16 BULLETIN 638, tJ. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGEICULTUEE. 



outset (to a point where the profit to the speculator would be only 

 a few hundred per cent), or one or two extra lots would be thrown 

 in as a bonus. Xot infrequently it happened that when an owner 

 came to look up his lot on the ground he found it in an entirely dif- 

 ferent location from that which he had been shown on the map. 



A particularly pitiful case is that of a laundress from Chicago 

 who bought a lot in a proposed colony that was to be one of the 

 largest and most desirable in the State. As she thought the matter 

 over, however, she became more and more convinced that one lot 

 would not be sufficient to handle all of the business that she undoubt- 

 edly would have. So she looked up the promoter to see whether it 

 would still be possible to add another to it. Yes, he would be glad 

 to accommodate her, although the rate at which the property had 

 been selling would necessitate a small advance in price. The laun- 

 dress^ of course, was delighted at her good forfune. Some time later, 

 when she came to look up her property, she found that her original 

 lot, like most of the others in the colony, was in the midst of a 

 sphagnum swamp, and that the second one was a mile or more from 

 it on the other side of a lake ! The extent to which the colony actu- 

 ally developed may be judged from the fact that in the spring of 

 1916, 1,G7S lots in the original "park" and its three "additions" 

 were advertised for taxes in the local newspaper. 



Statements made by land companies that 44,000 acres of land in 

 the vicinity of certain lakes in Eoscommon County changed owners 

 between July 1, 1904, and June 1, 1905, and that up to February, 

 1908, about 40,000 people had bought lands and lots around Higgins 

 Lake, may be true. Xevertheless. the fact that the population of the 

 entire county in 1910, according to the census, was only 2,274 is suffi- 

 cient proof that these activities did not result in really developing the 

 region. As a matter of fact, permanent settlers have not been se- 

 cured. Instead the land has been neglected and laid waste by fire, 

 and little progress has been made in the production of the crop for 

 which it is best suited — timber. Had the State adopted earlier its 

 present policy of reserving for forest purposes all lands which revert 

 to the State for nonpayment of taxes and which are nonagricultural, 

 speculation in these lands would have been largely averted and a 

 good start made toward restoring the forest and eventually building 

 up permanent forest communities. 



COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT INTERRUPTED. 



TOO FEW OB TOO MANY IMPROVEMENTS. 



The amount of taxes contributed by the lumber industry in well- 

 wooded regions has varied markedly from place to place. Instances 

 are by no means unknown where receipts from taxes in lumber towns 

 have been extraordinarily small in view of the amount of taxable 



