. There is an abundance of timber in great variety in all sections of the State, and in several counties lumbering is an extensive business. In Gratiot County large forces of men are employed every winter in lumbering off the pine, and during the past year 8,000 to 10,000 acres have been cleared up and put in crops or in readiness for seeding in the spring. Large forests of sugar-maple exist in this county, and many thousands of pounds of maple-sugar are made annually. Our Alcona correspondent says that county "is almost a solid body of pine timber, interspersed with small tracts of farming lands of the best quality, covered with a heavy growth of birch and sugar-maple."
CROPS.—Wheat, corn, oats, hay, potatoes, hops, &c., are grown generally throughout the State, no county or section being entirely devoted to any particular crop, though wheat is the leading product in many counties, potatoes and hay in others, while corn, hops, pork, and wool are the money crops in some sections. Wheat and corn are largely grown in Muskegon, Berrien, Kalamazoo, Cass, Barry, Hillsdale, St: Joseph, Livingston, Van Buren, Calhoun, Kent, Gratiot, Macomb, Lapeer, Ingham, Clinton, and other counties; potatoes have been a leading crop in Mason, St. Joseph, Mackinaw, Ontonagon, Delta, Alcona, Alpena, Iosco; hay in Bay, Ontonagon, Delta, Alcona, &c.; hops in Calhoun, Van Buren, Macomb; wool in Livingston, Kent, and Clinton. Our Calhoun reporter writes:―
"In 1863 this county produced about 860,000 bushels of wheat, averaging nearly 15 bushels per acre, worth in round numbers $1,500,000. D. F. Curtis, living near this city (Marshall), harvested 40 acres of Treadwell wheat this year, which yielded 30 bushels to the acre, sold in September at $2 per bushel. It was sown on a clover sod, plowed early with a three-horse team, thoroughly dragged and cultivated, drilled in. (This is more than double the average of our county.) Another gentleman has several acres in hops; his crop last year was about 1,100 pounds per acre, which sold at 60 cents per pound, yielding a net profit of $300, in addition to the roots sold in the spring, which, at $3 per bushel, produced nearly half as much more. The prices of both the hops and roots were high, rather speculative."
In Clinton, last season, our reporter says he harvested 168 bushels of wheat on seven acres of clover sod, from which the stumps had not been removed, and that a neighbor raised 500 bushels upon 18 acres; and adds that those who take pains get from 18 to 30 bushels per acre. Ingham averages 12 to 15 bushels of wheat to the acre, netting about $10 per acre. In Gratiot, winter wheat on well-worked summer fallow, not molested by the midge, yields 30 to 40 bushels to the acre; spring wheat does as well in favorable seasons. In Hillsdale, wheat has become a precarious crop, from bad farming, and more attention is given to corn, which seldom fails, and is considered more profitable when fed out on the farm. Farmers in the lumbering regions and counties adjacent find the production of potatoes, hay, and oats the most profitable, always having a ready market for their surplus, and the crops being pretty reliable. In Iosco, our reporter says, they grow 300 bushels of potatoes to the acre, and make a profit of $225 per acre. Our Alpena correspondent says:―
"Hay is worth $30 per ton; oats, $1 per bushel; potatoes, $1.50 per bushel. This county purchased and brought here last year, at a cost of $4 per ton, not less than 600 tons of hay, 15,000 bushels of oats, and 5,000 to 6,000 bushels of potatoes. The price paid for clearing lands is $20 to $25 per acre, which land will yield from one to two and a half tons of hay to the acre, from 20 to 50 bushels of oats, and from 100 to 200 bushels of potatoes, with good market at cash prices. Last season I had 15 acres of grass, and was offered $20 per acre for it as it stood, and I think this amount can be netted from any fair acre of farming land in this county."
From St. Joseph County we have: "Potatoes and peppermint oil are specialties in this county. Of the former not less than 200,000 bushels were shipped from the county last season, at an average of 65 cents per bushel to the producer, and of the latter about 7,000 pounds, at $4.75 per pound. Those engaged in the culture of these crops are well satisfied with the profits, potatoes being well calculated to subdue the land and leave it in good condition for laying down to grass, while peppermint leaves the land (after yielding three crops to one planting) in fine condition for wheat, our staple crop."
Hop culture is proving largely remunerative wherever engaged in, and the business is annually increasing in the State. Wool has been a prominent production in some sections, but the low prices of the past season have discouraged many farmers, and less attention is being paid to this branch, the returns of the number of sheep in the State, January 1, 1868, showing a decline of 80,000 from the year preceding.
Unlike other States lying in the same latitude, Michigan raises winter wheat principally, the peculiar location of the State, almost entirely surrounded by water, having much to do with the general exemption of winter grains from the freezing-out to which the crop in other Northern States is so frequently subjected.
The sowing season extends from the 1st to the 30th of September, though the greater portion is put in from the 5th to the 20th, and harvesting is generally done from the 5th to the 20th of July, though it is sometimes commenced in some counties as early as the 1st of the month, and in others extends into August. Not more than 20 per cent of the acreage of the State is drilled, and in some counties drilling has not been introduced. In Van Buren, Lapeer, Macomb, St. Joseph, Barry, Livingston, Cass, Jackson, Calhoun, Oakland, Kalamazoo, and a few other counties, the proportion sown broadcast is about one-half on an average. Livingston reports nine-tenths drilled and Cass three-fourths. Summer fallowing for wheat appears to be general. In Branch County, our reporter says, they usually summer-fallow, plow twice, and drag sufficiently to make the ground mellow. In Calhoun "three- fourths of the crop is grown on fallow, of which two-thirds is sown on clover sod, plowed once; after cultivation with harrow and cultivator or gang-plow, the rest of the fallow being plowed twice; one-fourth of the whole crop comes after corn or other spring crop, a moiety being sown in corn without cutting up. This corn is planted five feet apart in squares, cultivated thoroughly and put in with horse cultivator, the corn being husked off the hills about the 1st of September, and the cattle allowed to winter in the field when covered with snow."
Our St. Joseph reporter says that the mode of culture varies among the best farmers, but they generally plow clover sod in June; some then let it lie without plowing again, but till thoroughly with cultivator and harrow, while others plow again in August. Our Berrien correspondent writes:—
"The manner of cultivation varies according to means and circumstances. My method is to plow twice, from nine to eleven inches deep, with three or four heavy horses, harrow thoroughly, sow from one and one-fourth to two bushels, according to size of grain, cultivate with a nine-tooth cultivator, cross-harrow with a light harrow, then roll with a heavy roller. With this treatment I usually raise heavy crops."
The length of season during which farm stock can feed exclusively upon pastures is reported from four to seven months.
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler.