54 fore;st commissioner's report. 



estimates of value of land. 



The entire amount of lands were thus valued at a little over 

 26 cents an acre. At that time the State tax was .00125, and 

 the revenue to the State from these lands was $28,562.10. 



In 1906 the State board of assessors gave the amount and 

 value of the wild lands in the same eight counties as follows : 



Counties. * Acres. Value. 



Aroostook 2,596,856 $9,269,912 



Franklin 552,731 2,810,969 



Hancock 362,634 1,078,109 



Oxford 344.965 2,479,273 



Penobscot '. . . . 846,509 3,087,757 



Piscataquis 2,011, 528 8.653,633 



Somerset 1,734,942 7,119,707 



Washington 658,954 1,923,941 



Total 9.129,119 $36,423,301 



The State tax is now three mills, and the revenue to the 

 State from these lands is $109,269.91. The valuation placed 

 on the lands is about $4 per acre. 



Shortly after the Revolutionary War the legislature of Massa- 

 chusetts established a land office, and agents were appointed, 

 with authority to survey and sell lands to the best advantage. 

 About that time some men came to the conclusion that invest- 

 ments in wild lands were surest and best for speculative profit, 

 and so in a few years there were sold to various men 80 town- 

 ships, besides small parcels, and two large tracts comprising 

 over 2,000,000 acres sold in 1793 to William Bingham. In 

 1795 it was found that the sales of lands had become so 

 enormous that the legislature voted to suspend further sales 

 of the lands only so far as it was necessary to carry out existing 

 contracts. From 1785 to 1812, inclusive, Massachusetts sold 

 4,086,292 acres of land for which the state received $818,691.14. 

 During that time the lowest price received for land was 12 t-2 

 cents an acre, the Bingham purchase, and the highest amount 

 received was $3.10 per acre in the year 1810 when only 189 

 acres, which were evidently of some particular value, were 

 sold. The average price during that period was 20 cents an 

 acre. 



