SETTLEMENT AND COLONIZATION IN GREAT LAKES STATES 61 
or less. The elaborate and powerful sales organizations were spend- 
ing around $10 per acre in making their sales. These differences in 
costs are important from the standpoint of the settler. If the set- 
tler has made up his mind to buy a piece of cut-over land if he can 
find the right kind, he probably does not need to pay $10 per acre 
to be convinced that he ought to buy. He will do better dealing 
with some company with a milder selling organization. The same 
is true in regard to the intensive type of colonization service. This 
is a considerable expense to the company. It is worth while only 
to the settlers who need it. The making of advances to settlers and 
the maintenance of elaborate service organizations are valuable serv- 
ices only to those who do not have the necessary means or experience. 
However, there are some elements in the services of reputable coloni- 
zation companies which are valuable to any settler, especially the 
road building and the selecting of suitable land. 
Prices at which land is sold do not vary in proportion to dif- 
ferences in quality. In fact, if some of the land that is selling for 
$35 an acre 1s worth only this, that which is selling for $15 or $20 
is worth practically nothing. This does not mean that the latter 
land will never be worth anything, but that it is not worth anything 
for settlement while there is so much better land that can be obtained 
for from $30 to $35 an acre. 
Since the land in the different projects was sold in different years 
at different price levels, the prices are not directly comparable. In 
the index of prices in Table 25, prices are compared with the average 
_ price of all land sold by all companies the same year. The range 
of index numbers is from 70 to 123. The land in Project V was sold 
at 23 per cent above the average for the same year; and the land in 
Project VIII at 22 per cent under the average for the same year. 
Yet the quality of the land was about the same, all things considered. 
The projects of the intensive colonization type, such as IX and X, 
were selling at higher prices than those giving little or no service, 
such as IT and IIL. - 
Projects XI and XIII were of the intensive colonization type, but 
their land was of lower grade. The percentage of noncultivable 
land also needs to be taken into consideration. The land of Project 
XV was sold for about $17 per acre, but this was not really cheap 
when reduced to a comparable basis, and particularly in view of the 
fact that 19.8 per cent of it was noncultivable. 
About 15 per cent of all settlers covered in the survey thought 
they had paid too much for their land; and it is significant that most 
of these were living on the projects which in Table 25 are indicated 
as high, taking account of proportion of noncultivable lands. 
In Table 26 the portion of the settlers’ taxes chargeable to land 
alone, excluding personal property and buildings (assuming that 
buildings and land were assessed and taxed at the same rate), is re- 
duced to a per-acre basis. It was highest in those projects where 
the land was most improved, IV and XV, and in those projects where 
rapid development was taking place, [IX and X. On those projects 
where roads were very poor, I and VIII, taxes per acre were low. 
In some cases the lumber companies by their control of local politics 
had been able to delay road building. A tax of 42 cents per acre, as 
in Project IX, capitalized at 6 per cent, equals $7 per acre. The 
11-cent tax on Project VIII represents on the same basis only $1.88 
