Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1910-04-10
BACK TO THE FARM
 MOVEMENT IS ON
Invasion of Northwest By Eastern HOmeSeekers Upsets All Calcula.
 tiOns of Authorities

1 today taking place within it's borders. That predictions from Washington that 2.o00,000 land-hun9ry persons will desert the cities for the country this spring, will be shattered, there is no doubt among railroad authorities and men in power in the states of the northwest.
 Families are filing claims upon the free Montana homesteads at the rate of 300 persons a week. The Great Falls land office of the United States i government is flooded with applica ations, letters and all sorts of com munications from inquirers and still there are thousands of acres of land that will be filled up before fall.
 The beautiful warm spring weather is bringing train-loads of homeseek- CT sinto Montana every day and they are swarming the country in which the free lands, pronounced agricul- turally perfect, are open for settle ment.
 Oregon, Washington, Wyoming and the Dakotas are sharing proportion ally in the influx into the country along the Great Northern lines.
 The "back to the farm" movement has spilled all advance figures, until today conservative estimates covering the entire country are to the eject that 3,5o0,000 persons will return to the soil before the fall of 1910.
 The invasion of Oregon by James J. HilF and the opening up of the cen- tial portion of the state will have most important influence upon the history of the development of the ,neXt few years, and particularly upon that which has to do with the agri- culturist and the seeker of cheap lands At last, apparently, the cen tral part of Oregon is to have not On- ly one but two railroads, forming what is certainly happy ending to the long and weary waiting of the pioneer settelrs, many of whom have | lived the greater portion of their lives a hundred miles from the sound of the cars. The territory that will Eow be opened up by the railroads i is as large as all the New England States combined, in which now dwell probably third of the nations pop uiation.
 More than 50,000 square miles of land hitherto neglected because of it's ] isolation, will be open to advant- aeeous settling. In Crook county l alone are 100000 acres of govern ment land subject to entry, two thirds of which offer good openings for dry farming hosesteading, an opportunity fer the homeseekers. This means free land upon which several thousand families may make their homes. It means that the great influx of set tiers which will follow close upon the heels of the railroads will find, in addition to the splendid irrigation lands near Bend, opportunity to get ] large tracts for little or nothing.
 The new enlarged homestead law las just been made applicable to these untouched Central Oregon lands at least, to vast stretch of them ly- ing to the east and south of Bend. It's provisions, the reader will re- member, make it possible for the set tier to SC ,lre 320 acres instead of 16O, as under the old law, in certain specl- fled districts. The land so specified must be non-susceptible to irrigation. and subject to cultivation only un- der dry farming methods. The only restrictions placed upon the home steader are that @commuting" after fourteen months is not permitted, as was formerly the case, full five years residence being required and 2 certain annual percentage of im- D, ovement and cultivation The new law, coming opportunely as it does, has awakened a vast amount of in- terest in the embryo wheat lands that have remained so long stock range producing for their only crop un limited sage brush. Already perhaps 10000 acres have been taken up by settlers who have been located from Bend, and there seems every reason to believe that the budding rush will continue through the pleasant autumn months and even during the winter, until the time comes when the cream of the available 3o0,Ooo acres is priv ately owned.