The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-06-12
CONDITION OF THE FILLER
NOT A SEAMAN, MR..
POWERS STUDIES IT
1t Is the FILLER of the Land. Hovev
er, and Not of the Water That
AbsOrbs His Interest - Statistics
of Farm Mortgage Foreclosures
With Their Relation to Crop Val
ues and Actual Prosperity.


last year, been collecting. along with
other data, the statistics of mortgage
| foreclosures in Minnesota for the past
four years. A preceding report gave
similar data for the state from 1880 to
1893, and for some counties from 1873,
so this latter work brings the investiga-
| ton down to the close of 1897 The data
have been tabulated for 1894 and 1895,
and in about month the tabulation
will be finished for 1896 and 1897
In the sixty-six counties mainly de-
| voted to agriculture in 1894 and 1895,
one acre of land was sold on an average
| for every 1926 acres Of land on the tax
lists. In the preceding two years, 1892
| 1888, there was only one acre thus sold
| for every 1927. Mortgage foreclosures
| on acre property In these sixty-six
| agricultural counties We're therefore
| 81 per cent greater relatively in the two
years, which succeeded the panic Of
1893, than in the two years closing with
Dec 81, 1893. But while IN these coun-
| ties the mortgage foreclosures of 1894
1873 showed this marked increase, over
the two preceding years. it should be
noted that the years before the panic
| were the most prosperous ever ex-
| per1enced by the farmers of Mime
sofa, as whole. Comparing the acres
/ Of taxable land to each acre sold by
] foreclosure 1t is seen that in these sixty
| SIX farming counties it was Substan-
tally the same in 1S94-1S95 as in the
period of 18S0-18S1. The relative amount
| of such foreclosure sales was greatest
in 18S4-1SS5, when one acre Of land was
| thus sold for every 1875 acres of taxable
| land in the area included. Great as were
the. losses Of the farmers of Minnesota
| by mortgage foreclosures in 1S94-1S95
| they were per cent less. relatively,
| than ten years earlier, in 1SS4-18S5 The
| ne IF 01 1y To- II1o ted .nt1
1887 show marked decrease of fore
! closures as compared with the years
| 1894 and 1895. They are, however, less
than in 1892 and 1893. which were the
minimum in the history Of the state.
Group 1 contains 80 counties which
were settled practically before 1880.
! They are Blue Earth, Carver, Chisago,
Dakota, Dodge, Faribault, Freebcrn,
Fillmore, Goodhue, Houston, LIE Sueur.
| Mcleod, Mower, Nicollet, Olmsted,
Rice, Scott, Steele. Wabasha, Waseca,
Washington, Winona and Wright. In
I these counties in the two years 1880
and 1881 one acre was sold by fore
closure for every Oil acres Of land.
Most of these counties were in 1880
mainly devoted to wheat raising. A
| few, as Carver, ChiSago, lie Sueur, Mic
| ollet and Scott, had begun to diversity
| their crops. They had in these years a
| small ratio Of foreclosures. Omitting
| them and the IS remaining counties of
| group 1 showed a ratio of mortgage
foreclosures not since equaled by any
| equal area Of farm land in Minnesota.
These IS counties in 1880 and 1881 had
| one acre on an average sold each year
by the sheriff for every 1874 acres of
| taxable land in their borders. Shortly
! after 1880 these counties as a whole be-
| gan to develop their dairy and stock
! interests, and also to diversity crops
! by sowing fax and oats and the plant
| ing of corn, ETC., on larger scale than
| ever before. AS a result, those SO
| counties entered upon an era of grow
| ing prosperity that probably cannot be
! equaled in an equal territory in the.
nation at any time in it's history. The
| ratio of acres sold by foreclosures to
acres of taxable land steadily decreas-
| ed without a break from 1880 to 1897
| Where, in Is counties of this group one
acre was thus sold to every 1874 and
one acre in the % counties for every
GIL, in 1894 to 1895, the ratio was only
one to every 1857. The acres sold by
| foreclosure are less than one-fifth as
numerous relatively as they were in the
IL embarrassing counties of this group
| in 18S0-1S81. But even this statement
| and the figures of the table fail to re-
| cord all the progress of the farmers
| of these % counties in the last IS years.
| Among the acre, tracts sold by fore
| is not classed as farm land. Over one
| half of the acre tracts sold by fore
! closure in this group of counties in
1S94-'95 were doubtless of this charac-
| ter, while less than 10 per cent of the
land so sold in 1SS0-'S1 was not actively
| devoted to agriculture. Could account
be taken of this fact, the improvement
| in these counties would be found to be
| twice as great as that expressed by the
figures collected.
This experience of the % oldest coun-
| ties of Minnesota, with mortgage fore
| closures, can be contrasted with that
of the 81 counties of the state most re-
Gently organized and settled. These
counties had in 1880 less than 100000
| acres listed for taxation. In 1895 they
| had over 10000, 600 acres so listed. These
! counties first suffered severely by
| mortgage foreclosures in 1884 and 1885
when one acre was thus sold for every
91.3 acres of land listed for taxation.
| Some of the counties have, since 1880,
| developed large cattle and dairy inter
| ests, and fair degree of crop diver
! Siflcation. Among them mention may
be made of Isanti, Jackson, Lincoln,
Martin, Murray and Watonwan.
The counties given up to wheat rails
ing, now as in 1880, had their first
period OF excessive mortgage foreclo-
sures in 18S4-S5. At that time, of the
acres of taxable land. one was sold by
foreclosure out Of every 1872 In the
years 1S90-91 almost as many relative
ly We're sold or one in 94.5. The ratio
in 1S94-95 was S43, or nearly the same
as ten years before. Two facts are
here made clear. The wheat farmers
of Minnesota after the last panic are
no worse off as a body than ten years
before and in turn they are no better
off. They have gained nothing in ten
years. Wheat farming alternates from
periods Of success to periods of failure
Years with excessive foreclosures al
ternate with years of smaller, although
large, foreclosures. The foreclosures
In the more prosperous years are only
about one-half as great as the years
of low prices and poor crops. They
were nearly twice as great in 1894 and
1895 as in the two years that imnedi-
with the experience of the counties
with large dairy and stock interests
and wiser system of crops. The for
sified crops, in 1S80-1SS1 had one acre
Of the land sold out OF every 1888 This
was prior to the general abandonment
of wheat culture as the great STAPLE
The ratio of decrease has not been af-
fected by panic or low prices AS
farmers in these forty-one counties
have adopted better systems OF l1us-
bandry they have seen the chance of
losing their lands by mortgage fore
closures decrease until it Is less than
two-sevenths as great as thirteen years
ago. While it was 1888 in 18S0-S2 Ii !
was 1915 in the two years that sue
ceeded the panic of 1893 Could a
more favorable argument for diversi-