140 RURAL MH'lltaA}^ 



in excess of that price. Tliis is not essentially in- 

 consistent with the opinion of the Assistant State 

 Leader of County Agents in tlie Upper Peninsula, 

 who reports the highest land vahu'S to be reached 

 in Menominee County at $150 an acre. 



It is in the Upper Peninsula and the northern 

 half of the Lower Peninsula that approximately 

 12,000,000 acres of cut-over lands are located, whose 

 price is an object of interest to the seeker after 

 cheap raw lands capable of development by hard 

 labor into productive agricultural holdings. One 

 railroad company gives the minimum price for its 

 cut-over lands at $7 an acre. A land company op- 

 erating in the neighborhood of Chatham and Trenary 

 southeast of Marquette has sold its holdings at an 

 average price of $17.90 an acre. Another company, 

 Avith 10,000 acres at its disposal, has placed a price 

 of $15 to $20 an acre on its holdings. Another con- 

 cern, operating between Keweenaw and Huron bays, 

 has sold eighty "forties" at prices ranging from $10 

 to $15 an acre. It should be understood, however, 

 that the sales of these lands go with reservations 

 of mineral and frequently many other rights and 

 privileges which impair the title and of themselves 

 reduce the value of the property. ... In a state 

 where land values vary so markedly as in Michigan, 

 an average price for farm land as a whole is not 

 very significant; however, the Fourteenth United 

 States Census found the average acre value of land 

 alone in Michigan to be $50.40. (See Appendix A.) 



These prices refer to lands from which the forest 



