about 1,112,000 acres of which about half was 

 deeded and under the jurisdiction of the land 

 office. 



Once under the jurisdiction of this office the 

 lands can be "homesteaded" or bought. Little 

 of the land has been homesteaded and in most 

 cases the homesteads have proven bad affairs, 

 they were taken for the little timber left on 

 the land, skinned, and then abandoned. About 

 half of them were abandoned before they were 

 ever deeded to the homesteader. 



In the sale of the lands, the law requires 

 that they be "appraised," offered at public 

 sale, and then if left unsold, they may be sold 

 at private sale. The report shows that the 

 "appraisal" was a perfunctory business, and 

 that in some cases, the appraiser simply used 

 the assessment roll, and the report says "the 

 appraisal of land was and is generally inade- 

 quate and in most cases so far from the true 

 value of the land and timber that it seems 

 doubtful if the appraiser ever actually visited 

 the land." 



The state evidently sold "cat in the poke" 

 fashion. What this led to is illustrated by the 

 following: The N. E. Y 4 of Sect. 22, T. 35 N., 

 R. 1 E. was sold at $1 per acre, though there 

 was over $4,436 worth of timber, and the land 

 and timber together was worth about $30 per 

 acre instead of $1. 



How this has resulted in the organization 

 of land dealers and in loss to the State is fully 

 set forth. The State Land Office sold during 

 the last six years about 949,000 acres of land 

 and received an average price of 108 cents 

 per acre. 



The commission in its investigation "sam- 

 pled" these sales in eleven counties and found 

 the following: 



6 



