FOREST TAXATION IN THE UNITED STATES 299 
MICHIGAN 
No other State has gone as far in surveying its land resources as 
Michigan. There are in the northern part of this State vast areas of 
cut-over land. Many of the owners of this land have been holding it 
for as much as 40 years in the hope that it could eventually be sold 
for agricultural purposes, but they have finally despaired of this and 
are refusing to pay taxes on it any longer. In Michigan land is 
deeded back to the State after 5 years of delinquency, and nearly 2 
million acres have so reverted. With 40 counties less than self- 
supporting, i. e., contributing less in State taxes than receiving in 
State aids, and delinquency increasing steadily, the more wealthy 
southern part of the State became interested. Therefore, since 1922 
the Michigan Land Economic Survey has been engaged in an inven- 
tory of the northern counties, particularly those in which idle land 
and tax delinquency are common. About 6 million acres had been 
surveyed up to 1930. 
A detailed soil survey is made according to the standards of the 
United States Bureau of Chemistry and Soils. On the soil map is an 
overprint showing the ‘‘lay of the land”’ in five classes: level, gently 
sloping, moderately sloping, strongly sloping, and hilly. A forest-and- 
farm-land survey 1s made, showing on the map the exact location of 
the different timber types, the degree of stocking, and the prevailing 
diameter of the trees. The crop land, cleared land, stump pasture, 
and idle or abandoned land are also shown. Then there is also made 
a water-power and geological survey of each county and an economic 
survey. 
The economic survey attempts to collect all facts pertinent to the 
development and utilization of the county resources not covered by 
the physical inventory of the natural resources. (1) It inquires into 
the nature of land ownership, who owns the land, and the intended 
use; (2) the assessed value of each piece of land is recorded; (3) the 
tax rate in each local district is ascertained and correlated with other 
economic and physical factors; and (4) a study is made of the county’s 
products, industries, and market facilities. 
The survey does not attempt a land classification. It avoids the 
terms agricultural and nonagricultural. It does not dedicate the land 
to any particular use. It presents facts only, but it presents them in 
such a way that a person having a certain land use in mind can select 
the conditions best suited to his need. The survey has resulted in the 
formulation of programs of utilization for particular counties, which 
have been presented to the officials and citizens of these counties. 
In other ways the survey has been justified. Its maps have been 
used extensively. They have been of much service to the State high- 
way department in locating new roads; they have been of use to the 
department of conservation in selecting sites for forest preserves and 
game refuges. They have been of use to the land division of the 
department of conservation in approving or rejecting applications to 
homestead. They have been used by paper manufacturers looking for 
lands to purchase for pulpwood, by rod and gun clubs seeking camp 
sites, by persons seeking lands peculiarly adapted to some particular 
purpose as, for instance, the raising of muskrats or the growing of 
huckleberries. 
The immediate effects have not been spectacular, but many indi- 
viduals have been aided in finding what they sought or dissuaded 
