of the lumber companies; years of selfish propaganda 

 l>y Ian 1 men; years of misplaced efforts of state 

 deveLr ment agencies; lack of confidence in their 

 own c untry has blinded them to its true value. 

 Instead of endeavoring to develop the country along 

 the li es that nature has indicated they have been 

 persuaded to try to make it conform to their pre- 

 conceived notions notions based on entirely different 

 natural conditions. 



There are two ways of developing a country. One 

 is to* make certain crops struggle along there regard- 

 less of conditions hammering a square peg into a 

 round hole as the colonists did in Connecticut. Net 

 result and it was inevitable 40 per cent of the one 

 time farms have reverted to woods. The other way 

 is to choose the crops to fit the natural conditions, as 

 the fa v me's of Louisiana did in planting rice in their 

 marshes. There is no question of the success of that 

 undertaking. 



Which is the wiser course? And which are we 

 undertaking in the north? 



Th -re are in the northern half of the state 26,000,- 

 000 acres of land, water, and sphagnum bog. The 

 maximum net production of this area in agriculture 

 even o 1 ! the most liberal basis would not exceed $3.00 

 per a<^e, or $78,000,000 annually. There are 8,000,000 

 acres of this which are unsuitable for farming purpos- 

 es and the average net production on them would not 

 be over $1.50 per acre or an aggregate of $12,000,000. 

 That same 8,000,000 will produce a minimum of at 

 least $40,000,000. Moreover the use of the 8,000,000 

 acres for forest would very greatly improve the net 



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