104 Proceedings oe the 



the market. In 1865 this scrip sold at fifty cents per 

 acre, and in 1866 Honorable Ezra Cornell, who had 

 previously founded and endowed Cornell University, 

 at Ithaca, New York, bought something over 500,000 

 acres of this scrip from the State of New York, paying 

 therefore 60 cents an acres for the account of the 

 University. At this time the college was not in a 

 financial condition to purchase and locate this large 

 amount of property, and Mr. Cornell assumed to pay 

 for the scrip and also the expense of locating it on 

 pine lands in Wisconsin. This action was taken, and 

 so well was the work done that the scrip cost of the 

 pine stumpage was from six to ten cents per thousand 

 feet. 



In 1874, shortly before Mr. Cornell died, he turned 

 over the property to the University, and at that time 

 the cost, including all expenses, was over $500,000, or 

 possibly fifteen cents per thousand feet. Shortly after 

 the University took charge, a systematic efifort was 

 made to dispose of the timber, and at the close of 

 1882, the aggregate sales amounted to $3,700,000, this 

 including the first large sale of 100,000 acres at $4 

 per acre, or, say, thirty to forty cents per thousand 

 feet, made in 1873. At this time the cost of the 

 property, including taxes and all other expenses, had 

 risen to $2,200,000. 



The University has now practically closed out its 

 timber holdings in Wisconsin, and the net result of the 

 purchase of the 500,000 acres by Mr. Cornell, in 1866, 

 at sixty cents per acre, after deducting cost of the 

 scrip and locating the same, taxes, and all other ex- 

 penses, was within a very few dollars of $5,500,000. 

 The University property was wonderfully well handled, 

 the top of the market being obtained in almost every 

 sale. It has only been within the last few years that 



