14 BULLETIN 638, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



The sand plains of Michigan and Wisconsin are dotted with de- 

 caying dwellings and abandoned fields that tell the tale of the spec- 

 ulator in cut-over lands and his victims. Practically all these areas, 

 which originaly were covered with timber, were at one time the prop- 

 erty of the State. Gradually, however, the bulk of them passed into 

 the hands of private owners who proceeded to strip them of their tim- 

 ber. The cut-over lands were then sold to the so-called development 

 companies or allowed to revert to the State for taxes. Large areas 

 of these delinquent tax lands also fell into the hands of speculators 

 through subsequent sale by the State. What happened to them can 

 best be made clear by citing a few instances. 



In Michigan, for example, until a few years ago the practice was 

 for the State to sell, at an average price of approximately $1 an acre, 

 lands that had reverted to it through the nonpayment of taxes. A 

 large proportion of these lands was acquired by speculators, many of 

 whom were not even residents of the State, and who proceeded to use 

 them as a means for exploiting the more credulous portion of the 

 general public. It has been estimated officially that less than 5 per 

 cent of the lands disposed of in this way were sold to actual settlers. 



The land sharks naturally proceeded to realize on their investment 

 as soon and as handsomely as possible. One lot of lands purchased 

 from the State for an average of 86 cents an acre was sold for $12 

 per acre, a profit of about 1,300 per cent. Still greater profits some- 

 times were made by the shrewd scheme of dividing the land into 

 summer-resort lots consisting of from one-tenth to one-fourth acre, 

 and selling these for from $10 to $15 a lot. Practially all these 

 sales were made through misrepresentation. Full-page advertise- 

 ments in the Chicago and Detroit papers and attractively illustrated 

 pamphlets contained such statements as the following: 



We have a glorious climate, the best water on earth, and easily 

 cleared land which produces as much money per acre as any in the 

 United States or Canada. Come and be one of us. 



Roscommon County will grow more and better wheat, oats, rye, 

 speltz, timothy hay, clover seed, beans, field peas, potatoes, cabba.m^. 

 sugar beets, turnips, and rutabagas to the acre than any other county 

 in the State, or in Illinois, Indiana, or Ohio. 



Lands with such wonderful possibilities as these were to be had 

 from the development companies for the nominal sum of $6 and up 

 per acre. To some extent they were bought as an investment, usually 

 by city dwellers of small means, in anticipation of the rapid rise in 

 value that surely would take place in lands so full of promise. Con- 

 siderable areas, however, were bought by bona fide settlers. One 

 land company stated that during the period from 1901 to 1907 more 

 land in Roscommon and Crawford Counties was sold to active 



