Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1900-07-26

fine, on being asked at what he valued
his land, remarked that he considered
it worth straight through at least $40
per acre When asked # this was not
above the market price of land, said
his land had for twenty wears produce
ed him good rate of interest on this
valuation and he considered this the
true basis for the valuation of land.
Many farms are actually selling in
this neighborhood for from $25 to $50
per acre, and It is only question of
time, and very short time at that,
when it will be impossible to buy land
under $40 or $50 an acre in that section.
We drove on and on until the couh-
try bore evidence of newness, only
about one half of the land being settled
and under cultivation. We soon
found thousands of acres for sale at
$40 to SD an acre that is in every sense
as good as the land we had just passed
over that has been settled for several
years and has grown more valuable.
We drove across the 800 acres that j.
F. Luse has purchased recently and as
we passed over the gently rolling prai-
rie, feeling of seltishness came over
US and we fairly envied him the
heritage that he possesses in those
rich, fertile and productive prairies.
We passed on and after a drive of
about forty miles, came to South Shore,
thriving railroad town on the Min
neapolis and st. Louis Railway some
twenty miles from Watertown.
From here we passed southwark ov-
er fine open country, consisting
mostly of prairie that could not help
but please anyone who could be fortu-
nate enough to have the privilege of a
pleasant drive across this section of
the country. We arrived down at
Goodwin on the Northwestern road in
the evening and took the train for
home, leaving behind us the rich roll
ing prairies that await the rapid and
onward march of the coming settlers.
In all our travel in Minnesota and
South Dakota we observed aud closely
examined the soil and found it to be a
dark rich, sandy loan, from one to
five feet in depth, underlaid with a
clay sub-soil, with every evidence aud
indication that it is equally as produce
tive as that of our own state.
Tame grasses do we'll and the yield
per acre is equal to that of our own
meadows, but so far comparatively
little tame grass is growing, owing to
the vast amount of fine blue joint that
covers the wide prairies, although in
the older settlements we saw many
fine fields OF clover and timothy.
The water is good and easily OBJ
tanned at a depth of from fifteen to
forty feet We observed no traces
of alkali in the water and the farm
ers informed us that the water was
universally pure and free from it.
From the government reports we
learn and it was confirmed by farmers
who had lived in Iowa, that the tenn
perature in winter was only three de.
grees colder, but owing to lighter
and dryer atmosphere, one would not
suffer or feel the cold as badly as in
our own portion of the state.
What we have written is purely
from observation and information
gained from the farmers of the sec.
tons mentioned. We have no lands
for sale and do not know that we will
ever visit the country again, but hav-
ing travelled over twenty-four states,
and knowing the general conditions
and environments of all of them, we are
free and frank to admit that if man
intends to leave Iowa, the best state
in the Union, as a whole, there can be
no better place to go and locate and
build home or invest for speculation
than in the country which we have
briefly described. To the man who is
renting and sees no future possibility
of being able to possess farm in Iowa
owing to the increased value and high
prices that prevail and continue to
grow, we would most sincerely advise
them to gather up the earnings from
this years labor and invest it in this
rich and fertile country.