144 RURAL MICHIGAN 



the most developed in the cut-over section ; yet with 

 an area of l,li)G,800 acres, it has only 900 farmers 

 and these own only 90,000 acres, 500,000 of wliich 

 are tillable. Many of the large land holders employ 

 agents to promote the sale of their cast-off real estate. 

 These rough lands do not appeal to native American 

 farmers ; and it is, therefore, necessary to interest 

 recent arrivals from Europe, whom necessity and a 

 less fastidious standard of living have prepared for 

 the hardships of this pioneer agriculture. Stumps 

 have to be removed, the virgin sod turned under, 

 fences and buildings erected — a procedure that has 

 been repeated in Michigan during five generations at 

 least, and which must continue for still other genera- 

 tions before the State is beyond the pioneer stage 

 throughout the two peninsulas. The mechanical 

 agencies are now more effective, but the human factor 

 may still be quite without capital and perhaps without 

 the New World experience that fits him fully for his 

 task. The process of creating such a pioneer agri- 

 cultural community may be illustrated by reference 

 to the settlement of "Aura" between Keweenaw and 

 Huron bays, Baraga County. The land was under 

 control of Charles Hebard and Sons, Incorporated, 

 lumbermen of Pequaming. "In the spring of 1914," 

 writes W. J. Colenso, secretary of the Company, "we 

 put our Point Abbaye lands on the market, and by 

 early summer six or seven families had built houses 

 and began cultivating the soil. We sold these lands 

 on contract, requiring twenty per cent of the pur- 

 chase price as the first payment, and the balance in 



