TAX LANDS AND FORESTRY. 9 



rivers and important streams, the Commission has had prepared a map 

 for submission herewith. It is to be considered only as approximately 

 correct. As sales are made every day in each of the departments, any 

 map which is accurate and complete today, will cease to be so tomor- 

 row, and every day that passes will lessen its accuracy. The mapping 

 of the forfeited tax land on the map submitted was based upon informa- 

 tion contained in plats by townships of the tax homestead land and of 

 the State tax land furnished by the State Land Office and Auditor Gen- 

 eral's Department. These plats show the State holdings generally about 

 the end of the year 1907, although the showing as to the Upper Peninsula 

 is of a later date. As the parts of the different counties were made in the 

 Land Office at different dates, it can not be said that the general map 

 based upon them is now accurate, or that it shows the State holdings as 

 of any particular date; but it is sufficient to convey a clear idea of the 

 essential facts to be dealt with, and of the method which this report 

 proposes for defining State forest reserves. 



The tabulations furnished by the Auditor General's Department and 

 by the State Land Office are subject to the same qualifications as to 

 accuracy. It requires considerable time to make up such a tabulation; 

 and, as the work progresses, the routine work of the department is mak- 

 ing changes constantly. The plats of each county or township having 

 been made at different dates, the tables and figures having been made 

 at dates not corresponding with the plats, and plats and tables dealing 

 with matters that are' undergoing constant and hourly change in the 

 routine of departmental business, do not of course correspond exactly; 

 nor is it practicable under existing conditions to have them made so that 

 they will. We are dealing with a matter that may be likened to a 

 kaleidoscope that is always running slowly; there is nothing fixed, and 

 the changes are not according to an invariable rule. Both the/ tables of 

 figures and the map are submitted with the foregoing qualifications as to 

 their accuracy. 



We submit in this report a plan for the utilization of the forfeited tax 

 land in such ways as we believe will tend to the best ultimate develop- 

 ment of the State. This plan, and the reasons for it, will be better under- 

 stood after such a general review of the land policy of the State as will 

 show the workings of the present laws governing the disposition of the 

 forfeited tax lands. For, it will appear from such a review, that in cer- 

 tain ways the present system is working against the best interests of 

 the public. 



OF THE RESULTS OF THE PRESENT LAND LAWS AND THEIR ADMINISTRATION. 



(1) Prices realized hy the State for Tax Homestead Land. 



The sale of tax homestead land under Act 107 of 1899 and Act 141 

 of 1901 began in April, 1902. The homesteading of the tax homestead 

 land began with the entries made in 1896, but none were actually deeded 

 until 1901. The prices and returns to the State, and the number of 

 acres deeded as homesteads, or sold under the laws referred to, is shown 

 by the following compilation from the Land Office reports : 

 2 



