The average yield of corn in 1868 was 37.33 bushels per acre, and in 1875—a bad year—25 bushels. In Illinois—of which corn is the chief staple—Mr. Lincoln, late President of the United States, in the course of an agricultural address in 1859, stated that the average crop from year to year does not exceed twenty bushels per acre.
These results, so favorable to Minnesota as a corn growing as well as wheat growing State, will surprise no one who is familiar with the fact established by climatologists, that "the cultivatedplants yield the greatest products near the northernmost limits at which they will grow."
COMPARISON WITH OTHER STATES.
A comparison with other States affords the following exhibit:
POTATOES.
The average yield in Minnesota and other States is here shown:
HAY.
Among the grasses that appear to be native to the soil of Minnesota are found timothy, white clover, blue grass and red top. They grow most luxuriantly, and many claim that they contain nearly as much nutriment as ordinary oats. So excellent are the grasses that the tame varieties are but little cultivated. The wild grasses which cover the immense surface of natural meadow land formed by the alluvial bottoms of the intricate network of streams which everywhere intersect the country, are as rich and nutritious in this latitude as the best exotic varieties, hence cultivation is unnecessary. The yield of these grasses is 2.12 tons to the acre, or 60 per cent more than that of Ohio, the great hay State!
SORGHUM.
The cultivation of the sugar cane is fast becoming popular among the farmers of Minnesota, and one Mr. Seth H. Kenney, of Rice county, claims that it can be made more profitable than even the wheat crop. The syrup and sugar produced is of the finest character, possessing an extremely excellent flavor. An acre of properly cultivated land will yield from one hundred and seventy-five to two hundred gallons of syrup, worth seventy cents a gallon.
FRUITS.
The following short extracts are taken from a paper written by Col. D. A. Robertson, of St. Paul, a scientific amateur fruit grower; one thoroughly conversant with the subject on which hewrites, and to whose disinterested labors in this branch of industry the State owes much:
"There is no doubt that Minnesota will become a great fruit State, because wherever wild fruits of any species grow, improved fruit of the same or cognate species may be successfully cultivated. The indigenous flora of Minnesota, embraces apples, plums, cherries, grapes, strawberries, raspberries, currants and gooseberries. We may, therefore, successfully and profitably cultivate the improved kinds of all these fruits. The conditions of success are only these:—experience, knowledge and perseverance.
"All kinds of Siberian Crab apples, (which are valuable chiefly for preserves,) including the improved Transcendant and Hyslop, are perfectly adapted to our climate; and flourish in almost every soil and situation where any other tree will grow, and also produce great crops.
"At our State Fair at St. Paul, in October, 1871, there was a magnificent display of home grown fruits, which would have been creditable to any State in the West. Among the numerous varieties of excellent fruit exhibited in large quantities were the following:
"Apples.—Duchess of Oldenburg, Red Astracan, Saxton or Fall Stripe, Plum Cider, Fameuse, Haas, Jefferson County, Perry Russet, American Golden Russet, Yellow Bellflower, Ramsdale Sweeting, Geniton, Lucy, Winona Chief, Jonathan, Price's Sweet, Westfield, Seek no Further, Sap, Wagner, Winter Wine Tay, English Golden Russet, Dominie, St. Lawrence, Pomme Gris, Ben Davis, Sweet Pear, and about thirty other varieties."
RAILROAD AND POPULATION STATISTICS—HOMESTEAD EXEMPTION LAW IN MINNESOTA:
TABULATIONS FROM COMPANY REPORTS.LENGTH AND LOCATION.The Railroads of Minnesota, with Termini and Lengths in this State, on June 30, 1876.
Since the publication of the report of the railroad commissioner as given above, showing 1978 miles of railroads in Minnesota; there have been 216 miles built in 1877, and 350 miles in 1878—total, 2544 miles now operated in the State. In 1862, we had but ten miles of railroad in Minnesota; in 1878, sixteen years afterwards, two thousand five hundred and forty-four miles.
This past year, the St. Paul & Pacific Railroad has extended its line to the British Possessions in Manitoba, connecting with a road there and giving us direct railroad communication with the vast country lying north of us; while the Southern Minnesota, the Hastings & Dakota, the St. Cloud branch of the St. Paul & Pacific, are extending their lines, like arteries, through the heart of the State. In much less than ten years, Minnesota will have the most perfect railroad system on this continent.
POPULATION.
HOMESTEAD EXEMPTION LAW.
We are proud of the Homestead Law of Minnesota. The State says to its citizen: you may be unfortunate, even culpably improvident, nevertheless you and your family shall not be left homeless or without means to enable you to retrieve past misfortunes or faults.
