32 MICHIGAN FORESTRY. 



twenty-three of the thirty-six miUions acres of land in Michigan are unim- 

 proved. 



Returning to the lighter pinery lands, it is but natural that after the great 

 fires had swept the forest cover and not only destroyed it, but almost cleared it 

 from the land, that little encouragement existed for the timber man to hold 

 them or give them any further care. At first the lands were offered for sale 

 and later a large portion of them reverted to the state for non-payment of 

 taxes. They were offered for sale for taxes but usually bid in by the state so 

 that today there are about six million acres of these lands either delinquent for 

 taxes or actually deeded back to the state. This is a remarkable and a very 

 significant state of affairs, six million acres, about one-sixth of the land area of 

 the state is "in soak " for taxes. This fact not only indicates the proprietory 

 relation but describes quite fully the natural and economic condition of these 

 lands. 



The polify of the state with regard to these lands has been liberal, in fact, 

 too liberal. The state has made a persistent effort to get the lands settled, or 

 at least to get them into private hands, and thus back on the tax rolls. This 

 effort was but natural and was strongly urged, of course, by the local interests 

 in order to increase the revenues of town and county and reduce the most un- 

 usual and exorbitant tax rates to which the people of some of these counties are at 

 present exposed. But in spite of all efforts, the lands have remained unsettled, 

 as is so clearly brought out in the above table. The good loam and 

 clay lands never reverted for taxes and the poor lands even now do not find 

 ready sale. Thus of eighty thousand acres offered at one sale last year, only 

 about one-tenth were sold and these only brought the pitiful sum of about 

 $1.25 per acre, to what may have been presumed to have been the choice one- 

 tenth of the total lot and probably was bought rather for the remnant of forest 

 material existing thereon than for actual settlement. 



Nor was this policy altogether inexpensive. It appears that the State spent 

 in the five years, 1898-1902, the large sum of about $834,000, of which about 

 $570,000 went for clerk hire to keep record against these lands, and about 

 $264,000 went for advertising the lands. And while thus the state spent over 

 $800,000, the amount sold amounted to only about $300,000, so that a clean 

 deficit of over half a miUion appears to have been the net result of the transac- 

 tion. And at the same time, not one cent of this vast sum was ever spent to 

 protect these lands, to put out a single fire or plant a single tree. 



In 1903 the state adopted a new policy and it enacted a law by which the 

 state lands located in three townships at the head of Muskegon river in Ros- 

 common and Crawford counties, should be set aside as forest reserves, to be 

 managed by the state Forestry Commission. (For more detail concerning 

 the character of these lands, the work attempted and performed, see the re- 

 port of the warden of forest reserves in this volume.) This law provides that 

 the commission shall: 



1 . Survey and examine the lands and determine their real character. 



2. Protect whatever forest growth is found on these lands against fire or 

 injury. 



3. Restock the lands with forest growth (since it was known that much 

 of the land is practically bare of forest), and it further provides that the com- 

 mission : 



4. May buy, sell or exchange lands within the limits of the reserves as far as 

 such exchange is in keeping with the objects of the law. 



5. May cut and sell the timber on the reserves. 

 And it also provides : 



