USA > Michigan > A History of Northern Michigan and Its People, Volume I > Part 5
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The dune sands occur around the edges of the present lakes and also along the lines where the lakes formerly existed. They are nearly
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SOIL DEPOSITOR OF NORTHERN MICHIGAN
pure silica, and the softest waters in the state have been obtained from them. In fact, near East Olive, the excessive softness of the water is supposed to have something to do with a hoof disease. The sand is also shipped from Port Crescent in Huron county for furnace linings. There is, however, quite a little difference in the sharpness of the dune sands in the different regions. The longer it has been handled of course the more rounded it gets, and in many cases it is derived from sands al- ready rounded.
Muck, Peat and Meadow-The term muck as used by the depart- ment of agriculture is practically the same as peat, being, however, ap- plied to the more decomposed varieties, such as are found for instance around Kalamazoo, and are used very extensively in this state to grow celery, peppermint, etc. It occurs in the more extensive swamp areas especially those south of Saginaw bay. Further north the material will
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be more commonly classed by them as peat. It may overlie to a varying depth any of the other soils. It is particularly likely to overlie also what is known as marl or bog lime, which occasionally occurs in this state in what might be called a formation by itself as described below. The peat overlying bog lime is not so likely to be sour, whereas many other peats contain sulphate or other organic salts of iron, and in that case are very likely to be sour. Such beds are very likely to be under- lain by hardpan of quite a different nature from the till to which the term is also applied. This hardpan is cemented together by iron, and may pass gradually into deposits of bog iron ore, which may also con- tain considerable quantities of manganese. Small deposits of bog iron ore are found in various places in the state, as in Branch county, as well as in the Upper Peninsula, but are of no present commercial value. The soil book of the department of agriculture describes muck and meadow as given below. Meadow is generally a term applied to various kinds of bottom land.
PEAT
"This is vegetable matter consisting of roots and fibres, moss, etc., in various stages of decomposition, occurring as turf or bog, usually in low situations, always more or less saturated with water, and represent- ing an advanced stage of swamp with drainage partially established.
MUCK
"This type consists of black more or less thoroughly decomposed vegetable mold, from one to three feet or more in depth and occupying low, damp places, with little or no natural drainage. Muck may be considered an advanced stage of peat brought about by the more com- plete decomposition of the vegetable fibre and the addition of mineral matter through decomposition from water and from æolian sources, re- sulting in a finer texture and closer structure. When drained, muck is very productive and is adapted to corn, potatoes, cabbage, onions, celery, peppermint and similar crops."
MEADOW
"This term is used to designate low-lying, flat, usually poorly drained land, such as may occur in any soil type. These areas are frequently used for grass, pasturage, or forestry, and can be changed to arable land if cleared and drained. The present character of meadow is due to lack of drainage, and the term represents a condition rather than a classification according to texture. Textural variations frequently occur in meadow areas on a scale too small to permit of detailed mapping. In many areas the term 'meadow' has also been used to represent small bodies of bottom land occasionally or frequently subject to overflow, which are normally placed under cultivation and constitute land of high value for the production of various general farm crops. Within these bottoms the soils vary frequently in texture, even within small areas,
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and on account of occasional overflow the character of the soil at any one point is subject to change. The use of this term should be avoided whenever it is possible to separate such areas into distinct soil types."
CENTRAL PLATEAU OF NORTHERN MICHIGAN
With the recession of the prehistoric glaciers and great bodies of water, not only did the lake system of the northwest, as we know it, come into being, but the land surface of Michigan was fashioned into its present configuration. Perhaps the most striking physical feature of Northern Michigan has become known as the "central plateau." Commencing near the southern line of the territory covered by this history and extending along the shore as far north as Leelanau point is a succession of elevated bluffs. These bluffs are mostly the lake- ward termini of a succession of elevated ridges extending inland and converging to a common axis. In the southern portion their course is about east, northeast, varying more to the eastward as we go north, until, on reaching town twenty-six north, we find them running nearly due east. Passing this point, their course varies to the southward. In the northern portion of Leelanau their course is about south, southeast, and in Antrim and Charlevoix counties nearly south by east.
