St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-09-18

were, Wilkin would suffer with Otter
Tail and not as now have One-twelfth
of the foreclosures. Ali the towns in .
given county would suffer alike and not
present the situation found in all these
counties-sOme towns having nos fore
closures and others. as i'll Polk, Norman
and Marshall. having in single year
from ten to fifteen. The cause of ali
the present suffering from foreclosures
in Minnesota is, as was the case in 1881,
local in its character. In the dark
counties of the earlier GATE
false system of farming nearly
bankrupted the section. The farmers
were depending upon a single crop of
wheat. That failed ana they went to
the wall. In some of the counties i'll
period of six years about one-half of all
the farms were sold by the sheriff.
Then came change in the crops. meth
DDS of farming and general manage
ment. The result is seen in the changes
which in some counties make the farm
ers more prosperous than any class of
business men. Thus what business of
the cities has but one failure in 1867 as
with the farmers in Redwood.
The report of the bureau will consider
the system of farming In the dark cOun-
ties of the present. 1t will show the
different situations in the several towns
of the leading counties now facing the
calamity of sheriff sales. The towns in
the Red river valley proper are pros
porous. The soil is adapted for success
in raising wheat alone as the reliance
of the farmer. The statistics for the
neighbOring towns raises the question
if such is also the case for all the
towns of the Northwestern part
of Minnesota. Most of the towns
ylyh lnh hox cr1ff fr0vs fory
foreclosures possess sandy soil. The
farms failed to produce good crops in
the dry years which visited this state
for series of years ending with 1890.
Hence The financial collapse shown by
the mortgage statistics for the towns
possessing these lands. Would a
Different System of Farming
than the one now in vogue in the north
west of Minnesota be able to carry the
farmers successfully through a repeti-
ton of such dry seasons? This is ques-
ton which vitality concerns at least one
third of the land in the counties marked
black for the mortgage map of 1891.
Only time and experiment can give,
decisive answer to this question. The
situation suggests to Commissioner
Powers, of the bureau of statistics, the
ACCESSIBILITY of this action on the part of
the state. Should not the state locate
an experimental agricultural station
upon the dry lands in some one of these
counties, say Polk? Let such farm,
under the direction of the agricultural
department of the state university,
grapple with the problem. 1t cost the
farmers in the southern part of the state
many years of experiment, many
foreclosures of mortgages, and much
suffering to work out a profitable sys-
TEN of farming for that section of the.
state. Such system has been found
and made real by the farmers, as wit
messed by their phenomenal prosperity.
Shall the farmers of the northern part
of the state be left Single-handed to
work out similar success for their sec
ton? Would it not be economy for the
state, by an experimental farm in the
section named, to take the lead in the
matter? Could not wisely directed
experimental station save the farmers
of that section hundreds of thousands
of dollars and hasten by five years
the close of the time when the counties
named shall suffer so .disastrously as
now they do from the visitation OF
few dry seasons? Commissioner Pow
erS believes in the value of such an eX-'
recommend its establishment by the
legislature.
Shown in Tables.
The following tables show for the
black sections of 1881 and of 1891 the
ratio of assessed lands in the several
counties to the area of lands sold by
mortgage foreclosures. Thus in table
l. there were in 1881 one acre sold by
foreclosure i'll Houston county for every
72.4 Of assessed lands in that county.
The same for all the counties referred
to: