The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-06-11

ter transportation. Yet the Iowa farmer.
by virtue of the fact that Iowa was set
tied before central Minnesota, and land
values have risen by reason of a dense
population. con cell his farm for $40 to
$'0 per acre, and reinvest in central and
northern Minnesota in better lands with
wider capacity for producing more
crops and of larger yield, for from 81
to " per acre. 1t Is q conservative es-
innate to say that thousands of Iowa
farmers have located within the past two
years about Aitkin, Wadena, Detroit.
Crookston and north of Crookstont and.
In fact, all through the central and north
ern parts OF Minnesota. The movement
to the prairie districts in Stevens. VIII
kin, Clay, Norman and Becker and other
counties has been equally pronounced.
Settlers have come in so rapidly to these
counties within the past two years that
lands have easily doubled in value, good
prairie lands now readily bringing from
$l2 to $15 per acre that were slow sale
three years ago OF Sc to $40.
RUSHING NORTHWARD.
1t is fact, and remarkable fact,
that the people of the Twin Cities have
practically remained quiescent in the
midst of the tremendous movement of
settlers from the states south of them
to Minnesota during the past two years,
and this, Notwithstanding the fact that
the union depot in st. Paul has hardly
been able, at times, to accommodate
the rush of people to the cheap lands of
the Northwest. The people of these
cities, except favored few who under
stand the situation, have practically
paid no attention to this profound move
ment, which is having, and will have
such beneficial effects upon their growth
Hundreds Of thousands Of dollars have
been made in the sale and settlement of
fhncA low dc. IL
and yet the people of ST. Paul and Min
neapolis have been content to sit quietly
by, not realizing to what magnitude the
demand for agricultural lands had risen
in the central and northern part of their
own state.
But has Minnesota free lands for the
landlesS in the shape of government
homesteads? 1t has. There is more good
government land, well watered, rich in
quality, and properly divided between
timber and prairie in Minnesota than
any other state except it's sister North
Dakota, with capacity for producing
greater agricultural results than even
are the high-priced lands of Illinois, Iowa
and Indiana, or any other state in the
Mississippi valley or the East.
At the present time there exist millions
Of acres Of government lands in Mime
sofa, of which any citizen of the United
States, male or female, of legal age, can
ting upon them.
And are they being taken? Yes; the
land office records show that there is an
| active demand for the government home
steads of the state which are still I'M
| taken, but the movement is not one
| tenth of what it should be when the adj
| vantages to be secured in getting a free
| farm of the best quality of land are con-
| sidered
THE TAKING OF FARMS
| Those persons who might be counted
! by the hundreds, who, during the late
| depression could secure bare existence
| and in fact at all times in the great
| cities, might at any time secure a COM
| potency and a home for themselves, by
having the foresight, industry and energy
| to take for themselves farm from
Uncle Sans largess, which would yield
them living and a competency during
their lives. Yet they remain in the cities
hanging desperately to the edges of the
social fabric, hoping against hope for
some form of employment, and without
the energy, hardihood or judgment to do
for themselves, by getting out into the
state where literally at their very doors,
they might have free homes and an indie
pendence.
Do our own people appreciate the future
of Minnesota? [ am inclined to think
that as a rule, they do not. The ire
mendous significance of the fact that it
Is Minnesota that the western end of
cheap water transportation to the East
begins by the Great lakes; that we can
obtain freight rate on a ton of coal laid
down in Duluth, from Buffalo or Cleve-
land, for Is cents, and can ship a bushel
Of wheat contrawise, from Duluth to the
eastern end of Lake Erie, for four or
five cents, how many are there who re-