The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1911-02-27
Fire Scenes and Roseau Drainage Ar
ticle BY Ralph Also Included in
New Legislative Manual.
"L1D' QUERY FROM BLACKDUCK
Minneapolis Prohibitionist Attempts
to Answer But is Wobbly on VIII
lard Decision.
(By +. A. WILSON,
semidji Pioneer Legislative Bureau

(By T. A. WILSON,
semidji Pioneer Legislative Bureau
st. Paul, Feb. 27.-Four graphic
Photographs taken at Baudette and
SpoOner following the forest fires OF
last October, are printed in the 1911
legislative manual, or BLUE Book
now being distributed by Secretary
of State Julius Schmahl
The book also contains an illus
trated article of four pages on the
<'Roseau Drainage Project written
by George A. Ralph, state engineer
Mr.. Ralph explains that "this work
consisted principally of cutting a
channel through Roseau lake and
deepening the channel of Roseau
river ~ This work was completed
in the fall of 1906, the contract price
being $14,1 07. In the spring OF
1907 contract was let to Jerry Sher-
wood of Litchfield "for the improve
ment of the remaining portion of
the Roseau River" and was COM
pleted, after the removal of $780,
74S cubic yards of earth, at a cost
of $52,32s, in the fall of 1909.
ut is believed,' comments Mr..
Ralph, "that this improvement will
forever prevent the overflow Of the
Roseau valley and render suitable
for agriculture nearly 100000 acres
of the richest land in the state OF
Minnesota, $4,000 of which belongs
to the state.''
X X X
There are three obituaries in the
'Blue Book" The first is that OF
Governor John A. Johnson, the first
governor of Minnesota to die in office
Clarence Dinehart, state treasurer
who died in the Luther hospital in
St. Paul on the morning of June 1,
1910 and the late Justice Jaggard
who died in Bermuda February 13
last. Extraordinary efforts were re-
quired on the part of the secretary
of state to get the Jaggard apprecia-
ton, which was written by Hugh T.
Halbert, the St. Paul attorney, to
the printers in time to be printed in
the present volume.
XXX
Praises Back to Farm Cry.
Here is another quotation from the
''Blue book
'The total population of Minnesota
according to the 1910 federal census
2,075,70S as compared with 1851,
1874 in 1900 and 1,3O1,S26 in 1890
The increase from 1900 to 1910
therefore, is 324,314 or 1876 pei
cent as compared with an increas,
for the preceding decade of 449,314
or 34.5 per cent.
"The remarkable feature of tn,
government census, so far as it re
lates to Minnesota, is the heavy drift
of the population toward the larg,
commercial centers. The censu
shows completely that a number O
counties in Minnesota, outside O
those in which large cities ar
located, have lost heavily in popula
ton, and the attention of the legis
lature to whom this volume is dedi
Gated, is respectfully called to thi
fact with the hope that some actiol
Will pc taken TO encourage Tn
younger and future generations o
Minnesota to remain on the farm.
"This can be done by the enlargin
and developing of the agriculture
schools, by offering inducements tina
will make life on the farm an offse
to the glare of the electric lights o
the cities.
'There can be but mild denial,
any, to the fact that the high cost O
living at the present time is due t
the fact of the lack of production 9
food stuffs and that lack of produt
ton can only be met by the develop
ment Of vast acres of virgin soil i
the state. To bring about this de-