Following the converging lines of these elevated ridges inland, we find them centering at or near the headwaters of the Big Manistee river, where they form a high plateau, covering a large area, from which the larger rivers of Northern Michigan take their rise. The height of this plateau has been estimated by different surveyors at from seven hundred to nine hundred feet above the level of Lake Michigan.
The general character of these ridges is that of elevated table-lands, gently rolling and gradually sloping to the river valleys on either side. These slopes, however, are frequently intersected by lateral valleys, which form beds of small streams and water-courses, that take their rise in the numerous little lakes which rest upon the highest levels.
These little lakes, varying in size from a few acres to several sections in extent, are so numerous, and their waters are so deep and pure, that they form an important feature in the topography of these elevated tables, as the larger lakes do in the topography of the lower lands near the coast. So attractive are these lakes in their quiet beauty, that the first settlements of the interior were always made upon their borders.
Starting from the axis of these ridges, and following them to their lakeward termini, we find these lateral valleys and ridges increasing in number and abruptness as we proceed, until, as we approach the lake, we find them broken into high bluffs and deep ravines.
Another peculiarity characteristic of this western shore is the loca- tion at every river mouth, and upon every large point of land jutting out into the lake, of a small lake, varying from one to several miles in extent, separated from Lake Michigan by narrow bars of land.
These lakes are supposed to be the remains of bays and inlets once a portion of the great lake, when that was at a higher level than now. Another peculiarity in the topography of this shore, which will be found to have a bearing upon its agricultural resources, exists in the system
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of terraces which are found, more or less distinctly marked, upon the borders of all the large rivers, around the margins of the lower-level lakes, on the shores of Grand Traverse bay, and frequently bordering the great lake itself, especially at the mouths of the large rivers. At some points as at Pine Lake in the county of Charlevoix, these terraces are so plainly marked as to form the principal and most pleasing feature of the landscape view. The lower terraces are usually narrow and sometimes worn entirely away; but the higher ones often extend to a great distance inland-as at Manistee-where the upper terrace, ris- ing about ninety feet above the lake, extends several miles inland east
TYPICAL INLAND LAKE OF NORTHERN MICHIGAN
of Lake Manistee. The causes which have produced these terraces and barred across these bays and inlets, forming them into lakes, are interesting subjects of speculation, and will be considered when treat- ing of the recent geological changes which have taken place in this region, and which have determined to a great extent the character and quality of the soil.
Dr. M. L. Leach, who is high authority on matters connected with Northern Michigan, has this to say in further description of the high central plateau referred to above: "The high central plateau of North- ern Michigan is often referred to by writers who have occasion to speak of the topographical features of the country. Its character is not as well understood as it should be. Dr. Rominger, in his report on the geology of the Lower Peninsula, says 'that the high plateau in the northern part of the peninsula has its peculiar soil, a thick uni-
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form mass of fine sand, containing few pebbles and a small proportion of argillaceous constituents. In accordance with it is the vegetation; the pine tree finds a congenial home in these sandy hill lands, and their surface is overgrown with splendid forests of this tree, to the exclusion of almost every other kind. This soil, as long as some humus is mixed with it, may give a fair potato crop, or, by careful attendance, garden vegetables can be raised, but its productiveness is so soon exhausted and its moisture so soon lost, that it can never be used for agriculture on a large scale with any prospect of success .* ' This statement of Dr. Rominger is of the same character as that made by Horace Greeley, many years ago, to the effect that the whole northern part of the state was worthless for farming purposes. Both statements, no doubt, were made without sufficient and careful examination, and therefore were based on insufficient data.
