The Ronan pioneer., 1917-04-20
DEMAND PORTLAND
IN STATE Is BIG
Is CROWDED WITH EAGER
HOMESEEKERS,
Every Railroad Is Bringing in Set
tiers and Effects by the Carload;
Land Will BE Broken and Seeded
During Coming Season.


cry day in the Glasgow land office.
A very great proportion of the filings
are for land other than under the
640-acre safeguarding homesteads,
which indicates that most of the an
plicants are selecting the better
class of lands, preferring small tracts
of good property to large acreage
of indifferent land. In addition to
these filings, the Glasgow land office
is in receipt of about 100 letters ey-
cry day from prospective settlers in
quest of information regarding
homesteading possibilities in Mon
tana A very great proportion of
these letters, as we'll as the majority
of those who are filing come from
the Dakotas and Wisconsin.
The choice homestead land parti-
cularly that within reasonable dis
tance from the railroad, or that con-
tiguous to-some surveyed route of all
the new lines, is gone. Here and
there are isolated fractions and le-
gal subdivisions, but even the sol
acre tracts are quickly grabbed up A
very large percentage of those filing
propose to go on the land of their
selection, and endeavor to get IN on
some of the fat prices the farmers
are receiving and will receive, for the
products, while the war lasts.
Every Land Office Busy
What is true of Glasgow is true
of every federal land office in the
state. In every locality the land Of
flee clerical forces are having the |
busiest time of their lives. The old
saying, "doing land office busi-
ness" slogan of the early days of
Illinois and Iowa, when land there
now worth 5000 and upwards per
acre, could be had for the filing, is
true of every office in the state
where homesteaders file for land.
In the rhinestone country" which
means the sections of Montana where
the soil is heavily charged with
new settlers are contem-
plating breaking sod and planting
wheat, a custom that the old time
farmer does not approve of. But in
a number of instances last season sod
broken and planted to wheat brought
fair crops, and the fat prices of last
fall amply made up the differences.
Railroads Are Busy.
Every line of railroad running in
@ Montana is carrying settlers eff
'ects by the carload. One day re-
Gently the Great Northern brought
n train Of 81 cars of settlers eff
'ects from the east. The Milwau
zee is handling an average of Is car
Dads a day, and the Northern Paci
ic is doing fully as much. Settlers
lre even coming in from the west, a
most unusual proceeding, and num-
,er of homeseekers have come from
Canada. The Oregon Short Line has
in a number of carloads of
effects from the south 1t seems that
he word has gone forth that Mon
l mighty trek has started in this di-
'ection from every point of the COM =,
pas.
Land Buyers Here.
And land buyers-they are COM
ng from everywhere. They walk
the streets of Great Falls, and Glen
dive, and Billings, and Lewistown,
and Plentywood, and every other
land center in the state. They bring |
with them letters of credit and mon
ey, and are eager to pick up any 6
thing that looks good in the way of
investment. ACCOMPLISHMENTS that
could have been bought three months
ago for $500 are commanding twice
as much now, and every day sees the
holdings of the Montana land owner I
enhance in value. Real estate men
assert that there is no lack of buy
ers, but that it is difficult to get 8
listings. This ceaseless tide of i'm q,
migration spells agricultural devel-
opment in Montana on a magnificent
scale during the next two or three
years One man, land expert, and
whose business carries him all over ,
the state estimates that fully 1,OnO,-
600 acres of land, raw at the pres
ent time, will be brought under cul-
tivation this year This may not
mean so much for this seasons crop, '
because results on new land are al
ways problematical, but it argues
we'll towards that 10O,0O0,00O bush {
ed wheat crop, which is only over
agricultural horizon a few .