ho ta SB ER EE ec 
SETTLEMENT AND COLONIZATION IN GREAT LAKES STATES 19 
ported sales in acres, the average being 4,700 acres. Eleven firms 
gave the number of tracts sold per year, the average being 80. These 
47 firms were apparently selling land at the rate of about 250,000 
acres per year. Six firms reported sales amounting to 10,000 acres 
or more per firm, and three firms reported annual sales of 15,000 
acres or more. 
The 13 land departments of lumber companies, dealers, and agents 
in Wisconsin, not including the large colonization concerns, reported 
a total of 37,000 acres of land sold, or an average of less than 3,000 
acres per firm, and the 7 reporting in tracts indicated total sales of 
262 tracts, or 36 per firm. In addition to this, agents and dealers 
reported resales of 42 partly improved or improved farms. This is 
a considerably smaller volume of business than is reported by the 
Minnesota land firms. Eight large colonization companies in Wis- 
consin, however, reported an estimated total of nearly 90,000 acres 
sold in a year.* This is an average of 11,250 acres per company. This 
reinforces a conclusion, reached on the basis of observation, that 
land has been sold most actively in northern Minnesota by agents 
and dealers, but in Wisconsin by large colonization companies. 
The large colonizing companies in Wisconsin, however, have sold 
land rapidly only during the last 10 or 12 years, and especially dur- 
ing the 5 years preceding 1920. In northern Minnesota, the agents 
and dealers have been moving land very rapidly for the last 20 
years. The business in this region seemed to slacken in 1919 and 
1920, however, and it may be that the propaganda of the colonizing 
companies in northern Wisconsin turned considerable of the tide of 
settlement toward that State. 
As shown in Table 9, in Michigan holdings were for the most 
part larger than in the other two States; but in spite of these large 
holdings, only a very small volume of sales was reported. Only 14 
firms reported retail sales, and the average per year was but 840 
acres. In addition, one or two concerns reported the sale of a con- 
siderable amount of land in wholesale lots. 
This small volume of sales reflected the general stagnation of the 
land market in the undeveloped part of Michigan. ‘The upper 
peninsula is too isolated or still too much in timber to be ready for 
an extensive land-selling program, and the undeveloped portion of 
the lower peninsula contains a large percentage of land of question- 
able agricultural value. Some of the large owners in the lower 
peninsula expressed the conviction that their lands were not suitable 
for farming except for orchards, and these they regarded as large- 
scale enterprises. Only two or three concerns were actively pushing 
the retail sale of land in Michigan. Many of the large landholders, 
who are engaged principally in other enterprises, such as lumbering, 
salt mining, or iron mining, do not consider that a campaign for the 
retail sale of their lands is timely. The market is very poor for the 
grade of land many of them now hold, and they doubt if the expense 
of selling would be justified by the volume of sales. The large col- 
onizing companies of the Lakes States have not been forced as yet 
to resort to lands of this grade. 
Ee a eile eine pital hee ean ee Oh 
3In addition to these, there were four others which had previously done a large volume 
of business but which were not very active at the time the field data for this study were 
assembled, because their holdings were nearly all sold. 
