Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1915-09-01
STEPHEN IN THE GOLDEN CIRCLE

II gathering the material for this article we visit
/ ed Stephen in the golden circle of the grain har
vesting season. the mightiest crop year in the
history of Marshall county Big as the grain yield
in 1914, which was termed bumper CROP still this
years yield, 1915, is the greatest in the far-famed
Minnesota Red River Valley. Nowhere else in this
pregnant Valley is the crop grand and glorious,
in the territory tributary to Stephen We found pros
perity every hand Not manufactured optimism, but
the real harvest of dollars from grain fields that
tended miles and miles tributary to this city all
Sides making every tiller of the soil the real man of
affairs. 1t is inspiring to be able to recount such
of activity were witnessed every farm
stead harvesting the grain turning it into American
dollars. There grain fields that will yield forty
bushels to the of wheat thirty forty bushels of
Barley and other grains of equal YIELD that at present
prices will more than pay for the average price per
asked for the farms upon which it is grown;
crop wealth that other section claim, and the
emily wonder is that the farmers in the states farther
East who plodding along farmed-out land, have
not taken advantage of the waiting opportunities at
present land Values ranging from $40 to SIS per acre.
in order to participate in this richest section of the
worlds granary the most inviting spot to be found
and where the spring, summer and fall seasons
noted for their equable rainfall and sunshine, and
which accounts in part for the big crop yields In the
winter months the snowfall varies, but there
billiards. blockades; the thermometer seldom reg
listers below TO- which is the exception and not the
rule but account of the dyness of the atmosphere
it is the pleasanest kind of weather to be doors
ill., nvigorating and healthful visible every hand
in the faces of it's citizens. Ten degrees below in
Iowa and Illinois is severely fet owing to the
dampness of the atmosphere than 40 degrees in this
country. Then there is malaral fever there being
swamps little typhoid owing to the purity of
the water which is another of the assets of this Valley
aside from it's moneymakng, deep, black auvial and
mari loan soil, undertake with porous clay making it
crop producer, unaffected by drouth excessive
rainfall, both of these safeguarded against in
natures way, and by the scientific methods of
atchng, making this never failing crop section.
The only drawback which this Valley has ever e2-
perienced is the and two section farms, that
acquired when land values ranged from SIS to $40 per
acre. when wheat the sole crop; when farm labor
only commanded from SIG to $40 per month"; during the
harvest and wheat brought SO cents to 80 cents
bushel The increase in the wages of farm labor
and fifty-cent wheat, Notwithstanding the modern
1abor-savng sebinders in harvesting the grain CROP
have gradually put out of business the big bonanza
farms, and those that have remained have experienced
revival during 1914, also the present crop year.
Fhs revival has taken place. owing to 90 cent to rs
wheat and crop rotation, which has renewed the
tlty of the soil in crop yields. STILL the day of the
big farm is all but gone; farms that priced at $40
and SIS per the direct result of carving up
these big farms into smaller units of 100 and 800 acres
for it must be remembered that seventyve percent
of this land is under cultivation and the other twenty
fave percent is wild land used for pasture. The
major portion of the land tributary Stephen in the
real Minnesota Red River Valley, has been under cul-
tvaon for the past thirtysx years. therefore is in
the good wagon and automobile road section, with
splendid rural Schools church edces, creameries tee
phone service connecting up every farm house and
trading centers within five to ten miles, where the
highest cash markets are to be had for everything
grown upon the fertile acres