The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1906-05-25

| tary of Agriculture Wilson was one
| sentence that read as follows:
Every sunset during the last five
years has registered an increase OF
So, 100000 in the value of the farms Of
| this country; every month has piled
this value upon value, until it has
reached $102, 2,000,O00 that portion of
the national debt bearing interest is
equaled by the increased value of the
farms in nine months, and this in
crease for little over year balances
the entire interest and non-interest
bearing debt of the United States"
| James Hill, the great railroad mag
nate, of whom it may be truthfully
said that no man ever had clearer
| foresight of the future of the West,
not long ago. said:
| "The years are not many before ev-
cry acre of land in the West and
Northwest that will raise corn will
sell for 500 per acre"
In the above two statements may be
| found the source of inspiration to ac
count for the great tide of immigration
that has set ia toward South Dakota,
and when l saw and heard of the
| thousands and thousands of new set
/ tiers who are pouring into that rich
agricultural state their truth was for
chilly impressed upon my mind. For
South Dakota, in spite of the marvel
Gus richness of it's lands, is still a
most sparsely settled country, and one
of the few states of the West where
the new settler may either get free
homestead or buy land at a merely
nominal price.
| Conditions Rapidly Passing Away.
These are the conditions that are
bound to pass away soon. AS settlers
pour in and take up the lands, values
are steadily rising, and must continue
to rise until they approximate in value
the lands in older settled rates. AS
an illustration of this fact, thousands
of acres of school land which the
state sold a few years ago for less
than $15 per acre are now valued at
anywhere from $50 to $40 an acre,
and it will not be many years before
these same lands will be quoted at
800 an acre.
| 1t is not only the new settlers who
are taking up the lands of South Da-
kota. Many of the keen students of
land values in the East and middle
West who have money to invest are
taking advantage of the low prices at
which South Dakota lands can be pur-
chased and are investing their sur
plus cash in the same. These men
rent their lands out to men who have
not the means to buy themselves, and
take a share of the crop as their pay
ment. This is an arrangement that
works we'll both ways. The owner
gets a good interest rate on his in
vestment, while the man who works
the farm has an opportunity to gather
enough capital to buy a place of his
own. When it is considered that on
the low priced lands of the state one
seasons crop will generally pay for
the land, 1t is easy to see that the
| renter of to-day is the owner of the
next year or two
| 1t is not alone in farm lands, how
ever. that the newcomers to South Da-
kota are confining their interests, al
| though farm Is the incentive that
| draws the greater part of the new set
| tiers to the state. To-day the most
| remarkable railway development that
| has ever taken place in the Northwest
| is going on in South Dakota, and this
year the state will lead all other
states in the Union in the new mile
age opened. A great deal of this new
mileage is being constructed as feed
| ers to the existing systems, and pene-
trates into districts in which land has
hitherto ruled at low prices because
Of the distance the farmer has had to
haul his produce to the railways be-
| fore he could obtain a market. But
considerable portion of the new mile
age has been planned as an exten-
! sion Of the main lines Of road, and Is
opening up the most fertile country
in the world to the settlers-regions
| from which they have hitherto been
debarred because there was no way
to reach them, except by horseback or
wagon.
Towns Grow Like Magic.
| Fast as the railways are building,
the settlers are coming still faster.
All along these new lines OF road
towns are springing up as If by magic,
and the track layers are hardly out of
sight when train loads Of lumber are
emptied on the spot where they were
working a few hours before, and the
sound Of the hammer and the saw
busted in the erection of buildings is
heard. In few weeks there is an
elevator, bank or two, and a dozen
or more buildings, with stocks of mer-
chandise to supply the needs Of the
embryo community. From every train
that enters the town there will be a
dozen or more land buyers alighting,
and, as far as the eye can reach farm
houses and farm building will be seen
in the course of construction.