TAX LANDS AND FORESTRY. 



19 



County. 



No. of acres deed- 

 ed on compli- 

 ance with the 

 law. 



No. of acres aban- 

 doned and re- 

 verting for non- 

 compliance. 



Percentage 



of 

 abandon- 

 ments. 



Arenac 



Gladwin 



Clare 



Missaukee 



Boscommon.. . 



Ogemaw 



Iosco 



Alcona 



Oscoda 



Crawford 



Kalkaska 



Otsego 



Montmorency.. 



Alpena 



Presque Isle... 

 Cheboygan. . . . 



3,693.22 

 4,028.20 

 9,188.16 

 9,417.87 

 7,916.80 

 5,481.76 



8,601.22 

 120.00 



5,706.83 



2,792.13 

 520.00 



7,121.95 

 10,366.24 



9,164.47 

 320 . 00 



4,817.15 

 2,865.15 

 8,163.17 

 6,256.46 

 9,233.39 

 8,550.77 

 460.00 

 8,346.62 



6,220.15 



1,686.70 



1,146.85 



11,722.55 



11,990.09 



13,742.57 



400.00 



Total. 



84,438.85 



96,601.60 



53% 



THE TIMBER SKINNER AND THE " RUBBER 40." 



These abandonments, in the main, point to the operations of the tim- 

 ber skinner. This well-known character is one who, pretending to be 

 a bona fide settler, has, under the cover of the homestead law, made a 

 practice of squatting temporarily for his nefarious purpose upon what, 

 in the common speech of the whole region of the cut-over lands, has come 

 to be familiarly known as a "rubber forty"; that is, an anchorage in the 

 neighborhood of some mill where there is a market for everything in 

 the shape of timber or wood products. Here he locates in a crude shanty, 

 built to be abandoned, and from it reaches out in every direction to strip 

 oflE all that grows which is convertible into money, whether it be found 

 upon land owned by the State, or by individuals who are not watchful 

 of their interests. It is this man who is surely divesting nature of power 

 and capacity to reclothe and'reha!bilitate the waste cut-over lands of the 

 north. His destructive work supplements the devastation of fire, and 

 both work together to a common end — desolation. It is doubtful whether 

 fire or the unwise policy of disposing of these lands to those who acquire 

 them for the timber is the greater foe to the true interest of the State. 

 Each so supplements the. evil work of the other as to increase its de- 

 structiveness and make the ruin more complete. These two evils, fire 

 and the timber skinner, are so interwoven that they are in reality one, 

 and the elimination of both is essential if there is to be any hope of a 

 rational and wisely balanced development of the cut-over lands, or of 

 securing forests capable of supplying enough lumber for the future, or 

 of producing the incidental benefits to public welfare that come from 

 having adequate forest areas. 



The homestead abandonments oflflcially recorded do not relate exclu- 

 sively to the timber skinner, for many poor people have been enticed into 

 attempting to make homes on land unfit for their purpose. These peo- 

 ple were poor and not above the average in knowledge of and skill in 

 agriculture, and so lacked both the means and the ability to create homes 

 and family supporting farms out of light, thin lands. Capital and skill 

 sometimes can do this, of course, but these people were without either. 



