LOW-COST LAND IN NORTHERN WISCONSIN

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When you finally have title to your homestead in your hands and have recorded it with the Register of Deeds, what have you got for your $20.00 or so an acre? Well, to begin with, the land will most likely need some clearing. At worst, it may be covered with alder brush. The only consolation is that alders are supposed to be good for smoking meat and fish, will make fine beanpoles and can be used for temporary lean-tos and other shelters.

At best, the place will have some aspen, birch, balsam fir and spruce cover and—perhaps—some small maples which will yield firewood and logs for a small cabin. Usually, wooded land is stripped of its merchantable timber before it's abandoned.

The soil, if it's red clay, will produce good crops with a little work but it won't grow corn. Sandy earth will produce corn but is less fertile than the heavier land. Whatever the soil type may be, learn to work with, and not against, it. Try every crop at least once. If a grain or vegetable does well, keep on with it. If it fails, try something else next year. A little trial and error will result in a bumper harvest most seasons.

Once on the homestead, try to avoid hassles with the law and with local welfare departments. Self-supporting persons who stay out of trouble are more than welcome in northern Wisconsin, regardless of their incomes or ideas. But if people who buy county land start signing up for relief or food stamps, the welcome mat will be rolled up and the next fellow who comes along will face innumerable obstacles. This neck of the woods offers great opportunities for the back-to-the-land movement...let's not spoil that chance for our sisters and brothers

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