Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1930-01-23

all delinquencies.
If federal ownership, there will he
annual appropriations for road work
within the unit, telephone lines, plant
ing, ETC., which work all goes to the
settler except the supervision. OF
these federal supervisors one COM
munity in this state which borders
1.-The local staff, in our case all pay
taxes, many own their own homes
and all, to a man, pay personal prop
erty tax The good citizenship they
display in voting on local matters is
always on the side of good local gov
eminent, which is very desirable
The letter goes on to state that. due
to transformation, that entire COM
munity was opposed to the federal
forest when it was first proposed but
who is advocating the throwing open
of even a part of it for settlement"
1t has been suggested locally that
federal ownership would end all ag-
ricultural progress whereas state
ownership would make it possible to
get in settlers.
The Federal Forest Commission has
already stated that within the limits
of this proposed area there are about
$4,000 acres which they consider more
suitable for agriculture and which
they do not intend to acquire. In
vestigation also shows that the EN-
dency along the line of settlement
has been upward wherever they are
established.
Based on present conditions we are
advised that in 1888 there will be about
ten million acres of northern Mime
sofa delinquent lands revert to the
state. This must be appraised as
agricultural and nOn-agricultural land
before it can be offered for sale and
the state is not in position, financially,
to carry that out and as we are adj
vised of the tendency today there is
strong possibility that if the state
does acquire this vast area that the
only thing they can do with it will
be to sell it to the federal forest peO-
pie.
While all this is going on where
will our local schools and roads 60?
Consider for moment the states
position in land sales today. How
much land are they selling in your
territory? | was recently advised on
good authority that the state depart
ment is being forced to take back
more land each year than their new
ment of immigration has been closed
for some time and the state has little
or no machinery for putting on such
an extensive land selling campaign.
| have before me list of ZAP families
that have moved into this community
since 1917 and are now gone. Most
of them came with the idea of clear
ing land and making a home. Why
are they gone? Not because the soil
is not fertile but largely for lack of
funds to put the land under. subsection
The University of Minnesota has
made rather extensive land clearing
tests in most of the northern Mime
sofa counties and their average for
Pine county, using the best methods
they knew, is $500 per acre. Any
one who has kept cost figures on his
own clearing | am sure will agree
that this average is not too high.
mt
from an extensive farming standpoint,
prices of farm lands elsewhere con-
sidered
A comparison has recently been
complished at Pine City and Askov
can be done here True, under like
conditions but those conditions do not
exist today. Consider the personnel
of those farming communities and
then consider your immigration laws
today as compared with ten to fifteen
years ago.
Let me quote from some govern
ment facts and figures recently ac-
quired. Agriculture in northern
Minnesota is expanding and will con-
tinue to expand but, on the basis OF
present development it will take about
sixty years for the remaining agri-
cultural lands to be acquired under
farm ownership and about $50 years
to put it under cultivation as pillow
land or plowable pasture land. 1t
should not be forgotten that when
speaking of agricultural lands, we are
referring to but 1870 of the total area
of the northern sixteen counties OF
Minnesota. Pine county is a little
better off than most of the northern
counties and the figures show that it
will take about fifty years for the
remaining agricultural lands to be
acquired and 140 years to put them
under cultivation, at the rate of in
crease during the past twenty-five
years. In 1928 one third of the entire
county was tax delinquent. Federal