FORESTRY COMMISSIONER 17 



this trip I saw, for the first time, a train load of basswood 

 logs standing on the railroad tracks. 



VISIT TO LAKE COUNTY. 



Early in August I visited Lake County; went forty- 

 four miles by railroad from Knife River in a northeasterly 

 direction, through mostly cut-over country, and was im- 

 pressed by some of the advantages there for settlers. 

 Lake County contains 1,300,000 acres of land, much of 

 which is good for agriculture, though comparatively little 

 is under cultivation. Much of the land that I saw will 

 produce, among other crops, wheat, oats, potatoes and 

 good hay. There are numerous streams of soft water 

 which contain trout. The surface is undulating, and the 

 more valuable timber having been removed it will require 

 much labor to subdue the soil. It struck me that large 

 owners of land might well afford to give each settler 

 twenty acres of land with the privilege of buying sixty 

 more under certain conditions for cultivation. Lumber 

 companies, however, are absorbed in their own affairs 

 and cannot go into the immigration business; but com- 

 mercial or immigration clubs of the various cities interested 

 might be able to carry such a scheme into effect. I talked 

 with Jacob Schaf, a German farmer who has been culti- 

 vating a farm about seven miles north of Beaver Bay for 

 twenty-six years. He has wheat four feet high and is 

 enthusiastic about the agricultural advantages of the 

 country. The occupation of agricultural lands by a good 

 class of settlers would lessen the dangers of forest fires. 



The law of Minnesota requires railroad companies to 

 keep their right of way clear of combustible material a 

 distance of fifty feet from the center of the track on each 

 side. It makes a country look very much better where 

 this is attended to and where the adjoining standing 



