- 2 -
townships, only
seven of which are full townships, the other twelve being fractional,
lying
along the boundary lines. The total acreage of the tract referred to is
256,152.28 acres, which is only a little over eleven full townships,
about
eleven and an eighth townships. The tract of land that our negotiations
will
include is that portion of your reservation lying in Red Lake County,
situated
west of the boundary line between Red Lake and Beltrami Counties, which
line is
about 14 miles in a direct line west from the most westerly point of
Red Lake,
as shown by the sectional maps prepared from the Government survey. The entire tract has been surveyed and we
therefore know the actual acreage that it contains, which is, as I have
already
stated, 256,152.28 acres. Plats showing
the acreage of each of said townships and fractional townships have
been
furnished by the Surveyor General of Minnesota, and I have them with
me, there
is therefore no guess work of approximate acreage, but we know the
actual
acreage as ascertained by survey.
Your
present reservation approximates 800,000 acres, and the cession by you
of the
portion referred to would leave you about 544,000 acres, which is more
than
ample for your needs. In order to obtain
a personal knowledge of the land I came here by way of Thief River
Palls, and
therefore drove through about the middle of the tract from west to
east, a
distance of about 26 miles, and thus obtained a very general knowledge
of the
character of the country and quality of the land, and my trip across
the
country, together with what I have learned from persons familiar with
it,
convinces me that the greater portion of that land is good agricultural
land,
but there is considerable low, damp land, also some marshes, which
portions are
of comparatively little value unless the lands can be successfully
drained.
There
is also very little timber of any commercial value upon the tract, it
is true
there are numerous groves of small trees, mostly poplar, with some
scattering
small sized oak, which would provide
