TAX LANDS AND FORESTRY. 47 



APPENDIX 2. 



I. PROFIT FOR SPECULATORS VS. RESERVE MINIMUM PRICE. 



"I have prepared and am sending you plats showing the lands [be- 

 tween 17,000 and 18,000 acres, purchased at prices from fifty cents to 

 two dollars, the top price paid for one eighty-acre parcel; the average 

 price paid per acre was eighty-six cents], purchased in the name of 

 Myrtle E. Hellen, of Chicago, Illinois. These lands are situated in Eos- 

 common and Crawford counties, with one purchase in Muskegon county. ^ 

 The lands in Eoscommon and Crawford counties are being exploited 

 by the "Michigan Central Park Co." and are being sold, so I understand, 

 at a uniform price of |12.00 per a'cre. The purchasers are laboring 

 'men, clerks, stenographers, etc., who are influenced to invest their sav- 

 ings in small parcels of these lands on contracts at long time. Of course, 

 this is a swindle on the purchasers, but something that this department 

 is not accountable for and is powerless to prevent. I have entered on 

 each tract the sum received by the State for it and have endeavored to 

 show just what information this department had concerning the lands." 



E. E. HAVENS, 

 Chief Clerk of Land Office. 



GRAND RAPIDS HERALD, APRIL 24, 1908. 



Charles S. Pierce, State Forest Warden and Game Warden, states 

 that his forestry work is greatly hindered by lack of funds with which 

 to properly guard the forest lands from fire. Speaking of the barrens, 

 he said: 



"It certainly is a great shame that certain companies can buy sand 

 wastes from the State at 50 cents an acre and sell at |10 an acre to 

 the pobr steel workers and others in the large cities who have dreams 

 of the independence of the farmer. I notice each week in the Chicago 

 papers great ads. which are intended to entice men from the large cities 

 to these barrens, where it is pictured that they will be in the land of 

 milk and honey and independent for life. A man will have more fun 

 for his money by throwing it into the lake and seeing the splash. When 

 these poor fellows from th^ cities buy a section of this land they expect 

 to be able to grow something upon it. The result is they eke out a 

 miserable existence for a year or so and then abandon the farm and are 

 glad to get back to the city, where the pay envelope is handed out each 

 Saturday night. 



"There should be some legislation of some sort to prevent this sort 

 of speculation. I don't know what would be required but certainly 

 something is." 



