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Rh 240 MICHIGAN sturgeon, bass, pickerel, herring, brook-trout, grayling, and white- fish. General laws for the protection of fish have been passed; and a fish commission has been maintained for some years for the purpose of propagating the best varieties and planting them in waters adapted to their natural development. Up to the close of 1880 the commissioners had planted about 80,000,000 young white- fish, 1,000,000 silver eels, 1,000,000 lake-trout, 2,000,000 salmon, and 500,000 brook-trout, besides smaller numbers of shad, grayling, pike, and bass. Excellent results have followed, especially in the multiplication of white-fish, salmon, and eels. In 1879 the total &quot;take&quot; was 24,013,100 tt&amp;gt;, of which 12,902,250 Ib were white-fish, the most valuable lake-fish known to epicures and to commerce. During winter large quantities preserved by freezing are taken to Eastern markets, where they are readily sold at a high price. Educational Institutions. As early as 1785 the law of congress which provided for the sale of lands north of the Ohio river reserved for the support of public schools &quot;section 16&quot; of each township. This fundamental law devoted to educational purposes one-thirty- sixth of all the lands of that vast domain known as the north western territory. The &quot;ordinance of 1787,&quot; by which this territory was organized, further provided that &quot;schools and the means of education shall for ever be encouraged.&quot; In 1826 this congressional action was supplemented by a grant to Michigan of two townships of land for the founding and support of a university. When Michigan became a State in 1837, its educational policy took definite form. The constitution provided, not only that the grant of &quot;section 16&quot; should be devoted exclusively to the support of schools of the primary grade, but also that the State and not each township should be the. custodian of the lands so appropriated. The constitution expressly provided that the proceeds from the sale of &quot;school lands should be held by the State as a perpetual fund, the interest of which should be annually applied to the sup port of primary schools. The lands devoted to school purposes in Michigan under these provisions amounted to 1,077,209 acres, of which, in September 1881, 675,000 acres had been sold. On the sum realized by these sales, $3,095,679, the State pays interest at 7 per cent., and the resulting income, amounting to $216,645, is annually distributed to the schools. This source is supplemented from local taxes, so that in 1881 the total sum realized from all sources for the primary schools was $3,644,778. The schools organized under State law are known as graded and ungraded. In the small districts where the schools are under the charge of but one or two teachers, grading is impracticable. Of ungraded districts there were in 1881 6120, attended by 219,570 children, while the graded schools were 404 in number, with an attendance of 152,043. The school census includes all children between the ages of five and twenty, amounting in 1881 to 518,317, of whom there was an average attendance of 391,401. To all children of school age the public schools are free, though a fee may be re quired for advanced studies in the high schools. The immediate administration of the schools is entrusted to school officers elected annually by the tax-payers of the individual districts. The State constitution requires that a free school shall be in session at least three months of every year in each district. In districts of more than 30 and less than 800 children, the law requires at least five months of school ; while in districts of more than 800 children, the session must be not less than nine months in length. In the graded schools the division is into primary schools, grammar schools, and high schools, each of these divisions retaining the scholar ordinarily four years. At the end of the course the student is ready for the university, to which, under certain restrictions provided by the university itself, he is admitted on diploma from the high school. The university of Michigan, situated at Ann Arbor, was first opened for instruction in 1841. It now (1883) consists of the department of literature, science, and the arts, the department of medicine, the department of law, the college of homeopathic medicine, the school of pharmacy, the college of dental surgery, and the school of political science. Connected with the medical departments are the State hospitals. In 1881-82 there were 86 officers of instruction and 1534 students. The total income for the year 1879-80 from Federal grant, State grants, and fees was $231,339. The general control of the university is placed in the hands of eight regents elected by popular suffrage at the biennial spring elections, two regents being chosen at each election. The normal school, situated at Ypsilanti, and generously supported by the State, may be said to complete the school system. Charitable and Reformatory Institutions. A school for the deaf, dumb, and blind, instituted under an Act passed in 1848, is situated at Flint, about 60 miles north-west of Detroit ; in February 1882 it had 249 pupils. In 1879 a distinct school for the training of the blind was established at Lansing. The &quot;State public school for dependent and neglected children&quot; is devoted to the systematic education of such children as otherwise would have to be maintained in the county poorhouses. The pupils are divided into &quot;families&quot; of about thirty each, and are cared for in separate cottages, each cottage being under the charge of a &quot;cottage manager.