Frontier Agriculture in Northern Minnesota 25 
by the many abandoned farms, and by the extremely low standard 
of hving in these areas. Frontiers, it is true, have always seen 
failure as well as success, but today the fate of the pioneer set- 
tler is of concern to others beside himself. The modern pioneer, 
in this area lying close to well-peopled districts and busy towns, 
demands and gets, as is his right, a variety of public services 
notably roads and schools - which must be supported almost 
wholly by taxes raised in the better-settled sections of his county 
and state. Unsuccessful settlers receive loans, assistance, or out- 
right relief from local government and state and Federal agen- 
cies. Thus the pioneer^ settlers make their experiments, partly at 
least at public expense, and for this reason their use of the land 
is a public problem. Increasingly, of recent years, there has been 
a feeling that it may be in the public interest to stabilize the ag- 
ricultural frontier in northern Minnesota and Wisconsin, and 
prevent settlement from reaching out into areas where, although 
the settler may manage to exist, with the help of indirect sub- 
sidies, he cannot hope to maintain a decent standard of living. U 
regulation of this sort is attempted, it will involve some sort of 
rural zoning program over a belt of considerable width, for as 
has been seen in the Brainerd Community, areas of present-day 
pioneering (most of which are of marginal value for settlement) 
and well-settled areas are closely intermixed. 
