The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1922-11-30
Prof. Huff Gives
Interesting Data On
Farm Development
Wisconsin Gut Over Land In
creased, Values Above
Original Timber

VII DOOotCL . LAY.
Ladies and gentlemen, I am sor-
ry for you and have not little
sympathy for myself. / really
think we ought to stop and eat
dinner. / am hungry. viii you
have my report now or ccme back
after dinner and get it?
(The audience voted to go .on.)
Now / am going to be just as
brief as / can be lin order to do
justice to the subject I want to dis
cuss.N
In the first place, want to call
to your attention figures which are
correct.
Last year the assessed valuation
of property in Pearl River County
was approximately thirteen million
dollars. We find from the records
that practically nine and half
million of that value is represented
in standing pine timber. There was
not as much standing timber last
year as there was the year before.
In fifteen or twenty years at the
longest, there will not be any stand
ing timber in Pearl River County.
Nine and half million Of that tax
alton value will have passed out of
the county. That will leave some
thing like three million asf basis
for taxation for our levies, for all
purposes, not including special lev
les in special school districts the
past year. If our taxable value
is reduced to three and half mil
lion our levy will be represented -.
1859, or 1863 per cent, practically
seventeen per cent, if we continue
to make the progress and spend the
money in developing our schools,
roads and farms that we are now
making. Evidently something must
be done.
I will give you briefly an account
of the trip l made with Mr.. Bass,
into Wisconsin to make an investl-
cation as to the development Of the
system of the Hines people there.
We spent eight days travelling over
Sawyer County, Wis, over the Hines
lands, where they are settling peo-
pie and selling their lands.
Let me give you some figures
before l go further with an account
of our trip. We found from the
records at the county seat-Hay-
ward is the County seat of Sawyer
county-we went there ourselves
and went into the records and
found these figures. In 1900 we
found the assessed valuation of all
the property in Sawyer cot atty,
Wis, to be eight hundred and some
odd thousand dollars, or about one
dollar per acre; even before the
timber was cut off the assessed
value of the property in the coun-
ty was not very much more than
one dollar per acre. The white pine
timber was soon cut off of all OF
that county. There was left only
some hardwood and some spruce
that they are still cutting.
We found that in 1905 and 1906
the assessed valuation of the lands
in Sawyer. county had increased
from eight hundred odd thousand
to about three million dollars. I'M
the meantime these cut over lands
were being changed into splendid
farms.
We found that the assessed valua-
ton of the lands in Sawyer county |
had increased from three million
in 1865 to six million dollars in
1914 and 1915. am giving you
the figures in round numbers. We
found in 1922 that the assessed
valuation Of all property in Sawyer
county was eleven million dollars.
Now then, from just little after
1900 all the timber had been cut
II mean the white, pine. The rea-
son for the increase in the value
Of these assessments was the tact
that those cut-over lands had been
changed from cut-over lands by set
tiers and had been made into beau
tiful farms.
Now we arrived about August 9th
at Rice Lake. Twenty years ago
Rice Lake was a pine forest. Today
there is not q pine standing any
where near Rice Lake. We spent
an day travelling over the county.
You could not get away from the
farm; you could not even get out