"To get a clear understanding of what is meant by the high central plateau, it is necessary to glance briefly at the general topographical configuration of the Lower Peninsula. The surface configuration pre- sents two grand swells, or regions of elevation, separated by a broad valley, each having its long axis running in a northeasterly and south- westerly direction. The long axis of the more southernly of these swells may be indicated somewhat accurately by a line drawn from Port Austin, near the mouth of Saginaw bay, to the southwest corner of Hillsdale county. In the north part of Oakland county, this swell attains an elevation of five hundred and twenty-nine feet, but the high- est summit is in Hillsdale county, where it reaches an elevation of six hundred and thirteen feet.
"The valley separating this region of elevation from the more north- erly one is accurately traced from Saginaw bay up the Saginaw and Bad rivers and down the Maple and the Grand. The highest part of this valley is a flat, swampy tract in the southeast corner of Gratiot county, where the headwaters of the Bad river start within three miles of the eastern bank of the Maple, and is not more than seventy-two feet higher than Saginaw bay.
"The long axis of the more northerly swell may be indicated ap- proximately by a line drawn through Gaylord, near the center of Otsego county, and Bond's Mill, in the eastern part of Wexford county. The broad undulating summit of this swell is the central plateau alluded to."
From the above descriptions it will be at once evident how closely the present productiveness and material development of Northern Mich- igan is related to surface geology and the physical features of the coun- try; how its fertile soils were produced by the offscourings of glaciers and great lakes and rivers, which were in operation thousands of years before man appeared upon the scene. The special relation between the soils of the country and the natural and cultivated vegetation which they produce has been scientifically investigated by Professor Burton E. Livingston, of the Chicago University, in behalf of Michigan Board of Geological Survey. The course and results of such investigations
* This was written before a careful study had been made of rotation of crops and the scientific reinvigoration of deficient or exhausted soils.
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as they affect a considerable area of the central plateau of Southern Michigan, is thus condensed :
AREA OF SOIL INVESTIGATION
That there is a marked relation between the natural vegetation of the state and the nature of the soils has long been known, at least in a general way. To determine exactly what this relation may be, both quantitatively and qualitatively, is, of course, a problem which it will take a long time to solve. A beginning can best be made by a careful study of small areas, and such a beginning was made in 1900 and 1901 by the present author in his study of the distribution of soils and vegeta- tion in Kent county. The investigations reported in the present paper were made in the summer of 1902, the area chosen being those town- ships of Roscommon and Crawford counties which embrace the lands set aside by the legislature of 1901 as the Michigan Forestry Reserve, together with portions of certain adjacent townships. The work was carried on under the auspices of the bureau of forestry of the United States department of agriculture, in conjunction with the Board of Geological Survey of Michigan.
TOPOGRAPHY
The region consists of a series of ridges and depressions. The former are sometimes several miles wide, but more often narrow; they are always comparatively low, seldom rising more than one hundred and fifty to two hundred feet above the level of Higgins and Houghton lakes, which lie in the center of the reserve. These ridges are terminal moraines, left by the ice sheet as it melted back at the close of the last glacial epoch. Between them are lower and more level stretches con- sisting, for the most part, of plains which gently slope downward from the ridge margin to the nearest stream. These were produced by the outwash of materials from the ice margin at the time the moraines were being formed, and their surface has been more or less eroded by water action since that time. Owing to the fact that they were formed by water action, the material of these plains is quite thoroughly freed from finer particles, and thus consists largely of sand. Gravel deposits are very rare throughout the region, and in the true sand plains it is seldom that one finds even good sized pebbles. It appears that the water from which the material was deposited was not moving swiftly enough to transport the gravel, but carried sand and clay. The finer particles, clay and loam, were carried away in the streams, but the sand remained in its present position.
The ridges, on the other hand, are more heterogeneous in composi- tion. They were not so thoroughly washed by water while they were being piled up, and hence contain considerable quantities of finer par- ticles, clay and loam, and of coarser ones, gravel. Sand is the pre- dominating substance in their composition, however. They are usually bordered by rolling slopes of loamy sand which descend gently to the
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HISTORY OF NORTHERN MICHIGAN
sand plains. A few of the ridges contain clay enough to make this soil best described by the term clay loam, or even loamy clay.
