Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1906-08-03
|N[ GUT OVER LANDS.
c. E. Wilson Tells of His Ex-
pcrience With Stump Land
in Wisconsin
LOG PROPOSITION A GRAFT
When the Agent Tells You There is
Lumber Enough to Pay for the Land
Don't Believe Him-lt is Worthless
Because Too Expensive TO Get to the
Mills.

Mills.
In their search for cheap homes
many farmers of the prairie regions oil
the middle west have in the past few
years been attracted by the "cut-over
lands" OF northern wisconsin, Michi-
gan and Minnesota.
Such marked differences in weather
and climate, productions. people and
methods of work exist in these regions
as compared with the parts from
which most of the immigrants prev
iously lived. that unless considerable
time is spent in investigation before
making an investment the purchaser
of land Is certain to meet with numer-
Gus surprises and some disappoint-
ments during year of residence there.
Lumber companies years ago OBJ
tanned possession of these regions for
an insignificant consideration. When
they have stripped section of It's
wealth of forest. land selling COM
pany assumes control. extensive ad-
vertising and low homeseekers' rates
of transportation bring in the men
who arc to apply the energy that
changes a tangled mass OF trees, logs.
brush and stumps into farm.
The average landseeker In those
,,t fnt ia
and devotes most of that time driving
about the country in company with a
land, salesman, makes his deal II "a
vorably impressed. and returns home
having gained very little real infor-
nation regarding the actual value OF
his purchase or of the cost of develop
ing it. Some of these ventures prove
entirely satisfactory to those who
make them, many others result In bit-
ter disappointment or complete fall
ure.
One of the surprises that usually
awaits the man who emigrates from
the regions of heavy black soil Of Iowa
and Illinois is the capacity of these
lands to produce crops when cleared.
1t is much more fertile than he sup
lie
clover, small grain and roots are gath
cred from land that seemed at first
sight to be incapable Of profitable cul-
tivation All that the purchaser of
land need fear in this regard is the
occasional sandy streak and the
swamps. Some of the latter may be
made into farms. others never, and
acquaintance with the country is nee
essary to enable one to distinguish one
kind from the other. The nearly
worthless sandy places, if sold at all,
must be disposed of to some one who
is hustling for land that is easy to
clear.
Three separate operations are neces-
sary in fitting the land for the plow.
1t must first be brushed" with the axe
and brush scythe. One-half acre a
day is about the area that man can
get over on the average land. When
his windrows of brush and small trees
dead logs that have been scattered
more or less thickly over the ground
thru the agency Of fire, wind and the
axe of the woodman, who years ago
chopped down many trees which for
various reasons were never removed
from where they fell. These obstruc-
tons are first sawed into lengths suit
able for convenience in handling, usu-
ally 12 to 16 feet, and dragged by
means of a team and chain into large
piles. The amount of land that can
be thus logged" in a given time de-
ponds altogether, of course, ON circum-
stances. Two or three acres a week Tor
two good men and team would per-
haps be about the average in the re-
gions where forest fires have left little
or no timber standing. After this has
been done there still remain the
and disappear; not so those on which
grew the great pines; time has little
effect on them. They must be dug out
with pick and spade blown out with
dynamite or pulled with stump puller
if they are to be removed at ALL The
first method is too Anticipated for these
days and is not practiced to any ex-
tent. The second plan is expensive
two to five pounds of dynamite being
necessary even when handled by an
expert to remove some of the larger
ones Pulling is perhaps the favorite
plan, but where there are 20 to SO
stumps per acre, as is frequently the
case, this is also rather expensive bus
mess. Land is sometimes spoken of
as cleared before the stumps are re-
moved many preferring to leave them
untouched rather than make the ex-
penditure necessary to their removal
1t is surprising to one accustomed to
prairie regions to see what can be done
in the way of farming among stumps
by those used to that work. When his
land has been thoroughly cleared the
settler finds himself in possession of
farm worth on the market from $50
to $50 per acre, according to other i'm
,provements, and if his efforts have
been put forth judiciously he has been
fairly we'll repaid for what he has done.
One of the serious mistakes made
by purchasers of these lands is to
listen to the statement, There's
enough timber on the place to pay for
the land" Every man who tries to
make money that way fails. There may
be valuable timber on his land but
with his inexperience in such work
he has not the slightest show of get
the question. Those who buy land for
the timber that is on it are doomed to
and loss After a lum-
Der company with all it's facilities for
getting out logs has released timber
land, individuals, especially those I'M
I rained in logging ppera lions might