TAX LANDS AND FORESTRY. 113 



pine was lumbered as a home, in order to prove up. Since the sale to 

 the mill men, the place is deserted. 



Homestead of William H. Cunningham, section 7-24-7, S E 14. This 

 place is now deserted. Mitchell Brothers, of Cadillac, lumbered to the 

 extent of |2,800 worth of timber. 



The above cases and many others like them, illustrate the lack of 

 inspection by the representatives of the Land Oflflce in these matters. 

 This inspection, much as it is needed in the operation of the home- 

 stead law, seems to be quite generally wanting. In this connection we 

 wish to call your attention to certain other features of this same service 

 as we meet it in our investigations. The fact that the trespass agent 

 or representatives of the Land Office have power to settle trespass cases 

 and to receive money for timber, etc., and also that there is practically 

 no systematic control or inspection in this service, leads to rather un- 

 satisfactory practices, which in some cases border on cruelty and in 

 others to serious neglect of duty. 



A case illustrating this is the following: On December 10, 1907, 

 Charles Eoberts collected from Eeuben A. Simons |30 for 1,500 hundred 

 feet of white pine, which he had cut and removed from the N E 1/4 of 

 the S E 14 of section 20-36-1-W. This man Simons had used these 

 logs for the purpose of building a house. He was very poor and at the 

 time the agent collected this money his children were obliged to go 

 about barefoot, although it was practically midwinter. 



On the other hand, Henry Williams, who made entry of the S E l^ 

 of the N E 1/4, 3-36-5, in the spring of 1903, and who can only get his 

 deed this year, has lumbered 100,000 feet of hardwood (maple, beech, 

 etc.), 150,000 feet of hemlock, and 75 cords of hemlock bark, valued 

 on the stump at $1,000.00, and under date of Jan. 10, 1908, the State 

 Land Office reports that settlement had been "made for timber cut in 

 the winter of 1906 on the basis of 1,800 feet of pine, for which he paid 

 the State |16.95. 



We find the Williams homestead complicated in still another man- 

 ner. On Sept. 29, 1904, E. A. Wildey, Commissioner of the State Laud 

 Oflfice, by letter, issued a permit to Henry Williams to clear twenty 

 acres of this forty. This permission was taken advantage of and al- 

 though he had not proved up, in fact has not yet done so, and not hav- 

 ing lived on the place for some time, it is quite improbable that he 

 could obtain the necessary witness to make the final settlement. Wil- 

 liams sold the timber to the Belding & Hall Manufacturing Co., of Ely, 

 who paid Williams, not the Land Office, $250.00 for this stumpage. 

 The estimate we have given of the timber removed is probably lower 

 than What was actually taken, but to the best of our judgment, the 

 amount is at least this. 



This man, Williams, has made no secret of the fact that his only pur- 

 pose in taking this homestead was because of its timber value. 



This forty was not included in the list furnished by the Land Office 

 when making a statement of the homesteads taken up in Emmet 



county. 



Another flagrant case illustrating the lack of inspection and super- 

 vision by the Land Office of the tax homestead lands, is set forth in the 

 following : 



15 



