Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1906-08-16
FOR LAND
South Dakota is Experiencing
Greatest Influx Of Land
Seekers in Its History.
Vast Regions That Have Been
Hitherto Sparsely Settled
4 Now Filling Up.

Hitherto Sparsely Settled
n Now Filling Up.
ss# In the last annual report of Secretary
'@ef Agriculture Wilson was one sentence
That read as follows:
1aN Every sunset during the last five
years has registered an increase of
q, 4OO,UO in the value Of the farms of
this country; every month has piled
lsthis value upon value, until it has
reached slo2. GOO 600, that portion of the
national debt bearing interest is equaled
by the increased value of the farms in
nine months, and this interest for q
little over 9 year balances the entire
Interest and non-interest bearing debt
SOf the United States"
S James j Hill, the great railroad mag
mate, Of whom it may be truthfully said
that no man ever had q clearer fore.
sight Of the future of the west, not long
Ago said:
# ''rhe years are not many before every
acre of land in the west and northwest
That will raise corn will sell for $3.50
Viper 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 in toward South Dakota,
and when saw and heard Of the thou
sands and thousands of new settlers
who are pouring into that rich agricul-
Ftaral state their truth was forcibly i'm
pressed upon my mind. For South
Dakota, in spite of the marvellous rich
ness OF its lands, is still 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.
These are conditions that are bound
3 TO pass away SOON. As settlers pour in
and take up the lands, values are stead
lily rising, and must continue to rise
until they approximate in value the
lands In older settled states. AS an
illustration of this fact thousands of
n acres of school land which the state
sold .. few years ago for less than sis
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 ut 500 an acre.
Il is not only the new settlers who
i are taking up the lands of South Da-
! kota. Many of the keen students of
Il land valuasin the east and middle west
/ who have money to invest are taking
j advantage of the low prices at which
South Dakota lands can be purchased
I and are investing their surplus cash in
!. the same. These men rent their lands
out to men who have not the means to
buy themselves, and take share of the
crop as their payment. This is all ar
rangement that works we'll both ways.
The owner gets good interest rate on
his Investment, while the man Il,
works the farm has an opportunity to
gather enough capital to buy a place of
hissown. When it is considered that
on the the low priced lands of the utate
ono seasons crop will generally pay for
iceland, it is easy to see that the renter
of today ID the owner of the next year
~ two.
It is not alone in farm lands, how
ever, that the newcomers in South Da-
kOta are combining 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 re-
Variable railway development that has
ever taken place in the northwest Is
going on in South Dakota, and this
year the state will lead ali other states
in1the union In the new mil4 &c opened.
q great deal of this new mileage is
being constructed az feede to the ex-
listing systems. and penetra into dis
trlcts in which land has hi ert0 ruled
allow prices because of e distance
the farmer has had to haul Ills produce
to the railways before he could obtain a
market. But considerable portion of
the new mileage has been planned az an
extension of the main lines of road and
isopening up. the most fertile country
In the world to the settlers regions
from which they have hitherto been de
barred because there was no way to
reach them, except by horseback or
wagon.
Local News Notes.
Frank w. Edison Is now finiahinp mn