28 



Land I'lunning Report 



and tax delinquency on farm land has become a. very 

 serious problem. 



Exploitation of the forest in the northern Lakes 

 States began more recently than in the northeastern 

 States. Large-scale metliods of harvesting and clean 

 cutting left much forest land in a nonproductive state. 

 Timberland owners attempted to dispose of cut-over 

 land for agricultural use. Proper discrimination be- 

 tween agriculturally desirable and undesirable land 

 was not exercised by buyers or sellers. Scattered agri- 

 cultural settlements sprang up in generally forested 

 areas. Subsecpient abandonment of many farms ac- 

 centuated the sparseness of settlement, and increased 

 the cost of providing public ser^^ces. The cost of 

 supporting these services falling on progressively fewer 

 properties, the individual tax burden, including that 

 on forest property, increised. Forest land could not 

 bear its carrying costs, after the timber was cut, and 

 hence was allowed to revert to the State or county 

 through tax delinquency. As early as 1920, an area 

 in the northern part of the lower peninsula of Michigan 

 equivalent to six average-size coimties, had reverted to 

 the State for delinquent taxes. In Minnesota, tax delin- 

 quent land in practically all cut-over counties ranged 

 between one-fourth and three-fourths of the total in 

 1932. Wisconsin similarly reports a large proportion 

 of privately owned forest land as tax delinciuent. 



In contrast is the situation Lu northern Maine, for 

 example, where sustained use of the forest land has 

 prevailed and where agricultural settlement was never 

 encouraged. 



General Social Conditions. — The homes of most of the 

 settlers are veiy poor. Many are tar-paper shacks or 

 board cabins chinked with clay. Barns are frequently 

 lacking, and fences often are crude makeshifts. Al- 

 most invariably the farmstead is set against a back- 

 ground of grisly stumps or Hre-blackened trees. 



Owing to the low scale of farm incomes, home con- 

 veniences are very few; many families lack clothes 

 suitable for attending church or community gatherings. 

 Since the decline of lumbering in the Lakes States, 

 many farmers find it difficult to secure part-tune labor 

 with wldch to supplement their scant farm earnings. 

 Income from farm woodlots usually has not been possi- 

 ble, owing to the original methods employed by the lum- 

 ber companies, and the subsequent ravages by fire. 



The cost of schools, roads, and county government 

 is rendered exorbitant by dispersed farm settlement. 

 Many miles of improved roads are maintained for only 

 a few families. In one area in Minnesota it was found 

 that road costs per family averaged $90.88, whereas the 

 taxes collected averaged $7.0.3 per family. Similarly, 

 schools are maintained and teachers' salaries paid for 

 very small groups of children. In a sample community 



in Mmnesota it was found that school transportation 

 averaged $185.61 per family although taxes collected 

 averaged only $6.22. Wliere settlement is as dis- J 

 persed as it is here, most of the land yields no taxes, ' 

 and consequently this region is a serious drain upon 

 the better, more thickly settled portions of the Lakes 

 States. 



It is believed desirable to eliminate much of the 

 scattered settlement in the northern Lakes States, 

 particularly that on poor land, thereby avoiding the 

 necessity of providing the unduly expensive public 

 ser\'ices recpared by such settlements. The establish- i 

 ment of a sustained-yield management of forest land, 

 it is believed, would be facilitated if the expensive local 

 govermnental services which exist, in many instances, 

 for impoverished and uneconomic settlement were 

 eliminated. It is believed that constructive manage- 

 ment of the forest land would tend to stabilize employ- 

 ment by providing a continual source of material for 

 wood-using industries. State and Federal acquisition 

 of much forest land has taken place. 



Most farmers on the cut-over lands are carrying a 

 double load in trying to wrest a living from the soil and 

 at the same time to clear their land of stumps. They 

 are, therefore, too preoccupied, too weary after work- 

 ing hours, to participate in social activities or com- 

 munity life. Many of the settlers are foreign immi- 

 grants — German, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Fin- 

 nish, Swiss, or Bohemian. Families of different na- 

 tionalities are, therefore, separated by barriers of lan- 

 guage and custom, even where distance between farms 

 does not prohibit social intercourse. This same factor 

 operates in the realm of church affairs. Consequently, 

 church membership in some localities falls as low as 

 one-fifth of the total population. 



Promising Aspects in the Situation. — There is more 

 reason to expect local and State cooperation and even 

 initiative in connection ^\-ith submarginal farm retire- 

 ment programs in this region than in other "problem" 

 areas. The poor economic and social conditions here 

 are not of long standing and have not, therefore, come 

 to be accepted as inevitable. Most of the inhabitants 

 in the Great Lakes cut-over region have previously 

 been familiar with better modes of living, and desire to 

 have them hi their present environment. Consequent- 

 ly, moves to better the general regional conditions will 

 not meet with ])ublic opposition. 



Pohtical leaders in the Lakes States are fully aware 

 of the hapless situation of farmers on the cut-over lands 

 and are eager to cooperate with the Federal Govern- 

 ment in any readjustment program. The States have 

 already done much in establishing public forests and 

 fire protection, while in Wisconsin many of the counties 

 have enacted land-use zoning ordinances. 



