Devils Lake inter-ocean. (Devils Lake, Ramsey Co., Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1905, 1902-02-21
FLAX GROWING PROFITABLE.

FLAX GROWING PROFITABLE.
In the Middle and Western Loun-
ties of North Dakota.
Devils Lake, N. D.-Twenty years
ago there were perhaps not to exceed a
dozen white men living in Ramsey
county, Nd, and today that county
has a population Of over 10000 persone,
while land "a that and adjoining u
ties is selling, at from ten to thirty dol
lars an acre. which land four or Ave
years ago might have been had at three
dollars an acre. While wheat, oats and
speltz yield gooo crops in this section,
the chief production in the line Of GER.
eale is fax.
North Dakota raises sixty pei cent Of
the flax produced in the United. States,
and Ramsey county is in the lead in.
her fax belt. A recent issue Of the
Grand Forks, N. D. Plaindealer says:
Ramsey county's total crop this year
brought almost 100000. The popula-
ton 10 less than ten thousand. just
think it over $500 per map, woman and
child raised in sone year." And tho
Grand Forks Herald sings the plaudits
Of the county as follows: Ramsey
county had ll4,700 acres Of fax this
year and the average yield was IL bush
els, making q grand total Of 1,476,4OO
bushels Of fax-more than raised in any
other county in the state"
The Fargo Forum, the leading paper
in the state, in an editorial article on
the anticipated opening next spring
of the Devils Lake Indian Reservation
when yer 100000 acres will be given
to homesteaders, glowingly refers % the
wonderful fertility Of the soil in Ram
sey, Nelson and Benson counties.
"These tributes" says Albert NJ,
Powell Of Devils Lake, 'are now very
significant. ae, until less than five years
ago the papers and the farmers of the
Red River Valley counties proper, in
their complacent self-suf6ciency, said
no good thing can come u Of your
middle or western North Dakota coun.
ties for cultivation Of cereals. Then
our most highly improved quarter-sec-
thions had to beg for a loan of a paltry
$500 from the valley loaning compan
les and pay 10 per cent and bonus ga
lore. The east and the old world COM
panies did not know there was much of
anything in North Dakota worth an
investors second thought, ontside of
the bonanza farm belt Of the Red River
Valley. Now the loan companies from
near and far are climbing over one an
other to loan Ramsey comfy farmers
from $1,000 to $1,000 per 100 acres at 8
per cent interest.
North Dakota led the world in her
fax record for 1901, with her acreage
l,4s2,0OO at 1913 per acre, or 1885. 900
bushels, theInext being Minnesota, with
less than halt, 90 says go high an an
thority as the Orange Judd Farmer.
Yes, the price Of our lande has
crswlea up notch BY notch-the last
year over fifty .notches out OF q hund.
red; and prices range from 80 to s25
per acre, according to location and i'm
provements, More sales were made
last year than IN three previous years.
The wealthy farmers OF Iowa, Illinois
and other central states soc that Ram
sey county, North Dakota, farmers are
raising s25 per acre crops from go PEI
acre land and are needing our cordial
invitation: "Come thou and do like.
xise."
At the November sale of state school
lsndc in Ramsey county, 25,673 acres
we're readily sold at prices that ranged
from SO to $50 per acre, and resident
farmers. were eqnally &c greedy fol
more land as tho Iowa and Minnesots
investors. The aggregate Of the sale
was s285,OOO Of which 857, 600 was paid
in cash, which was $4,000 more than
was paid in any other county In North
Dakota. The sale gave a txedness Of
value to our farm lands and formed ar
object lesson to u local farmers that
they are nearer being the Lords Of
Creation than they had ever thought
or dreamed.
The Ramsey county treasurer on the
4th of December RENTED to the North
Dakota State Treasurer his check fol
S6l GIG. being the sfafA,s nortinn Of ON