The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1910-10-25
KEEP THE MONEY AT HOME.
A Plea for Intensive Farming Instead OF
Land Speculation.
BY HARRY LEE TAFT.


that does not also carry with it
suggestion of reasone bic and proper
remedies. can expect to fulfill but
half its mission; and in this respect
the present widespread agitation
against the so-called land specula-
ton craze" fails Of its mission unless
it takes into account something Of
the reason for its discontinuance
than that it does not suit general
financial interests.
Tt is a fact that the farmers OF
our country are probably less edu-
Gated as to the possibilities Of safe
and profitable investment of their
funds than those Of any European
country. They have been offered
by our government no encourage
ment or facility for the saving of
their funds and have been made ac-
/ quainted with no marketable securi-
ties of character to inspire conf
dence. There has seemingly been
/ left open to them always but one
use for their surplus funds, and
that, the acquiring of additional
acreage. This investment has be-
gun in each state at home and the
farmers surplus will be found to
have been used in this way consis-
tently until the prices resulting from
the movement itself have reached
such level as to lead him to give
attention to and finally be tempted
into land promotion schemes more
or less worthy in distant places. He
has gradually been worked by pro-
moters farther and farther away in
this process until his speculation
reaches today from Florida to Bri-
fish Columbia.
The whole process of this article
is to point out to the farmers of the
Mississippi valley and middle west
what has occurred in a portion of IL
linois, which they do not knoW-go-
ing to prove that the best invest
ment these farmers can make even
as a speculation, is right at home.
! Illinois was one of the first of the
central western states to attract at
tention by its seemingly high values
of farming land, and the increase
from SIS to $3.50 an acre occurred
so rapidly as to astonish those even
in the midst of the communities
where the increase was taking place.
The larger value has been entirely
justified by the returns produced or
those lands, and it is the method
that brought this about to which we
particularly desire to direct the at
tention Of the farmers at large anC
to make them realize that it is {
thing that applies to each one Of
them as individuals. 1t is we'll with
in the grasp of the farmer of Mime
sofa or Oklahoma as it was originally
to the farmer of Illinois, and it con
sists of nothing else than putting hi
money back into the land he already
owns.
A farmer in Illinois has grown, b!
methods available to every farme
in the country, IA bushels of corr
! per acre, We will probably neve
live to see this United States aver
age; but the point we do want t,
emphasize is that this result is with
in the reach of every individual wh'
really desires it and will work to
5 ward that goal. Champaign county
r Illinois, is today one of the banne
> counties Of this country-here i
found the highest priced farm lam
in Illinois. We knew this count
when it did not produce more pre-
] portionately than any other careless
r ly farmed county in the country
t but today, by methods we are sug
costing, that single county raises
bushel of corn out of every rs pre-
duced in the United States, it raise
> ] as much as the entire state of Mir
e nesota, it raises more corn than !
r other states in the union. althoug
!. 80 per cent of all farms in the cour
try grow some corn. Ultimately a
Of the farms Of the central west wi
! come to be as thoroughly titled 9
t are the higher priced properties {
y Illinois, every waste corner will b
/ made productive and crops will b
80 rotated as to leave the land in "a
better, rather than worse, conditio
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