54 REPORT OF SPECIAL FORESTRY COMMITTEE 



It is admitted that the development of Northern 

 Wisconsin should be stimulated and every effort 

 made to encourage settlement. It takes persistent 

 advertising and a large amount of money and work 

 to accomplish this. A feasible plan would be for 

 the Forestry Board working in cooperation with the 

 soil survey to release lands of agricultural value 

 which are in sufficiently large tracts so that a com- 

 munity can be established and to place these upon 

 the market for sale to actual settlers. Then the 

 Forestry Board should list all such tracts with the 

 State Board of Immigration or some like organiza- 

 tion so that they could advise prospective settlers 

 of these tracts of agricultural lands. The forestry 

 policy to date has not hindered this development 

 by taking lands from the market. Of 400 acres of 

 the best lands held by the State in Oneida County 

 and offered for sale since September, 1912, at from 

 $8.00 to $10.00 per acre, none have been purchased. 

 This price was fixed upon these lands for the reason 

 that it was believed to be about their actual cash 

 value. It could not be expected that the State 

 should pick from all of its lands these few hundred 

 acres classed as agricultural and offer them at as 

 low a price as the average price paid in all of their 

 purchases. 



In order that the development of Northern Wis- 

 consin be not interfered with we suggest and will 

 later offer to the Legislature a bill which provides 

 for the sale of all agricultural lands where located in 

 sufficiently large tracts in the forest reserve; these 

 lands to be sold to actual settlers in amounts not 

 to exceed one hundred and sixty acres, upon prac- 

 tically the same terms as those now offered and 

 available under the United States Homestead Law. 

 Such a price as will attract settlers to purchase 

 these lands should be fixed and every effort made 

 to get them into the hands of farmers. This should 

 not be done unless a settlement large enough to 

 support a school district and carry on its own affairs 

 may be expected. Where there are tracts of 1,000 



