164 MISC. PUBLICATION 218, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 
The preceding figures refer to short-term delinquency and depict 
the situation 50 days after the first penalty of 3 percent was added to 
the original tax bill. As the period of delinquency increases the 
amount of delinquency is very much reduced. Thus, while 670,724 
descriptions were returned delinquent in 1924, only about one-fourth 
of them (170,634) were advertised for sale 2 years and 4 months later.” 
Even so, there has been a pronounced increase in long-term delinquency 
since 1917. In that year the taxes, including interest and penalties, 
on descriptions advertised amounted to $889,234, and in 1927 they 
amounted to $4,794,005, an increase of 439 percent. The taxes, 
including interest and penalties, on descriptions sold (or redeemed prior 
to the sale) increased from $641,528 to $3,311,470, an increase of 416 
percent (73, Repts. 1917, 1927). 
MINNESOTA 
The study of tax delinquency in Minnesota was chiefly concerned 
with the 16 counties in the northeastern part of the State and with 
Winona County in the extreme southeastern corner of the State. This 
block of 16 counties constitutes the chief seat of the forest problem in 
Minnesota and is typical of the great cut-over areas of the Lake States. 
Not so many years ago this region was covered with virgin timber. 
Today the original forests are mostly gone, and in their place are a 
few scattered farms, some second-growth forests, and vast areas of 
cut-over lands, including swamps and barren wastes. Winona County, 
an agricultural county with some forest land, was selected as a 
contrast. | 
In order to ascertain the effect of tax delinquency as indicated by 
the net loss in public revenues over a period of years, the difference 
between the levy each year and the actual collections, including back 
taxes, interest, and penalties, was obtained. The deficiency increased 
in the 16 northeastern counties from 0.5 percent in 1919 to 5.5 percent 
in 1927.% If St. Louis County, which contains the city of Duluth as 
well as rich iron deposits, is omitted, the increase was from 3.9 to 
12.3 percent. The increase in a group of three counties—Beltrami, 
Koochiching, and Lake of the Woods—was from 9.9 percent in 1917 to 
24.6 percent in 1927. While generally upward, there was some fluctua- 
tion from year to year. Winona, the agricultural county, showed a 
deficiency varying from 0.1 percent in 1926 to 0.6 percent in 1924, and 
the average for the whole State varied from 1.5 percent in 1925 to 3.2 
percent in 1921. Complete figures were not obtained for the State as 
a whole prior to 1921 nor subsequent to 1925, nor for Winona County 
except for the years 1921 to 1926. 
When back taxes, interest, and penalties are excluded and the 
delinquency is measured by that part of a year’s levy not collected 
within the fiscal period—a true measure of short-term delinquency— 
the ratios are naturally much higher. The trend of delinquency in the 
16 northeastern counties of Minnesota is shown in table 51. The 
portion of the tax levies and special assessments of each year reported 
delinquent in the year when due increased from 6.9 percent in 1921 to 
23.1 percent in 1930. Excluding St. Louis County, the increase was 
from 13.9 percent in 1921 to 29.2 percent in 1930. The State as a 
whole shows a less steep upward trend, and in no year did the per- 
centage of taxes delinquent approach that of the northeastern counties. 
52 Assuming 40 acres to a description. 
53 Computed from records in the county auditors’ offices of the several counties. 
