dy
and rapidly increasing tendency of the people of the plain to seek a
home in cities and villages, notwithstanding the great temptation
which fertile, cheap, and easily-improved lands hold out to become
tillers of the soil and growers of cattle. Stock farming is largely
remunerative, but our western people--wild and uncultivated as they
are supposed to be by those unacquainted with their true
character--prefer homes where the advantages of education and social
intercourse is a constant enjoyment. Nowhere in the world are
educational establishments on a better footing or more universally
accessible than in some of the new States of the centre, as in Ohio,
Michigan, Wisconsin and other States.

CHAPTER XII.

Michigan Agricultural Reports for 1854 -- Professor Thomas's
Report -- Report of J. S. Dixon -- Products of States --
Climate -- Army Meteorological Reports.

From the Agricultural Reports of the State of Michigan we take the
following:--

"From old Fort Mackinaw to the Manistee River, the land immediately
upon the lake shore, and not unfrequently extending back for many
miles, is considerably elevated, and occasionally rises very abruptly
to the height of from one hundred to three or four hundred feet. The
country (more particularly the northern portion) continues to rise as
we proceed into the interior, until it attains an elevation equal to
any other portion of the peninsula.

"This is more particularly the case in the rear of Traverse Bay, where
this elevation continues for many miles into the interior, giving to
the landscape a very picturesque appearance when viewed from some of
the small lakes, which abound in this as well as in the more southern
portion of the State.

"The tract of country under consideration is based on limestone,
sandstone, and shales, which are covered, excepting at a few points,
with a deposit of red clay and sand, varying in thickness from a few
inches to more than four hundred feet. The interior of the northern
portion of the peninsula, west of the meridian, is generally more
rolling than that on the east. It is interspersed with some extensive
cedar swamps and marshes, on the _alluvial_ lands, and in the vicinity
of heads of streams and some of the lakes. The upland is generally
rolling, has a soil of clay, loam and sand, and is clad with evergreen
timber, intermixed with tracts of beech and maple, varying in extent
from a few acres to several townships. S