St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-09-18
PROSPERITY GROWING
Diversified Farming Begins to
Tell Its Tale of Farm
Bettering.
Southern Counties Have
Profited by Experience
and Are Safe.
Northwestern Minnesota Suf.
fering From the One
Crop Fallacy.

IePlng from the Une
Crop Fallacy.
Commissioner Powers Sug-
gestion for Another Ex-
detrimental Farm.
The state bureau of labor statistics
has nearly completed its work of gath
erlng the statistics of farm values and
of mortgage foreclosures for 1881 and
1891. Many interesting facts will be
brought out by the data obtained by the
bureau. These will be given Ill detail
in the report when it is published. Two
maps of the state will be prepared.
showing at a glance, In shades of color,
the degree in which the several 'coun-
ties were affected by mortgage fore
closures in the years investigated. Both
maps will exhibit in dark lines the coun-
ties suffering most by foreclosure.
The map for 1881 will thus show in black
a group of counties that suffered in
common large measure of calamity.
That group of counties was composed of
Houston, Fillmore, Mower, Freeborn,
Winona, Olmstead, Dodge, Steele, Wa
basha, GOodhue and Dakota. The farm
ers of these eleven counties had been
unfortunate for period of tive or six
years, of which the year 1881 was part.
With the exception of these eleven
counties and Cottonwood. Kandiyohi
and Lyon, the rest of the state in 1881
was fairly prosperous. AT least that is
the appearance presented by the stat
istics of farm mortgage foreclosures for
that year.
These counties, suffering under a
grave financial calamity i'll 1881. are all
found to be very prosperous in 1891. OF
the fourteen counties named, Kandi-
yohi makes the smallest progress. In
1881, of its farming lands one acre in
sos was sold under mortgage fore
closure. In 1891 there was one acre
thus sold in every 1927. This is an i'm
prOvement Of SO per cent. The greatest
gain is that OF Houston. In 1881. of its
farming lands one acre was sold under
foreclosure for every 72.4. This was
changed, and the ratio for 1891 was one
for every 1851. The foreclosures
being here reduced to One-Seven-
teenth of its former proportions.
The percentage of gain is here 1862. or
the present prosperous counties Red
wood makes the best exhibit. In 1891 it
had one acre of farm lands sold out of
every 176S. Blue Earth presents the
ratio of one acre in 1887. Pipestone of
one in 9l2, Faribault of one in 79S, and
Rock of one in 65S. These counties show
the smallest ratio of foreclosure sales to
total area of assessed farming lands.
Not single county has been found
whose land had been fully taken up by
settlers in 1881, that in 1891 makes bad
showing of mortgage foreclosures. Only
one of those counties has been found
which had more prOportlonally sold in
the latter year than in the earlier. That
county Is Carver. In 1881 it had no lands
sold by the sheriff. In 1891 it had 337
acres or one acre for every 65S of assessed
farming lands.
New Counties Suffer.
In contrast with all the older counties
is a group of counties not fully settled
in 1881 and some of which are not yet
fully under cultivation. Not all Of the
new counties are suffering the calamity
of mortgage foreclosures. Some of
them rank with the average of the best
lands to the area of assessed farming
lands. AS in 1881, the unfortunate
counties were confined to a group of
eleven neighboring counties, with three
others isolated, SO in 1891 we find
a similar situation. There is
first a group Of eight coun-
ties in the opposite corner of the
state from the calamity area of ten
years ago. 1t includes Marshall, Polk.
Norman, Becker. Clay, Hubbard, Wa
dena and Otter Tail. Of isolated coun-
closures there are Big Stone. Stevens,
Swift, Sherburne and Cook. The first
three, Big Stone, Stevens and Swift,
make second group by themselves.
but separated from the larger group
above named. The number of unfortu-
nate counties in 1881 was fourteen; in
1891 it was one less, or thirteen. Taking
the ratio of acres sold by foreclosure
to total assessed lands in a county
as the test of calamity. there are found
to be two counties in worse condition
today than any where in 1881. These
counties were Polk and Marshall. With
the exception of these two the degree of
suffering by farmers in the dark coun-
ties of the present is less than was eX-
perienced in the dark group of ten
years before.
Dry Seasons Did 1t.
To bring ont clearly and in con-
vincing way the causes of the present
farm calamity of Polk and the few other
unfortunate counties. special maps Of
those. counties will be presented.
| showing the foreclosures by town
| shows the following facts: Many
towns had no foreclosures in 1891
| Others had only normal number. A
| group of some fifteen towns in the CEN
| ter of the county have very abnormal
number. One of them had In a single
| year fifteen foreclosures. But while a
| group of towns in Polk county has this
great exhibit of misfortune. another
group along the Red river, making up a
strip of from ten to fifteen miles wide,
is practically free from such calamity
| Some of those towns are as free from
| foreclosures as Redwood county.
This same local concentration of
mortgage foreclosures is found in
| all the group of dark counties for 1891.
The Red River valley proper seems to
be very prosperous. Fifteen miles away
| from the river the condition changes in
varying degree. Wil1in county had one
acre in 1928 sold by mortgage sale in
1891. Its neighbOr. Otter Tail, had one
acre in 74.3. These figures will fairly
represent the relative condition of the
river and inland towns of the great
counties OF Polk, Norman and Marshall.
| Bulk of the State Prosperous.
Here. then, is the statement of mort
gage foreclosures for the state in 1891.
| The great part of the state has but few
mortgage foreclosures. 1t is very pros
porous at present. Thirteen counties
out of eighty are burdened with many
mortgage foreclosures. And yet this