North of Cadillac the country breaks into hardwood ridges and low cedar ground, and Manton sits in the middle of it. Three Oh Eight mows and maintains lawns around town and out along the county roads, holding grass even where it meets gravel shoulders, old stump lines and stands of pine. Late-summer evenings up here cool off in a hurry; dew is down by eight and the smell of cut grass hangs in it. The work is mowing, trimming, edging, and hauling leaves once the maples turn, plus the spring pass that clears the winter's wreckage out of a yard. A squared-up lawn against all that rough northern timber reads like a clearing somebody meant to make.