&quot; The school receives dependent children of sound health, and free from contagious disease ; and it is made the duty of the officers having charge of the poor to send all such children between the ages ( i three and twelve to it. This institution, the pioneer of its kind, and one of the most useful of charitable schools, is situated at Cold- water, 132 miles south-west of Detroit. In February 1882 there were 320 children and 21 officers and teachers. The &quot; Kefonn School&quot; at Lansing is designed to reclaim juvenile offenders who have been convicted of some offence. A farm of 224 acres connected with the school is, in considerable part, tilled by the boys. The number of inmates in February of 1882 was 325. A similar school at Adrian has recently been instituted for girls. There are State asylums for the insane at Kalamazoo (715 patients) and Pontiac (499 patients). The legislature of 1881 provided for the establish ment of an additional asylum in one of the northern counties of the Lower Peninsula. Population. In 1837 the State had 174,647 inhabitants. The numbers according to the different census returns from 1840 are given in the following table : Census. Total. Males. Fenial s. Density per Square Mile. 1840 . 12,267 113,788 98,479 3-77 1850 397,654 209,897 187.757 7-07 1800 749,113 394.694 354,419 12-11 1S70 1,184,059 617,745 566,314 20-01 1880 1,636,937 802,678 774,25!) 27 80 At the last census 388, 508 of the inhabitants were of foreign birth, 97,346 being natives of the United Kingdom, 89,085 Germans, and 16,445 Scandinavians. In point of population the State, which was twenty-third in 1840, now stands ninth in the Union. The following are the principal cities in the State, with popu lation at the census of 1880 : Detroit, 116,340 ; Grand Rapids City, 32,016 ; Bay City, 20,693 ; East Saginaw City, 19,016 ; Jackson City, 16,105; Muskegon City, 11,262 ; Saginaw City, 10,525 ; Port Huron, 8883 ; Flint City, 8410 ; Lansing (the State capital), 8319 ; Ann Arbor, 8061 ; Adrian City, 7849 ; Battle Creek, 7063 ; Manistee, 6930 ; West Bay City, 6397 ; Alpena City, 6153 ; Ishpeming, 6039. History and Government. The State of Michigan is part of the territory that was first settled by the French, and until the fall of Canada into the hands of the British after the middle of the 18th century was under the government of New France. The territory was explored by Jesuit missionaries in the 17th century ; but, although it was known at an early period that the lands were of exceptional excellence, very little progress was made in develop ing the resources of the territory until after the completion of the first half-century of the American Union. The surveyors employed bv the general government to inspect the lands and report as to their fitness for settlement by the soldiers of the war of 1812 appear to have derived their impressions almost exclusively from the low lands in the south-eastern corner of the territory. The report, accordingly, was not favourable ; and consequently the tide of immigration that had already begun to set in flowed steadily past Michigan into the territories farther west. It was largely for this reason that the early development of Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin was somewhat more rapid than that of Michigan. But gradually the false impressions concerning the soil and climate were dispelled ; and within the past few years the increase of the population and the growth of wealth have been very rapid. In 1851 the valuation of the State for purposes of taxation (which excludes much valuable property) was $30,976,270 ; in 1861, $172,055,808; in 1871, $630,000,000; at 1881, $810,000,000. The State constitution, adopted in 1837 at the time of admission to the Union, has been modified in some minor particulars ; but in most respects it remains unchanged. The governor is elected for two years, with no restriction as to re-election. The legislature meets biennially in the first week of January, and usually continues in session till May. The supreme court consists of four judges chosen by popular vote for terms of eight years, one being elected every second year. Judges hove been so frequently re-ek-cted that the office may be said to be practically a permanent one, with a provision for termination in case of need. The State is divided into twenty-two judicial districts, in each of which a circuit court sits f&quot;r the trial of causes of original jurisdiction, and of causes appealed from the justice courts. The judges of the circuit courts are also elected by popular suffrage. On political questions voting is open to all naturalized citizens of the male sex more than twenty-one years of age unless prevented by some natural disqualification. At school meetings the right of suffrage is extended so ns to include tax-payers of either sex. A uthorities. Frederick Morley, Michigan and its Resources, compiled under authority of the State, 2d ed., Detroit, 1882; Waiting s Atlas of Michigan, trith an Account of the Topography, Climate, and Geology of the State, by Alex. Winchell, LL.D. ; James V. Campbell, Outlines of the Political History of Michigan; Reports of the Secretary of the State Pomological Society &amp;lt;f Michigan from 1871 to 1880 ; Report of the Commissioner of Education for 1880; Forty-fifth