The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1902-09-19
FAMOUS RED RIVER VALLEY
Most Wonderful Farming Region in the United
States-Ricf Black Soil With Album
dant Moisture
In Good Years the Valley Produces As 600 900 Bush.
els of Wheat or More-Price of
Land Is Low.

( to it, so that No. Northern is a more
common grade in the Red River val
ley now than No. hard.
Plenty Of Room.
Yet for all its wealth the Red River
valley is not yet thickly settled, the
price of its land is low, compared
! with their productive capacity and
value and there is room in them for
| thousands. It is true that recently
! there have been some sharp advances
IN prices, but there are certain to be
stlli further advances, until the value
OF a farm corresponds to the capitali-
cation OF the income that can be de-
rived from it at prevailing interest
!: rates. Mr.. j.. j. Hill, the great rail-
way man, was asked while ago what
ne thought about the tendency of
these lands to advance in price. He
declared that the tendency was per-
manent and bound to continue.
Hills View.
| The population of the United
States" he said, lis increasing at the
rate OF 1000 daily. We are growing
at the rate of nearly 100000 a year.
' we have doubled in every thirty or
4 forty years of our history. Inside of
| fifty years We will have 10000 900.
| Where are they going? Are we send
: ing them away? Are they emigrating
! to other lands? No; we are taking
care OF them at home. Where is this
| extra million-and-a-half a year going?
Where else but into the new lands of
| the West, and into the Northwest
above all? Where else are cheap
| lands, fertile soil, healthful climate,
transportation facilities to good mar
kets, and conditions favorable to hu-
man energy and enterprise so abund-
! ant and ready to hand as right here
in the Northwest?
Is there anything of boom char
| acter about such condition as this?
Not bit. 1t is not only normal and
natural, it is necessary, it is COM
PEELED. What else can this population
do, where else can they go? The cities
cannot absorb the 50,000,O00 increase
of the next thirty years. The hulk of
! the population must be engaged in
productive occupations. They must
be at work providing that great and
' fundamental necessity of mankind
everywhere-food for subsistence.
The great absorbing industry, the
most important from practical ma
terial standpoint, is the production Of
food, and food comes from the soil.
! The cities flourish and prosper and
our civilization is enduring only when
the vast majority of the people is on
the soil, toiling by sweat of the brow
to produce food, on the one hand, and
the raw material for manufacture,
trade and transportation, on the other
The bulk of this 50,OOO,OOO human in
crease must go to the soil, and they
pour into the Northwest as naturally
as water flows down hill. This popu-
lation movement into the Northwest
is as normal and natural as the fact
that water seeks level
An Expert Opinion.
On the point of land values the Com
mercial West of Minneapolis recently
said
eff the actual rise in market value
! of the farm lands of the West during
the past six years were computed, the
aggregate increase of wealth of the
West from this item alone would be
almost beyond belief. This increase
cannot be estimated to exactness, but
SIS per acre for every plowable or pas
turable acre, this to include wild land,
is not too great an estimate. Lands
puted to have doubled in market value
doubled since 1896 The increase in
F.! value of lands in the older Western
states has probably been more per
81, acre than in the Dakotas.
And at these increased prices
! Western farm land is not over CAPT
ta1ized.' Its earnings in a fair crop
year at the present level of farm prod
uce prices, justify the market This
increase in the land values of the
| West brings the West. and the farmer
| of the West, very far up in the scale
of credits in the financial world.> The
[, farmer, his land, his personal note and
his mortgage, the farm town mer-
chant, the country banker, all have
! taken a better rating in the credit
books. By this rise in farm values
| Western business acquires a lasting
solidity that could not be attained in
any other way"
A Shortage of Farm Land.
The statistician in the department
of agriculture estimates that in 1881
the population of the United States
will be 130,OOO,OOO, and it is a con-
sentative estimate. To supply the re-
quirements of this number of people,
will necessitate the production of 7OO,-
100000 bushels of wheat, 1850, 100000
bushels of oats, 3,450,0O0,OOO bushels:
of corn and 100,000,Q00 tons of hay.
If we produce this immense quantity
of food products for man and beast.
under our present system, we must
bring under cultivation t5,OO0,O00
acres more land than we now cult
, vate, and it is estimated that we have
only 108,000000 acres of new land
available for farming purposes.
Moreover, the population of the
whole civilized world, which draws
largely on the United States for it's
food-and no little Of that demand is
supplied by this same Red River val
ley-and the United States must con-
tinue to play the bread basket for the
teeming millions of Europe.
Statistics show that we number less
than 5 per cent of the worlds popula-
ton, yet we produce Is per cent of the
corn, 80 per cent Of the wheat, 26 per
cent of the oats, rs per cent OF the hay.
40 80 1 a