The whole country is underlain by clay, but this is generally far from the surface, sometimes one hundred feet or more. Some of the depressions have clay surface soil. They were probably under cover of the ice sheet at the time of formation of the neighboring moraines and sand plains, or were the bottoms of glacial lakes.
The lowest portions of the depressions, whether these have sand or clay as surface soil, are almost always occupied by swamps or lakes. Through the swamps the very lowest part is often marked by a meander- ing stream channel, the line of drainage for all the region which lies between the neighboring ridges.
NATURE OF SOILS
The soils of this region are nearly all sandy. The only exceptions to this statement are a few low clay areas together with the Murray hills, parts of Norway hill, and portions of the great southern ridge in T. 21 N., R. 1 and 2 W., which are the only ridges which can truly be called clayey. The surface soil of these ridges contains considerable quantities of sand, however. The other ridges are of gravelly and loamy sand, that is their surface soil is mostly of sand, but with a suf- ficient admixture of fine particles to produce a marked difference in physical properties from that of the true sand plains, while they also contain pebbles and sometimes scattered boulders. The slopes down- ward from these ridges are of sand, either pure or loamy. They seldom contain many pebbles of any considerable size, thus being more thor- oughly washed by water than are the ridges. The true sand plains con- tain little or no loamy material and no pebbles. They are of a fine, grayish white sand, which drifts readily by the wind when loosened. I have seen the surface soil actually blown away and piled in miniature dunes along the wire fences, in places where the worst of the sandy soils had been attacked for cultivation.
Obviously, difference in degree of water-washing, and hence of sort- ing of particles, determines these different soil characters. Sandy soils are composed of coarse particles and contain much silica, loamy soils are of finer particles and contain considerable quantities of alumina, while clay soils are of still more finely divided materials and contain a much larger percentage of alumina. Since all of this material was transported to its present position by glacial action, and since it must have been quite thoroughly mixed by this agency, it is reasonable to suppose that, had it not been water washed during and after its deposit, it would be at least fairly uniform in its mineral constituents. The washing process sorted the soils according to size of particles, but also according to their chemical nature. This is partly due to the fact that alumina breaks down into fine particles more readily than does silica. It is also due to the fact that, in well-washed soils, even the less soluble constituents are apt to be actually dissolved and washed out to a greater or less degree. Thus, phosphates and sulphates are usually less abundant in well-washed soils than in those less thoroughly washed.
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HISTORY OF NORTHERN MICHIGAN
In this glaciated region, fine soils, such as clay, were either deposited under the ice of the glacial epoch, and hence not well washed, or else they were deposited from deep and very slowly flowing water. The former variety therefore usually contains many coarser particles, as loam, sand, and pebbles. In the case of loamy soils, a good part of the fine material has been washed out, but a considerable amount remains with the sand, so as to give it a loamy character. Since the washing here was not thorough, pebbles are often found amongst the sand and loam. This is especially so of the ridges. The water which flowed over such soils at the time of their formation must have been moving with a velocity such that it deposited or left unmoved sand and gravel together with some finer material caught between the coarser particles, but car- ried away most of the latter. Sandy soils are still more thoroughly washed; the gravel was left farther up stream, usually on the slopes of the ridges, while the clay was held in suspension, to be deposited at a lower level, where the velocity decreased.
The nature of the soil particles themselves often plays an important part in determining the water-retaining and water-lifting power. Es- pecially is this so in the case of humus, which is composed of organic debris, decayed plant parts and, to some extent, of animal offal. Pure humus has a great power to hold and lift water. This is partly because of its very fine particles, but is also to be traced in part to the actual penetration (by imbibition) of the liquid into the intermolecular spaces of the organic substance itself. Thus, by admixture of humus to a coarse (and therefore porous and permeable) soil, the water-retaining power of such a soil is increased.
The filtering power, or permeability to water, of a soil increases, of course, with decrease in its capillary power. Also, its permeability to air increases in the same way.
