St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-07-08
MINNESOTA ON THE BOOM.

1t is too much the custom to look
TO the great cities only for evidences
of change in industrial conditions:
to regard the activity of business
there, and the rise and fall of cor
ner lots, as the barometer by which
we are to gauge the prosperity of
the community as whole. II there
is a big block about to be con-
Structed, if there have been several
sales of real estate at good figures.
If the merchants are anticipating a
lively trade, the public is informed
of it in all the notes of congratula-
ton on the scale. And this is all
right as far as it goes. But it omits,
after all, the most essential element.
Not the cities, but the country dis
tricts are the controlling factors. 1t
is not the people on farms who begin
to gather encouragement and amass
wealth when city real estate is on
the boom, it is the farmer whose
prosperity is the cause and the assur-
ance Of profitable activity in the
trade centers to which his holdings
are tributary. If we want to catch
a glimpse of the future, or if we de-
sire to know exactly what present
conditions are, the most accurate
information will be gathered by an
investigation of conditions not in the
metropolitan centers, but in the state
at large.
Acting on this principle, the
G l o b e some time ago set on foot
an inquiry, through it's correspond
ents in different parts of the state,
to ascertain what was the present
status of farm lands and prices. We
present the results this morning in
an article that ought to make glad
the heart of every citizen of Mime
sofa. For it shows that the state is
on the boom. There is scarcely a
note Of dissent or disbursement
anywhere. This is not by any means
simply because of the excellent crop
outlook, for our inquiry covers this
feature only incidentally. 1t is be-
cause the farmer is emerging, alto
gether Independent of immediate
conditions, from the unfavorable con-
ditions of the past. 1t is because
the life-giving wand of approaching
prices has touched the soil of his
possession, and enriched it with an
increment Of wealth. The fact is
that the farm lands of the state
have reached ore of those cycles so
familiar to the dealer in real estate
In the cities. Prices do not advance
with steady regularity, but in an
Irregular line. They will remain sta
tionary, or even move backward, for
years; and then, with a bound, cover
In a short time the increase which, if
the movement We're perfectly nor
NAL, would have been spread evenly
over the intervening period And
tidI 10 MHdI Has DSSn happening
and is still going on in relation to
the farm lands Of the state.
We refer the reader to the detailed
Information given in the replies of
our correspondents for a complete
survey of the situation. The pith
and marrow of it is that while mil
lions of wealth are growing in the
fields under the stimulus of this
splendid season, millions of other
wealth are as silently but more
swiftly being added to the posses
sions of the farmers of Minnesota
by the increase in value of their hold
ings. Everywhere the demand fo1
farm lands is active. In not a few
localities it is unprecedented The
influx of settlers, following the strain
of hard times in the cities, has been
unusually large. That has stirred
the market Capital which has met
Its reverses in city investments has