10 



THE COMMISSION OF INQUIRY, 



Acreage and prices of tax homestead land disposed of either as homesteads or by 

 as shown by reports of the Land Office. 



Acres. 



Price. 



1902 sales under Act 107 of 1899, which made certain Tax Home- 



stead lands subject to purchase after April 1, 1902 



" under act 141 of 1901 



1903 " under Act 107 of 1889 



" under Act 141 of 1901 



under Sec. 131, Act 206, P. A. 1893, and acts amendatory. 



1904 

 1905 



1906. " 



1907. " 



July 1 to Dec. 7, 1907, as per statement to Commission of In 

 quiry 



448.51 



12,408.49 



3,431.04 



71,045.91 



151,101.37 



142,782.76 



231,894.05 



235,133.74 



101,477.79 



3808 51 



3,343 89 



4,850 13 



77,466 45 



192,391 04 



167,663 01 



244,916 65 



224,539 91 



199,312 73 



Total 



Deduct receipts from lots In cities and villages (see statement thereof. 

 Appendix 1 



949,723.66 



$1,114,386 62 

 84,347 25 



SI ,030 ,039 37 



Total No. of acres of Tax Homestead lands disposed of as homesteads to Dec. 21, 1907. 



Total No. of acres of Tax Homestead Lands sold to Dec. 7, 1907 



Total number of acres disposed of 



244,431.72 

 949,723.66 



1,194,153.38 



Money receipts from Tax Homestead Lands entered as homesteads estimated as 

 10c per acre 



Money receipts from Tax Homestead Lands sold (after deducting amount received 

 from sales of lots in cities and villages) 



837,079 20 

 $1,030,039 37 



Total money receipts. 



$1,067,118 57 



Average price received per acre 



Average price received per acre from land sales.. 



$0.89 

 1.08 



A considerable quantity of tax homestead land has been bought by 

 land speculators in Chicago, Detroit and elsewhere for platting into 

 small lots for summer resort purposes, and for subdivision into small 

 holdings for farming, fruit raising and like purposes. This land has 

 been bought in some instances as low as fifty cents an acre. Many 

 sales have been made by these speculators to clerks, stenographers and 

 working people of Chicago and elsewhere, and to others, on time at 

 prices running as high as twelve and fifteen dollars and even twenty 

 dollars an acre. The business has been sufliciently extensive and re- 

 munerative to justify extensive, full page advertising in Chicago and 

 Detroit daily papers, Sunday editions, as well as to bear the expense of 

 circulating advertising pamphlets. It is a fair inference therefrom that 

 land good for farming and home making is worth very much more than 

 the meagre price which the State has received for its tax homestead 

 lands ; and that any of the forfeited tax land that is fit for agricultural 

 purposes will be cheap at a price which will net the State several times the 

 average price it has heretofore realized, and which will, at the- same time, 

 enable those who wish to settle upon the land to acquire title at less 

 than the cost of purchase from these speculators.* 



,*In appendix2 will be found a statement from the Land Office concerning the purchases and oper- 

 ations of one of these land syndicates m Roscommon and Crawford counties, together with extracts 

 from letters published, newspaper articles, etc. 



