The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-05-28

them have settled in the Jim" river
valley, but larger number has divided
about equally between the Devils lake,
Turtle mountain and Mouse river dis
tricts.
| One steamship which arrived at the
port of New York a few weeks since
| brought 500 unmarried farmers, 81 per
cent of whom were ticketed through to
| the Northwest. They were of German
descent, and emigrated from the central
Russia. majority of them came to
| North Dakota and scattered over the
| Coteaux county, which embraces score
| of counties lying between the Missouri
river on the west and the James river
on the east. Some of them have hired
out as farm hands, and the greater
numb have bought land, en- which they
will raise wheat and flax.
| A very interesting and suggestive
change which is taking place In this
state is the subdivision and sale of the
so-called bonanza" farms This move
ment has been in progress for number
of years. but is now SO pronounced that
it attracts attention. The huge farms
of from $1,000 to 10000 acres. with one
VI lWo SAtcptlUllo, lCiiletlI AilluCtJ Dul
hundreds of others of sufficient acre to
entitle them to be classed among the
bonanza farms, have been cut up into
tracts of from 800 to $40 acres. While
wheat could be produced on the great
| farms with an average yield of from
| II to 20 bushels TO the acre, and the
average of 70 cents per bushel main
tanned, everything was lovely with the
| bonanza" farmer, and the goose hung
high; but when the price fell to from
| 3S to As cents per bushel, At that price,
and with the yield averaging only II
| bushels to the acre, it did not pay to
| operate a bonanza farm. 1t was
about this time that owners of these
| immense tracts began to sell off their
land in sections, half and quarter-sec-
tions, on the crop-payment plan or any
other which promised fair return on
the money invested.
Although farming upon a stupendous
scale no longer pays as it did in the ear
| ~ days of virgin soil and high prices for
grain, there are number of bonanza
| farms of the first magnitude in North
| Dakota which are still carried on with
good profit to their owners, Within the
| last two years conditions have been I'M
usually favorable. There are six of
| these farms, whose combined area Is
about one-third greater than that of the
state of Rhode Island. These are the
| Dalrymple farm of thirty thousand
acres, on Cass county; the Grandin
| farm of thirty thousand acres, in Trail
county; the Stone farm of twelve thou
sand acres in the Red river valley; the
| Won Steinwefr farm Of six thousand
acres, in the central part of the state.
| the Harrison farm Of sixteen thousand
acres in Cass county. Shrewd observ-
ers predict that the time Is not far dis
| tant when the most extensive farms in
| the northwest will share the fate OF
| those of from GAO to $3.50 acres, which
are now being sub divided and sold,
| and they believe that ere many years
| have passed we shall have here a sys-
| tenn of tenant farming such as exists in
| the agricultural districts of the old
! world, AS people flock hither, and land
| becomes more and more valuable, they
| predict that all large farmers will cut
| up and sell their holdings, and that the
! purchasers of sections and parts of sec
| tons will In turn sub-divide under some
| kind of tenant system.
| The great railroad corporations which
| received millions of acres of land from
| the government in the form of subsidies
are now disposing of large tracts for
| colonization purposes. The Northern
| Pacific sold the last of its Minnesota
| land three weeks ago, receiving nearly
| two million dollars for a little less than
| half a million acres. The same compa-
| ny has sold two hundred and fifty thou
| sand acres of its North Dakota lands
since the first of March, its most recent
| sale having been one of fifty thousand
acres lying between the James and Mis-
souri, rivers at better than two dollars
| an acre. This same tract could have
| been bought six months ago at less than
one dollar an acre. For small tracts, in
| the same locality the company has been
! getting from five to eight dollars per
acre. The Great Northern has also been
| disposing of considerable tracts of land
| to colonizers and James j. Hill, the
president of the Great Northern compa-
| ny, who has built the largest grain ele-
| vator in the world at Superior. has let
| the contracts for five steamships, each
| bigger than the Great Eastern, to carry
| his grain to Asia, and who has done
many other great things, is now in Eu-
| rope, where he expects to conclude ar
| engagements which will result in bring
! ing a large amount of capital and ten
| thousand self-supporting farmers here
| to take up more land-North Dakota
Letter to the Boston Herald