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SETTLEMENT AND COLONIZATION IN GREAT LAKES STATES 41 
Land clearing is most economically done as a spare-time occupation. 
Moreover, it is not likely that the ordinary settler will be able to spare 
the money to hire help at land clearing, other than horse and machine 
work, and even if he had the money it is doubtful whether it is as 
economical to clear land in this way as to do it as a gradual and 
spare-time employment. 
There is another very important angle to the question: It is likely 
that the economic unit for farming in the Lakes States is in most 
cases larger than 40 acres. Farming this far north will largely be a 
hay-and-pasture type, a relatively extensive type. This will be off- 
set partly by the growing of small quantities of potatoes, sugar beets, 
and other intensive root crops. One company which sold mostly 40- 
acre tracts 10 to 15 years ago now regrets its policy. The settlers 
have most of the land in crops and improved pasture. Their families 
are now large enough to help, but there is not sufficient work for 
them. They are going to the city to look for jobs. It would have in- 
ereased the company’s burden to have sold these settlers eighties in- 
stead of forties, but it would have been better for the settlers in the 
long run. Some of the intensive colonization companies are a little 
shortsighted in this matter. They are thinking too much of their own 
problem of capital burden, and not enough of the future welfare of 
their settlers. 
On the other hand, although the settler with the larger holding will 
profit from the increase in the value of the land that is sure to come 
in any rapidly developing area and the cost of holding land may be 
offset by the advance in values, the problem of land settlement be- 
comes much more complicated in a time of falling land values be- 
cause of the necessarily large reserves of unproductive land in a 
ceut-over area. 
Many of the settlers are willing to take a chance on buying an ad- 
ditional 40 acres later on. The turnover is sure to be large even in 
the best-managed colonies. But although they are fairly sure to 
be able to get the land later, the chance will be small of getting 
exactly the 40 acres wanted. If the company could hold additional 
40’s in reserve for the settlers, the problem would be solved for them 
but the burden on the company would be considerable. Some of the 
companies are holding meadowland in reserve for this purpose, in 
some cases expecting to drain it before putting it on the market. 
There is thus a satisfactory compromise between selling the set- 
tler too much land and selling him too little, which can be deter- 
mined in various ways according to the system of land settlement 
followed. Companies that follow the policy of investing a large 
amount of capital in construction of buildings, preliminary clear- 
ing, provision of livestock and equipment, will probably lean toward 
the sale of small farm units; whereas companies that leave the settler 
free to finance his enterprise may be more favorable toward sell- 
ing a somewhat larger unit. None of the 15 firms studied really 
followed the policy of selling settlers as much land as they could 
safely afford to sell in view of the amount of initial payment the 
settlers were capable of contributing, with no regard to whether 
anything would be left for development of the purchases. ‘There 
were two or three, however, which leaned in that direction. The 
