peninsula is more irregular than that of the lower peninsula. A portion extending through the middle from east to west and south, from west of the centre to Green Bay, is either flat and even swampy or only gently undulating. Eastward from Green Bay are two ranges of hills: the one lining the south shore and ranging from 100 to 300 ft. in height, the other close to or touching the north shore and reaching in places an elevation of 600 ft. above Lake Superior. The famous Pictured Rocks in Alger county on the lake shore, east of Munising, form the west portion of this north range; they are of sandstone formation, extend for several miles along the coast, rise almost perpendicularly from the water’s edge, and display an interesting diversity of shapes as well as a great variety of tints and hues, especially of gray, blue, green and yellow. The most rugged portion of the state is farther west. South and south-east of Keweenaw Bay, in the Marquette iron district, is an irregular area of mountains, hills, swamps and lakes, some of the mountain peaks of the Huron Mountains (in Marquette county) rising to an elevation of 1400 ft. or more above the lake. These and a peak in the Porcupine Mountains (2023 ft. above the sea) in the north-west part of Ontonagon county are the highest in the state. To the south of this is the Menominee iron district, marked somewhat regularly by east and west ridges. Extending in a general north-east and south-west direction through Keweenaw peninsula to the Wisconsin border and beyond is the middle of three approximately parallel ranges, separated from each other by flat lands, with here and there an isolated peak (in the Porcupine Mountains) having an elevation of from 900 to 1400 ft. above the lake. The north portion of these ranges, together with Isle Royale some distance farther north, which is itself traversed by several less elevated parallel ridges, contains the Michigan copper-bearing rocks; while to the south, along the Wisconsin border, is another iron district, the Gogebic. The rivers of the entire state consist of numerous small streams of clear water. In the interior of the upper peninsula, along the east border of the lower peninsula south from Lake Huron, and in Saginaw valley, they are rather sluggish; but many of the larger streams of the lower peninsula have sufficient fall to furnish a large amount of water-power, while the small streams that flow into Lake Superior from the central portion of the upper peninsula as well as some of the larger ones farther west, have several falls and rapids; in places also they are lined with steep, high banks. Most of the larger rivers of the state—the Muskegon, Grand, St Joseph, Manistee and Kalamazoo—are in the west portion of the lower peninsula. Several thousand lakes of clear water, formed by glacial action, dot the surface of the state, and many of them are lined with picturesque woodland shores. Islands in lakes Superior, Michigan and Huron are scarcely less numerous.
Fauna and Flora.—Michigan, especially the north portion, still abounds in game. The mammals include black bear, deer, lynx, porcupine, fox, squirrels, hares, rabbits, musk rats, minks, weasels, skunks and woodchucks. Among the game birds are quails (“Bob White”), “partridges” (ruffed grouse), ducks, geese, woodcocks, snipes and plovers. Of song birds the favourites are the robin, thrushes, bobolink, oriole, chickadee, meadow-lark, cat-bird, bluebird, wrens and warblers. Among fishes, white fish, lake trout, perch, herring, sun-fish, bass, sturgeon, pickerel, suckers, German carp and fresh-water drum abound in the lakes. The speckled trout thrives in many of the streams.
Before it was settled by the whites the area now included in Michigan was a forest, except in the south-west, where there were a few small prairies, possibly cleared by the Indians. The remainder of the south part of this area for about 60 m. along the southern boundary was a part of the great hardwood forest of the Ohio Basin with woods varying with soil and drainage: on the drier gravel lands were oak forests consisting of red, black and white oak, hickory, ash, cherry, basswood and walnut; in depressions there were maple, elm, ash, beech, sycamore, poplar and willow; and in the south-east there were a few chestnuts and tulip trees. North of this southern hardwood forest there were pine forests on the sandier land, mixed hardwoods and conifers on the loam and clay, and tamaracks and cedar in the swamps. The sandy lands were in part burnt over by Indians, and there was a growth of scrub oak, aspens and huckleberry bushes. The tamarack and cedar swamps now have a growth, especially on their edges, of spruce, balsam, white pine, soft maple, ash and aspens. In 1909 about 25% of the area was “cut over” or “burned over” lands, mostly the old pine woods, the region of the old hardwood forest was almost entirely farmland, and about 40% of the state was still in woods. Red oak, birch, elm, ash, white cedar, hemlock, basswood, spruce, poplar, balsam, fir and several other kinds of trees are found in many sections; but a large portion of the merchantable timber, especially in the lower peninsula, has been cut.[1] Among forest shrubs are the willow, hazel, alder, shrub maple, birch, hawthorn, dogwood, elderberry, viburnum and snowberry. Yews are common in the north, and dwarf juniper in the south. In 1900 the woodland area, including stump lands, was estimated at 38,000 sq. m., or nearly two-thirds of the entire state. Huckleberry, blackberry and raspberry bushes are common in the north sections. Smilax, clematis, honeysuckle and woodbine are the commoner forest vines.
