The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1904-10-12

miles, frequently three or four in a
family, and not one in twenty Of them
had $500 when they came here, good
many of them only had the clothes on
their backs. You see, there's just as
much room for head work in farming
as at anything else, and it's the man
who diversifies, who raises some wheat
and some fax and some cattle and
plenty Of hay and barley and oats and
potatoes as side issue, who wins out
year after year, and that where
Stutsman county shines
"She breaks right into the grain
country and the cattle country and most
Fin the early, days you used to hear all
about crop failures and even now there
are always grumblers who will talk
about drouth and rust and other scare
crows and bogies, but [ can drive you
round out of jamestown and in one
days trip can introduce you to thirty
or forty farmers who have made good,
big money over and above all their ex-
penses every single year for twenty
years. You see in the early days they
used to think that all this country could
| raise was wheat, and the greatest thing
that ever happened to North Dakota
was Z what you might call the discovery
All About Flax.
| "Flaxl' exclaimed the woman oppo-
site, IT didn't know it grew in this
} R}prt Of the world What does it look
' 1--WE are coming to some fax in
"There it is now.'
We all looked out of the window. The
women were all "ohs' and "ahs' at
once. There was stretch of yards and
yards and rods and rods Of delicate blue
flowers, as beautiful as violets.
friend said. ut will II be ' far more beau u
I tiful to me in month, when it takes or
that rich, golden brown that mean:
! prosperity and success to our people
While we are on this subject / will Just
tell you one story, and this is true one
and will give, you the figures. II
July, 1900, I sold a Norwegian nance
Ole Janson, up just north of Courtenay
100 acres Of land at $40 an acre, 81, 900
Ole wouldn It sell it for four Thousand
now, but that was four years ago, anC
I will show you how this country moves
Ole broke up that fall and the mex
spring 1875 acres. He put it into tla1
and it went nineteen bushels to tn,
Ell, netting him a little over thirty -fv,
hundred dollars, more than twice wha
his land cost him out of one crop
J Now,' our friend said, as we all GO
up from the table, "see if you can fn(
anything in the, Yellowstone park tina
will beat that.''
Better Than Gold Fields.
eyes, sir,'' he remarked as he and
: made our way back to the smoking
I. room, "you can talk about your Klon
:. dixie or your fOrty-nlners, but for
. good, steady, average-producer O
wealth this good black soil we are run
ming over will beat all the gold field
: We sat down, and by way of touch
ing up the conversation again I casual
ly inquired how large this Stutsmal
county of his was.
4 "'I expect I can startle you O.
t that,' he responded, "when I tell yo
-, that you can take the state of Rhod
Island and set it down twice over i
Stutsman county, and then have enoug
), New York counties To be accurate,
he went on, cit is Just forty iSh
, miles square and has sixty four towr
ships. It has land enough to supper
10000 farmers and their families, an
r then give each Of them twice as big
farm as he would expect back east, be
sides all the tens Of thousands Of tow
care of all the trading, banking, doctor
3 ing, itigating,- church-going, educatin
;, and amusing that these 10000 familie
can do. That is the kind of a count
Q we have, and that is what you and
if we behave ourselves, are going to iv
to see here.'
. GAS it is now,' he went on, eff 70
4 will just stop off here I will show yo
e the most averagely prosperous con
8 munity you ever saw. We have no yer
u rich men and don It want them, bu
: what IS much more to the point, W