The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1873-08-09
CENSUS STUDIES.
RISE. IN LAND VALUE.

/ hiSf. ~ LAND ALI Il.
Aside from woodland. the unimproycd acres
in Nebraska farms were 1,213,37G, so that the
total farm acreage amounted to 2,0737Sl the
cash value of which, in 1870 was 500, PAP, 1856,
an average of $l4.5S per acre. Each acre,
then, in thousands Of homeStcads, is worth to-
day as much as 100 acres cOst-homesteads
being Familiarity known as fourteen dollar
farms" Those farms bought of the United
States have not usually cost one tenth of their
present value, though majority ofthem have
been purchased within ten years, The value
of land in England has increased in the last
80 years less than twenty -nine per cent. (2S.SS
in exact figures } within onc-titth Of that time
the lands of Nebraska have advance 1000 per
cent
But more than twothirds of the land in
Nebraska farms 1888 per cent? is still amin
proved. Therefore, land values have not
risen one.third as much as they will rise.
FARM LANDS, HOW FAR IMPROVED
In all the states of the Union, except two
more than thirty per cent of the land in farms
was improved in 1870 Those two states are
New York and Illinois. The percentage of
farm land unimproved in the former was %
g. in the latter 2j3 Illinois is, then, the Ag-
rlculural Banner State. Her farms are more
pervasivcly cultvated-no corner untouch-
ed, because they are like eggs-good through.
out; and because she was settled earlier than
any other genuine prairie state, But, as Iowa
and Nebraska are alike prairie states, coun.
tCrparis of Illinois, when they are as old,
their farms will show as small percentage
Of land nnimproved. Indeed, railroads will
hurry on their development great deal fast
or than they have accelerated the growth of
Illinois.
But, as more than Onc.third of the AGRA OF
Massachusetts has remained untillcdattcr two |
centuries md half of settlement, it is likely |
to remain so until dOomsday The truth is, |
the percentage there untitled was greater in
1870 than it was in 1860, while the valuation
of farm lands was about seven millions less,
50 1923 1Gi.
no! FOR THE NORTH POLE
Capt Parry, having sailed north till he
reached field of solid ice, landed on it with
slcds and a force of trained dogs. He uroye
on due north twenty miles day for three
weeks; but on taking an observation was
at finding himself, after ALL
south of the point from which he had started
The reason was that while he was driving
one way the icc-tield was drifting in another
direction.
So fares it with many an Ohio farmer. !,
W
down ON the other hand, The Nebraska is
IN an ice field drifting the same way that he
Is driving, His gains are not merely his
crops but the growth in land value, always
greatest in new countrics-9 growth no frost,
no drouth, no delugc can stop-which keeps
On, like interest, while he is asleep and in
'ures him everything that Captain Parry
lacked for reaching the great goal of his am
bition.
POPULATIONAL PROGRESS.
Up to New Years, 1913, the claims filed in
Lincoln, the Nebraska capital, by homestead
RS were 1904; by prcmptors l3,447; pur-
,hascrs of railroad land along the line of the
Burlington and Missouri River Railroad
we're 1925 Their farms amounted to 29i,-
i25 acres, bought on ten years credit, six per
'cnt interest, and on contracts made since
1872, nothing Of the principal is payable till