The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1912-10-01
Were Surprised at Ease with Which
Country is Cleared and the Crops
Later Grown.
"BEM1DJ1 AN ORDERLY TOWN.
Letter Says Writer While Here Saw
Some Fine Gasoline Launches
Says go Up North"

The following letter was sent to
the editor by Mr.. and Mrs. A. P.
Qualley of Spring Grove, MINI.
Spring Grove is in the southeastern
part OF the state, close to the Iowa
line. The letter is interesting as it
shows how southern Minnesota and
Illinois and Iowa people change their
minds about Northern Minnesota af-
ter they have once seen the land and
what it can raise.
Spring Grove, Mimi. 9
Dear Sir:
Il would kindly ask you for a
space in your paper as I want to
write little about our trip. Will
say that my wife is troubled with
what is called hay fever so l sent
her ahead to Rice Lake, Wis, where
| Joined her about two weeks later
We sepnt a few days there visiting
at Rice Lake some twelve years ago
I could have bought most any quar-
ter section of land for $40 to $12 per
acre. Now it is worth from $50 to
500. -
1--WE went from there to Duluth
and in going there We passed through
some very rough country. We stop
ped one day in Duluth and while
there we took in part of the town but
a man has no idea what to see until
you commence to look around. I
have a friend there and l wanted to
call on him so l stepped up to a po-
liceman and gave him the name and
told him he lived on the Boulevard
and he told me he would be hard to
find unless had the house number as
this Boulevard is twenty-five miles
long. So I did not look any further
To see the ore docks and the coal
docks is something interesting. The
iron ore trains from the Minnesota
Iron Range have fifty-five to sixty
cars to train with fifty tons to a
car and one of these trains comes in
every ten minutes. There is a new
steel plant being built that is to
smelt this ore which will cost about
fourteen million dollars when fin
ished The shipping on the lake is
something wonderful when in the
wheat season several million bushels
week are shipped. I have been
around some but l have never seen
anything like it.
eve took the night train from Du-
luth to Solway. We arrived there at
o'clock in the morning and went
and routed out Nels Bye, ':the land
man." He is located upstairs over a
big two story store and has three
cosy, nicely fixed up rooms. We talk
ed about this and that till it was
time to go to breakfast, then Mr. Bye
hitched up and took us out to our ole
friend Anton Fredrickson, who is To-
Gated half mile from Solway.
ITO see what that man has done i1
two years without any means sur
prised me- He has about fiftee1
acres under cultivation, wheat, oat'
and potatoes, one and a half stor!
frame house with full basemen
16x26, nice summer kitchen, {
barn and tool shed, several head o
stock and over one hundred chick
ems and l know he has plenty to ca
as stayed with him for several day
He had 1-2 acres of potatoes las
year and got $50 bushels which HI
sold for seventy cents per bushel
Enough to pay for 40 acres of land
Where can you beat that? To max
an estimate of how long he has beef
there when you first see his place 20,
would say at least five years. He ha
eighty acres and has half of it pai'
for. He paid $1,000 for it. offere
him $4,000 for his place but he toll
me it was not for sale. left my wifi
at Fredrickson's and Mr.. Bye and
went around to look at land. H
took me from settler to settler and
saw some of the finest crops l hav
ever SEEN Coming home we stoppe
at Martin Sands He came here las
April and the place he traded for
was about twenty acres, that ha
been broke and he seeded that to oat
and wheat and received bumpe
crop. Then he cleared and brok