iz MISC. PUBLICATION 218, U.S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 
None of the northeastern counties except those with large iron ore 
values, St. Louis and Itasca, had a delinquency ratio in 1927 of less 
than 10 percent; the average, with St. Louis omitted, was 22 percent; 
and in one county, Lake of the Woods, the ratio was 56 percent. 
The group with the greatest amount of delinquency is group 3. 
The three counties in this group, and particularly Lake of the Woods 
and Beltrami, contain a very large amount of open peat bogs. The 
old-growth timber is largely cut in the two counties just mentioned, 
but a quantity remains in the third, Koochiching. Much land in all 
three counties which is burdened with heavy special assessments for 
drainage has not been followed by agricultural use. The counties 
are liable for these special assessments in case of default on the part of 
the landowners. 
Groups 1 and 4 have the next highest delinquency ratios. Cook and 
Lake Counties contain a large area of land which is nonagricultural 
because of the presence of granitic rock ledges. Although there is 
considerable iron ore, there is practically no mining development as 
yet. These counties are only partly cut over and still contain con- 
siderable old-growth timber. 
The counties in group 4 constitute a typical cut-over area in which 
extensive efforts to develop agriculture have been accompanied by 
widespread speculation in land, The quality of the land is very un- 
even, because of stones, morainic topography, or sands and gravels. 
The counties in group 5 comprise the oldest portion of the cut-over 
area from the standpoint of agricultural development. Approxi- 
mately 50 percent of the land area is in farms. There is much good 
but rather stony land in all three counties, with considerable sand and 
peat in Pine County. Practically no taxable timber remains, nor is 
there any appreciable amount of land left in public ownership. There 
is slightly less delinquency in this group of counties than in groups 1, 
3, end 4, but the increase has been even more pronounced than in 
some of the other groups. 
When delinquency is expressed in terms of deficiency in collections, 
shown in column 4, the relative positions of the groups are not altered. 
The deficiencies are smaller in every instance, though not always 
smaller in the same proportion. Thus, while most of the counties 
show a revenue deficiency equal to about three-fifths of their current 
delinquency, Crow Wing County shows a delinquency of 11.2 percent 
but a revenue deficiency of only 0.9 percent. Since the collection of 
back taxes is likely to be spasmodic, total collections can conceivably 
be in excess of the current levy. In fact, that was the case in Kanabec 
County in both 1925 and 1926. In those years the deficiencies for 
Crow Wing were 5.9 percent and 8.2 percent respectively,” showing 
that the small deficiency in 1927 was abnormal. 
Whichever measure is used, the greatest delinquency is found in 
eroup 3, which is intermediate in agricultural development. The 
explanation appears to be that there is the most delinquency of cut- 
over land where there is sufficient scattered settlement to crease 
governmental costs and not sufficient to increase materially the tax 
resources. Group 1, which has the least agricultural development, 
has more delinquency than group 5, which has the greatest agricultural 
development. In general, the delinquency of the cut-over regionf 
61 Computed from records in the county auditors’ offices of the several counties. 
