The Redwood gazette., 1915-10-27

| LIDS IcdCIiCu CIlG IllIWC.
While there may be isolated
cases where values are going up
too fast, as a rule they are not
and it is my opinion that this up
ward tendency in our adjoining
counties is a benefit to all of us
as well as to both seller and buy
er. At first thought this may
seem like rash statement, but
| is it?
The very highest prices are
paid not by spectators, but by
farmers who are buying for a
home. There is a certainty that
as land values here go up we
must improve our methods of
farming, systemic to GER
tain extent and reduce cost of
production as much as possible.
In reducing cost of production
we must cut out hand labor as
much as we can, raise crops that
will give us the most available
nutrition per acre, such as 3 or
4 cuttings of alfalfa per year or
10 to Is tons silage per acre.
While land in Europe not nat
urally as fertile as our Mime
sofa dirt, is producing under
good management, (where it is
not being used in the present
conflict for war purposes), on an
average 80 bushels of corn, 40
bushels of winter wheat, and
five tons of alfalfa per acre, is
there any danger of us Mime
sofa farmers going broke on
$3.50 or $500 land, when land in
Europe is valued at ten times
this price?
The reason our Minnesota land
is still so low in price is because
of the fact, as one Of our neigh
bors who recently took a little
trip in Iowa expressed it: ''They
don't know what we have here
And this man has been a resi-
dent of Minnesota practically all
his life, the majority of it in
Redwood county, and has seen
$40 land here which | think could
not be bought now at $3.50 per
acre.
In regard to renters on $500
land, the tenant system must be
changed, because the present
one-year lease system, such as
we have in Minnesota is wrong
ruinous alike to the land, the
tenant, and the owner, but will
be righted as soon as the value
Of the land becomes advanced tC
g proper stage. The Minnesota
land owner who continues to
operate his farm on the tenant
system will gradually learn that
the long-term lease is of ad
vantage alike to himself, his
tenant and his farm.
With four years experience ir
Minnesota | am certain that or
9 ten-year average our soil here
will produce as much or more
with the same labor and fertiliz
er expended, than 5000 or $500
Iowa and Illinois land, and Just
think of the low price that ou1
Renville county and Redwood
county land is selling for.
Some things that Illinois ano
Iowa farmers always take int
consideration when buying {
farm home in Minnesota are the
schools, people and railroads
There are several things il
Minnesota school system that
consider superior to the schoo
system in Illinois, and as far al
the people IN Minnesota are con
cerned they are the same as il
Iowa and illinois except tina
they are Of a more friendly spir
it. Having lived only 90 mile
from Chicago before coming t,
Minnesota I noticed this friend
ly spirit, because there is yer,
little of it in that city, where
is business to do the other fe]
low, or he will do you. And con
corning railroads in Minnesota
we nave some of the best sys
TENS in the United States.
While some parts of our stat
probably have disadvantages
the same as other states an
countries, I have not as ye