The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1902-09-29
In The RICH VALLEY OF THE RED
Farming Regions the World Are More Famous Than This Second
Nile of the Western Hemisphere. .&
Region Paies LEVIED Floor and Soil That Never
f.: Fails in Rewards

he said, sis increasing at the rate of
1000 daily. We are growing at the rate of
nearly 100000 year. We have doubled
in every thirty or forty years Of our his
tory. Inside Of fifty years we will have
15O,OO0,OOO Where are they going? Are
sending them aaway? Are they emf
grating to other lands? No; we are TAX
ing care of them at home. Where is this
extra million anda-half a year going?
Where else but into the new lands of the
Where else are cheap lands, fertile soil,
healthful climate, transportation facili-
ties to good markets, and conditions IA
vorable to human energy and enterprise
so abundant and ready to hand as right
here In the northWest?' sE a. = S. &C.,
us there anything of boom character
about such condition as this? Not bit
1t is not only normal and natural, it is
necessary, it is compelled. What else can
this population do, where else can they
go? The cities cannot absorb the 50,O00,-
900 increase of the next thirty years. The
bulk of the population must be engaged
in productive occupations. They must be
at work providing that great and funda-
mental necessity Of mankind everywhere
food for subsistence. The great absorb
ing industry, the most important from
practical material standpoint, Is the pro.
duction Of food, and food comes from the
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 ma
terial for manufacture, trade and trans
portation. on the other. The bulk of this
50,000000 human increase must go to the
soil, and they pour into the northwest as
naturally as water flows down hill This
population movement into the northwest
IS as normal and natural as the fact that
water seeks a level
An Expert Opinion.
On the point of land values the Com
mercial West Of Minneapolis recently
said:
IF 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 be
lief. This increase cannot be estimated
to eXactness but IS per acre for every
plowable or pasturable acre, this to in
clude wild land, IS not too great an esti-
mate. Lands in North Dakota, for ex-
ample. are reputed to have doubled in
market value since 1900. They doubtless
have doubled since 1896. The increase in
value of lands in the older western states
has probably been more per acre than in
| the Dakotas. ~
And at these increased prices western
farm land IS not over capitalized It's
earnings in a fair crop year at the pres
ent level Of farm produce 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"