The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1881-04-21
SPREADING OUT TOO MUCH.


and from the eastern and centra
States, and promises to exceed ever
that of ordinary years. While wei
coming to our broad and inviting
prairies this rapid influx of popula
tion it strikes us a few important
considerations should be urged upor
these settlers and which should bt
well weighed by the new corners, ant
fact also that may be worthy the at
tention of those hereabouts who have
perhaps cast wistful eyes towards the
mammoth wheat fields of the frontier
and listened to the oft told tales OF
sudden fortunes made at some from
tier paper town. It. is time to in
quire if the people are not spreading
out too sparsely over the great tree
less expanse and removing too ta'
from the base of supplies at extraor
binary emergencies like the past long
unprecedently cold winter.
Free homestead lands, cheap pre-
emptions, nominal price for timber
claim entries, are the inducements
held out to settlers, while the wrong
policy adopted by Congress in grant
ing so large tracts to railroads has
also had the tendency to extend ovel
too broad territory the settlers OF
the East who have obeyed the "gc
west" injunction. The grants have
enabled railroads to extend their lines
far beyond the demands of local bust.
ness and rs Il consequence immigrants
have spread out over u vast expanse
that cannot be supplied with the
necessaries of life, saying nothing of
the conveniences. n majority of the
settlers in the country west of the
borders of Minnesota, we do not hest
tate to say, could have found more
profitable homes within this State
and Iowa and the Inconvenience re-
sulting from scarcity of food and fuel
and the destructive floods would not
have been experienced by those hardy
people. Drouth and grasshoppers are
imminent there, schools, churches,
and all that go to educate and make
homes. are still incipient on the from.
tier and in most localities entirely ab
sent. That the great plains of Dakota
and eastern Nebraska are ultimately
to contain "a dense population and a
people rich in this worlds goods there
is no doubt; but that the time has
come for such vast stretch of half
settled expanse we doubt.
1t should be remembered that the
purely agricultural country open to
this constant influx of foreign and
native immigration is reduced to a
comparatively circumscribed limit.
An imaginary north and south line
from the North Pacific railroad about
on the line of Mankato and extending
to Texas, and another along perhaps
by the James river in Dakota, with
the same terminal points, include all
the country that will warrant thick
ly settled farming community, and
within the space mentioned must the
future great flow Of immigrants To-
cate. Lands where irrigation is neces-
sary can never support dense popu.
lation, and the masses will locate
elsewhere. For these several reasons
the States of Illinois, Wisconsin,
Iowa, Minnesota, the eastern portions
of Kansas, Nebraska and Dakota, are
destined to contain the vast pOpula-
ton that will move westward in the
next few years and for all time. 1t
is therefore important that immigra-
ton should not spread out over too
broad space. Investigate the OPP
portunities for homes in the older
communities, seek information from
those who have had experience be-
You'd civilization we might say, and
in nine cases out of ten the advice
will be to advance gradually and buy
small farms where the advantages Of
older settlements can be had in prefer
ence to the large farms on the far
frontier. In our own State we yet
have cheap lands and no better can
be found, and our advice is, occupy
them and be happy. Your children
or your children's children may bene-
fit themselves by going beyond; but
for yourselves and your individual
houses seek lands where you will live
to enjoy your new homes, where you
are surrounded by neighbors and
schools and all the advantages of
home and civilization.