A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 877 



acres involved in delinquency, of which 4 million acres is forest land. 

 By the end of 1931 about 685,000 acres of forest land had been tax 

 forfeited, which is about three times that forfeited up to 1927. 

 Under present legislation, and with present trends in tax delinquency, 

 possibly 6 million acres may revert to county ownership in the next 

 10 years. 



Michigan as a whole had 9,114,000 acres tax delinquent in 1929, of 

 which over two thirds was in the forest and mineral counties. The 

 area grew in the forest counties between 1910 and 1928 from 3,271,000 

 acres to 6,211,000 acres and likewise the acreage advertised for sale 

 in the forest ounties increased from 1,308,000 acres in 1910 to 

 2,962,000 acres in 1927. In Michigan about 250,000 acres of tax title 

 land are being deeded to the State each year for State forests; how- 

 ever, delinquency is increasing to even a larger extent than this, 

 attaining some 400,000 acres per year. But the State, for various 

 reasons, is not asserting title as rapidly as the land becomes tech- 

 nically available. Up to the present time title to about 1,250,000 

 acres of forest land has passed from private to State ownership a 

 very considerable proportion of Michigan's 19 million acres of com- 

 mercial forest land. 



In 15 forest counties of northern Minnesota, 18 percent of the total 

 taxable unplatted (i. e., nonurban) area was delinquent 1-3 years in 

 1928, and 13.9 percent was delinquent more than 3 years. This 

 means more than 1,500,000 acres delinquent more than 3 years and 

 more than 2,000,000 acres for a shorter period. Land that has been 

 delinquent for only 3 years has a chance of being redeemed by the 

 owner. Land that has been delinquent more than 3 years may be 

 considered permanently delinquent and only needing the official act 

 of the State to transfer it to public ownership. More than one 

 fourth of the taxable area of two counties has reached this latter stage. 



Since the above figures were compiled, delinquency has continued 

 unabated, but the State has not yet taken title to any of these lands. 

 It is understood that it will take title to over 4,000,000 acres in 1933 

 when a recent legislative provision becomes effective. This is a 

 fifth of the State's commercial forest area. In 16 northern Minnesota 

 counties in 1931 there were 6,830,840 acres involved in some degree 

 of delinquency or 46 percent of the total taxable area of these forest 

 counties; of this 4,039,280 acres is delinquent for taxes levied since 

 1926 or prior thereto, and is deedable to the State. 



SOUTHERN STATES 



The southern pineries have been the scene of very active and exten- 

 sive lumbering for the last three decades or more. The forest has 

 usually been heavily cut and fires have run rampant thereafter. 

 The forest values left on the land as the result of this destructive 

 logging are, from the point of view of the "cut and get out" lumber 

 owner, very little. However, some timber owners, both large and 

 small, are very definitely holding their lands for continuous production 

 of timber or, in the longleaf- slash pine type, for naval stores in con- 

 junction with timber. This is in addition to the large acreage of 

 farm woodlands where the forest is used with the arable land. 



It is o-bvious that land ownership is in a very unstable status in 

 the forested territory of the South, but it is difficult to appraise the 



