The Grange advance. [volume] (Red Wing, Minn.) 1873-1877, 1876-08-02
Minnesota PrOductiyeness.


Minnesota Pr0ductiyeness.
The Place for the Man with Moderate Means
or with no Means at all to Secure q Home.
The following extracts are made
from q letter written by Thomas
Dowse, Secretary of the St. Paul
Chamber of Commerce, to the Spring.
field (Mass.,) Republican:
The increased acreage over 1875 put
under cultivation in Minnesota, this
season, is very large; in one county
along the line of the Northern Pacific
railroad, over forty thousand acres
are being broken. Along this same
road are six prairie counties of the
same fertility, besides five timber or
forest counties. On one farm of &c.
900 acres on this road, single tract
of 5000 acres is being broken; on this
to-day they are blowing farrows six
miles long,-out and return to dinner,
out and return to supper, one team
making four burrows or "a miles per
day. At the Fargo United States Land
Office lat the Red river crossing of the
Northern Pacifc), in the month of May
last alone, there were 80 prescriptions
and 20 homestead filings covering over
10000 acres of land, mostly in one
county. This was government land.
and does not include railroad land sales
for the same time. This railroad is
pre.eminently the one for great farms
of from 1000 to $4,000 acres each, be.
sides the many small farms of so and
$50 acres of pre-emptors and home
steaders. the government S free gift to
poor but industrious citizens, and the
many small or large purchases from
the road on the easy and long time Of
fered them, or by full payment either
in cash or bonds of the company, which
it is, to-day, taking dollar by dollar,
with interest added, for her lands at
their regular fixed valuation. Other
roads in the state are doing the same
thing-taking their own bonds for
lands. So low are many of these bonds
to-day, that the choicest railroad lands
can be be bought for from 81 to ST. 80
per acre.
This for lands with built and opera
ted railroads at their very doors lands
that will produce from Is to 40 BUSH
els of wheat to the acre, that is, to-
day, bringing in the remotest railroad
sections of the state from 80 to 90
cents per bushel to the producers
wheat that is quoted in this city, to-
day. from 90 cents to ST. .O4 per bushel,
according to grade. What is true of
the Northern Pacific is also the fact
along the St. Paul and Pacific railroad
600 miles from here to Breckenridge,
on the Red river) on the St. Paul and
Sioux City, the Southern Minnesota,
the Hastings and Dakota, the Winona
and st. Peter, the Lake Superior and
Mississippi, ETC., etc., all roads In this
state, from 100 to 300 miles long. Into
no state is agricultural immigration
coming more freely than into Mime
sofa, large proportion being by wag-
on. A trip along the St. Paul and
Pacific railroad shows an almost con.
Jinuous stream Of prairie schooners;
the lands along this line are preemi-
nently favorite with those so coming.
The years are but few in which vacant
land, either government or railroad,
can be got along this road,
The true secret of successful hus-
bandry is becoming better understood,
Il mean the raising of remunerative
crops, year after year,-this is pre-.
eminently the fact here; rarely does
farmer lose his crops from climatic
causes in Minnesota, in fact, never,
some years, of course, are more fruit.
full than others. The reliability Of
the climate causes much of the gener-
al agricultural success. Without fear
Of successful contradiction do I make
the assertion that, in no state in the
Union, can the farmer produce, year
after, year with such uniform success,
such range of cereals as in Minnesota.
Here. on the same farm, they can be
raised in remunerative amounts, from
wheat to millet, while our vegetables
in range and quality are unsurpassed.
For stock it is all that could be desired;
our wild grasses are very nutritious
in the stables of our private citizens
in this city, the hay from the wild
grasses is decidedly preferred to that
from our tame grasses. Where man
lives in the greatest vigor, there the
animals that accompany man thrive.
Hog cholera, sheep rot, and diseases
incident to horned stock are here I'M
known. The short extra feeding time
required here is more than recon-
pensed by the entire freedom from
disease, so prevalent in more south
ern sections. The cost of our hay is
merely nominal.
The idea that this state and city is
the extreme northwest corner of habit
able creation is erroneous. No better
grain-growing country exists than ex-
tends for 500 miles north and GOO miles