Senin, .iadhendnt ahem RR ae Ee 
a) 
56 BULLETIN 1295, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 
from home at work, although the survey was made in July, August, 
and September. If ‘settlers in their first year, still living on the cash 
they brought with them, be excluded, the proportion would be con- 
siderably higher. If the husband were working near-by, the family 
had usually remained on the holding. If he were working in the 
mines or harvest fields or in the city, the family had frequently gone 
to stay with relatives. 
Intensive colonization companies usually have work for a few men 
at building roads, houses, cutting timber, or clearing land for settlers. 
But this seldom provides work for all of them, especially aiter the 
first year or two when most of this work is done and the new settlers 
have exhausted their savings. Many settlers’ families in the cut-over 
region of the Lakes States suffered greatly during the Spignck 
period of 1920, and following, when saw mills were idle. 
The most humane policy practiced by any company in this matter 
was that of Project XIII. The settlers on this project were financed 
while clearing their own land, the amounts advanced being propor- 
tional to the extent of clearing that they accomplished. 
Obviously there are some important advantages in favor of set- 
tling land as rapidly as the timber is cut in lumbering operations. 
This means that settlers can be established on one part of the tract 
while the remainder is being logged. It provides the settlers with 
work and the lumber department with laborers who are more stable 
and reliable than the transient laborers usually employed. Logging 
teams can be used in the summer for road building and land clear- 
ing. Lumber can be furnished the settlers at very low cost. Lum- 
ber camps furnish a market for some of the settlers’ products. 
Lastly, the land is put into crops and pasture before the second 
growth makes much headway. Four of the fifteen projects were 
lumber companies following such a policy. Many other lumber 
companies in the Lakes States were supposedly following this policy, 
but their selling campaigns were so mild that only a small part of 
their available land was sold each year, even during the period of 
active demand which preceded 1920, 
DEVELOPMENT POLICY 
As shown by Table 24, there was much difference of opinion 
among the companies as to the proper development policy. Many 
of the companies stressed the brushing of land at first, believing that 
clover, hay, potatoes, rutabagas, and garden crops can be grown be- 
tween the stumps for the first year or ‘two while the hay and pasture 
acreage is being expanded. The easiest land to get into use is or- 
dinarily the marshland; hence, such companies ‘urged clearing as 
much marshland as possible the first season. A few companies, on 
the other hand, believed it more important to get 5 or 10 acres en- 
tirely clear of stumps and stones at the start so that the farm work 
could be done with machinery and horses. They believed that the 
settler should not waste his energy doing work by hand that should 
be done with machinery and horses. They therefore furnished 
horses and equipment to help him with his clearing and brushing, 
and then with cultivating his crops and harvesting them. After this 
start was made, they too favored pushing the brushing faster than 
the clearing to obtain the much-needed pasture and to give the hard- 
