22 THE COMMISSION OF INQUIRY, 



TpE PURPOSES AND PRINCIPLES UNDERLYING THE FORMULATION OP A PLAN 

 FOR UTILIZATION OF THE FORFEITED TAX LAND. 



For the best ultimate development of a State it is, next to securing 

 settlers in adequate number, important to provide for a wise and proper 

 lialance between forest areas and tilled fields. Settlement should not 

 be encouraged by State action beyond this point, but it should be the 

 aim both to have settlers, and to have forest areas adequate for the 

 needs of those settlers. 



Moreover, State action should not seek to direct settlement to any 

 of this forfeited tax land except such as is of the better class, having 

 real value for farming. Just as forestry should be directed to the non- 

 agricultural and poorer land, so conversely settlement should be directed 

 away from, not toward, the poorer agricultural land. Since the for- 

 feited tax land is a residuum, largely culls, resulting from a sifting 

 process that has segregated the poorer lands of the locality, we are 

 justified in concluding that so far as settlement is to be directed by the 

 action of the State, it should not be toward the forfeited tax land, 

 but away from it, toward the prima facie better land which has been 

 protected from taxes, and the available supply of which is, as the figures 

 show, altogether beyond present demands for settlement. In the four- 

 teen counties having the greatest percentage of forfeited tax land, there 

 is from seventy-five to ninety-five per cent of the area of the county 

 that is tax paid, and in every other county of the State the tax paid 

 land exceeds ninety-five per cent of the area of the county. In order 

 to secure a proper settlement of any county, preserving a wise and ad- 

 vantageous balance between forest and cultivated areas, it is therefore 

 clearly not necessary to turn prospective settlers towards the forfeited 

 tax land. 



It is equally clear that such of the forfeited tax land as is opened to 

 sale should be disposed of in such way as will not incidentally operate 

 to the disadvantage of the State. It is also our opinion that the best 

 interest of all concerned will be subserved by providing that Buch of 

 the forfeited tax land as residents of the townships in which it is situ- 

 ated desire for private timber reserves shall be made available for 

 that purpose. 



A plan for the utilization of the forfeited tax land should find its 

 support and foundation in these considerations, and should therefore have 

 for main ends the following, viz.: 



(1) To secure for settlement as much of the forfeited tax land as 

 is possible, consistently with the reservation of adequate areas thereof 

 for forests; but (a) only to the extent of such parcels thereof as are 

 clearly well fitted for tillage and the making of successful farms; (b) 

 only in such way as is consistent with the exclusion of the practice of 

 timber skinning; (c) in such way as will, so far as practicable, eliminate 

 the land speculator, or middleman, whose profits represent what is added 

 to the price paid by the settler over and above the paltry price realized 

 by the State, and whose work it is which is responsible for unfit land 

 being taken up by homesteaders, and for unfit men undertaking the task 

 of making profitable farms out of a class of land for which skill and 

 knowledge are especially necessary. 



(2) To secure for use for forest purposes, in part by the State as 



