TAX LANDS AND FORESTRY. Gl 



See also statement of Wm. H. Eose, Commissioner of State Land 

 OflBce, conferring the above estimates as substantially correct with some 

 unimportant changes. With the foregoing compare the views expressed 

 by those who are exploiting cut-over lands for farming and like jiur- 

 poses, Appendix 2. 



II. Extract from article by John H. Bissell in Roscommon Herald, 

 March 26, 1908, in reference to area of unimproved land in excess of 

 present demand: 



In the northern half of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan, there is the 

 largest area of idle or unused lands. By the United States census of 

 1900 there are sixteen counties in the Lower Peninsula having an area 

 of a trifle over 5,000,000 acres of which a little over 1,000,000 acres are 

 reported as in farms, or about 17 per cent., but the same report shows 

 that the area improved is approximately 400,000 acres or 6 per cent, of 

 the total. Eighty-three per cent, of these sixteen counties were unset- 

 tled, that is, not taken up or used, and ninety-four per cent, of the area 

 was unimproved. Undoubtedly, there has been some increase in popula- 

 tion and in the amount of land taken up in the last eight years, but 

 there is still room for forests. 



Cram's map of Michigan, under copyright of 1908, gives the popula- 

 tion of Roscommon county as 1,787; Roscommon city, 465; Crawford 

 county, 2,943; the village of Grayling, 1,143. Grand Traverse county, 

 20,497, and its county seat 9,407. Deducting the "urban" population 

 from that of the county gives Roscommon county a country or agricul- 

 tural population of 1,322 persons ; Crawford, county 1,800 ; and Grand 

 Traverse county, 11,000. Roscommon and Crawford counties have 16 

 townships each, with an area of, approximately, 369,640 acres. Grand 

 Traverse county has about 14 townships, with an acreage of about 322,- 

 560 acres. These figures show that the acreage for each rural inhabitant, 

 that is, for each man, woman and child, in these three counties is : Ros- 

 common, 278.86 acres per individual; Crawford, 204.80 per individual; 

 and Grand Traverse county, 29.08 per individual. If four persons to a 

 family, including hired help, is a! fair average (I think according to the 

 figures of the city of Detroit directory it is a fraction higher than that), 

 it will give 1,115 acres of land for each rural family in Roscommon 

 county; Crawford county, 819 acres of land per family, and in Grand 

 Traverse county 116 acres. 