It will be here noted that sandy soils usually exhibit a marked scar- city of soluble salts. This fact may be explained in part by the "leach- ing" action of the percolating waters as well as by the thorough wash- ing to which these soils were subjected at the time of their deposition. The water of precipitation percolates rapidly through these porous soils and may often wash the soluble salts down toward the level of the ground water, a process which is termed "leaching."
In humus soils, it is probably not to the point to determine humus content and water capacity after the humus has been mixed with the lower layers; the effect of the organic substance is very much more marked when the humus lies as a distinct layer on the surface than when it is distributed through the underlying soil. The humus layer acts like a sponge filled with water, and allows the water to pass slowly down in the underlying layers and thus keep them moist much longer than would otherwise be.
THE TYPES OF VEGETATION
The vegetation of the region may be sub-divided into several types or plant societies. These grade more or less into one another, but there are few places where an observer would be puzzled to determine what Vol. 1-2
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particular type he was in. There are to be distinguished, four types on the uplands and three on the lowlands. These will be described in the following paragraphs.
Practically all the area under discussion has been lumbered. A virgin pine forest is almost entirely unknown now, though some of the finest pine of the state was cut here. What hardwood areas there are have been left almost untouched until recently, except for the removal of the white pine originally scattered through them. But the hardwood, too, is now being rapidly removed, and it will not be long before there will be none left. In the lowlands, the merchantable arbor-vitae or white cedar has very largely been removed, as has also much of the spruce and even considerable quantities of tamarack.
(1.) THE UPLAND TYPES
A. The Hardwood Type .- There is very little hardwood in the region studied, but what there is, is typical of all Northern Michigan Areas so covered have not been so thoroughly lumbered as those covered with pine forests. The original form of this type comprised the follow- ing characteristic trees : sugar maple, beech, hemlock, red and American elm, balsam fir, yellow birch, some spruce, and scattered white pine, the latter of enormous size, together with such low forms as raspberry, squaw-berry, Lycopodium clavatum, yew, June-berry, Echinosperum virginicum, American pennyroyal, red-berried elder, Solidago caesia, etc. Maple, beech and hemlock made up three-fourths of the forest, sometimes one and sometimes another of the three being most numerous.
Lumbering has affected this type very little, excepting by the re- moval of the white pine and some of the hemlock. Hardwood lum- bering is now going on in the areas covered by this type, in these opera- tions everything is being removed which is merchantable. Fires have not injured this form of forest to any great extent, and the original humus usually remains.
B. The White Pine Type .- This is typical pinery, often con- taining little besides white pine. Usually, however, there is an admix- ture of Norway pine, and often of hardwoods. The type is quite sharply distinguished from the preceding, but not nearly so well marked off from the following type, into which it grades in many places.
As has been stated, there is at present hardly any of this type in the region under discussion. In lumbering, all the pine was removed and the subsequent fires have killed practically all the young growth of this tree as well as the scattering hardwoods. Over vast stretches originally covered with white pine there are now no trees at all. They are regions of dwarfed white and red oaks, red maple, and a number of shrubs. The oaks and maples are rarely more than twice as high as a man; they are burned down every few years, and exist here at all only because of the fact that they sprout from the roots which are seldom killed by the fires. These shrubby oaks and maples thus possess enormous roots which are partially dead or dying, gnarled and con- torted and deformed by frequent burning. It is these which are called "grubs" by dwellers in the region.
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Among the lower forms occurring here may be mentioned the fol- lowing :- Stag-horn sumach, Monarda fistulosa, brake, huckleberry (Gaylussacia resinosa), blueberry (Vaccinium pennsylvanium, cana- dense and vacillans), sweet fern, Solidago concolor, witch-hazel, etc. The ground between the blackened stumps is now thoroughly covered by densely growing sweet fern, huckleberry, and blueberry, the growth of the former of these being so luxurious that the numerous prostrate logs are often entirely hidden from sight, so that passage through these old "pine slashings" is rendered very difficult.
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