Soil.—The soil of south-west and south-east Michigan is for the most part a dark clay loam or muck; in the north central part of the lower peninsula it is a light sandy loam, along the Huron shore it is heavy with blue clay, in the mining districts of the north-west the rocks are usually either barren or very thinly covered; and elsewhere in the state the soil is generally rich in a variety of mineral elements, and varies chiefly in the proportions of vegetable loam, sand or gravel, and clay.
Climate.—Although the temperature of the entire lower peninsula is considerably influenced by the lakes, yet, the prevailing winds being westerly, it is in the west portion of that peninsula that the moderation is greatest, both the summer and winter isotherms being there deflected more than half the length of the peninsula. On the other hand, the prevailing winds of the upper peninsula being north-westerly, the lakes have little effect on the temperature there; and so, while in the south-west the extremes are not great, in the rest of the state they have ranged within two years from 104° F. at points in the south-east to 49° F. in the north-west. Throughout the state July is invariably the warmest month, February the coldest, the mean annual temperature is about 45° F. The mean annual precipitation is not far from 31 in., a little more than one-half of which falls during the five growing months from May to October; the rain is evenly distributed over all parts of the state, but the snow is exceptionally heavy along the north shore of the upper peninsula.
Productions.—Of the total land surface of the state in 1900 48·08% (in 1904, 47·1%) was included in farms and 67·2% (in 1904, 66·9%) of the farm land was improved; the total number of farms was 203,261 (in 1904, 189,167), of which 143,688 contained less than 100 acres, 54,556 others contained less than 260 acres, and 136 contained 1000 acres or more, the average size being 86·4 acres (in 1904, 91·5 acres). Of the total number of farms 168,814 were operated by the owners (in 1904, 161,037 by owners and 914 by managers), 22,482 (in 1904, 19,525) by share tenants, 9731 (in 1904, 7685) by cash tenants; and 312,462 of the inhabitants of the state, or 34·5% of all who were engaged in gainful occupations, were farmers. Of the total acreage in 1900 of all crops 58·3% was in cereals and 28·8% in hay and forage; of the acreage of cereals 40·8% was in wheat, 31·8% in Indian corn, 21·6% in oats and 3·7% in rye. In 1907 the buckwheat crop was 852,000 bushels; rye, 5,452,000 bushels; the hay crop, 3,246,000 tons; oats, 30,534,000 bushels; barley, 1,496,000 bushels; wheat 12,731,000 bushels; and Indian corn 57,190,000 bushels. Of livestock, sheep are the most numerous (2,130,000 in 1907), and Michigan’s wool clip in 1907 was 14,080,500 ℔. The number of neat cattle in 1907 was 1,852,000 (849,000 dairy cows). The number of hogs was 1,388,000; and of horses 704,000.
Michigan produces the bulk of the peppermint crop of the United States, and it is in the front rank as a fruit-producing state.
Barley and buckwheat are grown chiefly in the east part of the lower peninsula south of Saginaw Bay. Potatoes are grown in considerable quantities in the north-west part of the lower peninsula in the vicinity of Grand Traverse Bay as well as throughout the southern portion of the state; the largest crops of beans are grown in the south central part of the lower peninsula, and of peas in the counties bordering on Lake Huron. Kalamazoo, Jackson, Washtenaw, Lenawee, Ingham, Bay and Muskegon are the leading celery-producing counties; the peppermint district is in the south-west corner of the state; and market gardening is an important industry both in the south-west and in the south-east counties. All the principal fruits are grown in largest quantities in what is commonly known as the fruit belt in the south-west, particularly in Berrien, the corner county.
The fresh-water fish caught in the Great Lakes by residents in Michigan exceed in value those caught by residents of other states, and in 1907 the catch was valued at $1,806,767. Nearly one-half both in quantity and value are taken from Lake Michigan, and, although as many as twenty kinds are caught in considerable quantities, more than 90% of the value of the catch consists of trout, herring, white fish and perch. Both the state government and the national government have established hatcheries within the state, and state laws protect the industry by regulating the size of mesh in the nets used, prescribing the size of fish that may be taken and kept, establishing close seasons for several kinds of fish, and by other limitations.
Minerals.—Of the mineral products (for which the state is noted) iron is the most valuable. This mineral was discovered in the Marquette district along the shore of Lake Superior early in the 18th century, but active operations for mining it did not begin until 1845; in 1877 mining of the same mineral began farther south in the Menominee district, and seven years later farther west along the Wisconsin border in Gogebic county. The annual product steadily increased from 3000 long tons in 1854 to 11,830,342 in 1907; from 1890 to 1901 Michigan ranked first in the union as an iron-producing state, but after 1901 its product was exceeded by that of Minnesota. Up to 1909 it was estimated that 380,417,085 tons of ore were shipped from the Lake Superior region. Next in value among the mineral products is copper; there are about twenty copper mines in Keweenaw peninsula and its vicinity. The Calumet and Hecla mine, in the central part of that peninsula, is probably the
most profitable copper mine in the world; up to 1909 it had paid- ↑ Under the revised constitution of 1908 the legislature is authorized to provide for the reforestation of state lands.
