Frontier Agricullure in Northern Minnesota 15 
40 
Of this 120 
acres only about 20 is cleared cropland — proportionately less 
than half as much as on a farm of the first type. Some 60 acres 
is used for pasture; this is largely land still wooded or still cov- 
ered with brush and stumps (Fig. 4). Wild hay is relatively 
more important here than on the more mature farm, and the 
amount of unused wild land is rather greater. 
Surprisingly enough, these small and primitive farms are 
dairy farms, but the herd is very small — four to six cows on the 
average farm, but an even smaller number on many. The sale of 
cream, to be made into butter, is the chief source of income, 
which is likely to be small. On at least half of the farms of this 
type, the annual cash income is probably less than $200. 
The buildings on the farms of the ''jack-piners" are usually 
few and primitive. The house and barns are likely to be nearly 
indistinguishable from each other — small shacks, either dilapi- 
dated or rawly new, built of rough lumber and perhaps covered 
with building paper (Fig. 5). The whole enterprise usually 
wears an appearance of impermanence, and indeed abandoned 
farms of this sort are fairly common in the area (Fig. 6). The 
''jack-piners" are continually moving from farm to farm, and 
there is some migration both into and out of the general region. 
Wild land "suitable" for this type of settlement is plentiful 
. in the community, but, paradoxically enough, the basic reason 
for the poverty of the primitive type of farm is that these farms 
are too small. It is, of course, the acreage of cropland which is 
inadequate, especially for the rather extensive type of agriculture 
which is best suited to this area. Cut-over land may be purchased 
for a few dollars an acre, but clearing is both laborious and ex- 
pensive. Estimates indicate that clearing an acre of land is likely 
to cost the farmer $35 to $60, figuring his labor at only 15 cents 
an hour.* Even if the settler is able to do the work at slack 
* G. A. Pond and C W. Crickman, Planning Farm Organizations 
for the Northeast Cut-over Section of Minnesota, Univ. of Miiin. 
Agric. Exp. Sta. Bull 295, pp. 30-31, 1933. 