The law reads—
"That a homestead consisting of any quantity of land not exceeding eighty acres, and the dwelling house thereon and its appurtenances, to be selected by the owner thereof, and not included in any incorporated town, city or village, or instead thereof, at the option of the owner, a quantity of land not exceeding in amount one lot, being within an incorporated town, city or village, and the dwelling house thereon and its appurtenances, owned and occupied by any resident of this State, shall not be subject to attachment, levy, or sale, upon any execution or any other process issuing out of any court within this State. This section shall be deemed and construed to exempt such homestead in the manner aforesaid during the time it shall be occupied by the widow or minor child or children of any deceased person who was, when living, entitled to the benefits of this act."
"That a homestead consisting of any quantity of land not exceeding eighty acres, and the dwelling house thereon and its appurtenances, to be selected by the owner thereof, and not included in any incorporated town, city or village, or instead thereof, at the option of the owner, a quantity of land not exceeding in amount one lot, being within an incorporated town, city or village, and the dwelling house thereon and its appurtenances, owned and occupied by any resident of this State, shall not be subject to attachment, levy, or sale, upon any execution or any other process issuing out of any court within this State. This section shall be deemed and construed to exempt such homestead in the manner aforesaid during the time it shall be occupied by the widow or minor child or children of any deceased person who was, when living, entitled to the benefits of this act."
Thus the State, in its bountiful protection, says to its citizen, "You may be unfortunate, even blamably improvident, nevertheless the State shall not allow you and yours to be thrown paupers on the world. Your homestead is still left to you, a competency at least."
There are also reserved for the settler, free from all law processes, all his household furniture up to the value of $300, 3 horses, or in lieu 1 horse and yoke of oxen, 2 cows, 11 sheep, 3 hogs, wagon, harness, and all his farming machinery and implements; also a year's supply of family provisions or growing crops, and fuel, and seed grain not exceeding 50 bushels each of wheat and oats, 5 of potatoes, and one of corn, also mechanics' or miners' tools, with $400 worth of stock-in-trade, and the library and instruments of professional men.
This is the beneficent protection which the State throws around the poor man's home. Yet there is one way in which he may forfeit it.
Should he have the misfortune to mortgage his homestead the law can no longer protect him; he is in the toils of the money lender, and should poor crops or other set-backs come to him now, there is every probability that he will lose his home.
We say to our settlers, avoid this fatal error, misfortune almost always follows it; toil, slave, fast, rather than mortgage your homestead.
We come now to a very important part of our work. Under this head we have made several calculations, for the guidance of the immigrant. They have been made with care, and are, we think, as nearly correct as it is possible to make such calculations. By a careful study of them the intending immigrant will learn
WHAT HE HAS TO DO WHEN HE HAS SECURED HIS LAND.THE VARIOUS MODES HE MAY TAKE TO OPEN HIS FARM.THE EXPENSES INCURRED BY EACH METHOD.THE EXPENSE OF LIVING UNTIL HIS FIRST CROP COMES IN.
These, with minor details, we have set forth in the following calculations. They embrace the case of the poor man with a small capital and the man with quite a respectable capital, who may wish to put it in a bank that never fails, and in which he will himself be the director and owner.
THESE TABLES CLEARLY SHOW THE LEAST CAPITAL
a man requires to settle in one of our colonies, and also, if he can afford it, how advantageously he can lay out a considerable sum for which he will receive a quick return.
We will take up the poor man's case first, as it is the one we have the most interest in, and we land him on his land
IN THE SPRING.
He puts up a very cheap house; by and by, he will have a better one—but, in the meantime, he can make this one comfortable, warm and clean—much better than a cheap lodging in a city.
We will give the dimensions of the house as 16 × 18 ft., to be built of single boards; these to be sodded on the outside to any depth the owner may wish. In this way, he can have a house far warmer than a poorly put up frame house, at the following cost:
Now, we must furnish the house:
HOUSE FURNITURE.
CATTLE AND FARMING IMPLEMENTS
Then he goes to work and breaks up, we will say, 50 acres of land. He has to live sixteen months before his principal crop comes in, but he can have his potatoes and corn, planted on the sod, within a few months, to help him out in his living; that is, when he breaks his land the first year, he will plant a portion of it under corn, potatoes, and other vegetables, sufficient for his own use, and for feed for his cattle.
WHAT IT WILL COST HIM TO LIVE.
He has besides, vegetables, and corn sufficient, that he raised on his breaking, and two hogs that he raised and fattened on the corn, and for which we should have charged him two or three dollars. In the fall, his hogs weigh 200 lbs. each, and he can sell them or eat them; we recommend the latter course.
HOW HE STANDS THE SECOND SPRING.
This sum he will absolutely require to have when he arrives on the land. To this, in his calculations, he must add his expenses coming here.
Railroad fares from different points will be given in another place.
We have not here made any calculations in regard to the purchase of his land, in the first place because the lands are different prices in different colonies, and secondly because most of our settlers with small means, buy their farms on time, getting very easy terms of payments. All information in this respect will be found in its proper place, when we come to speak of our colonies. It must be born in mind (and it may be as well said here as elsewhere) that the Catholic Bureau owns no lands; we but control them and hold them at their original prices for our immigrants. We have also secured advantages in prices and terms of payment which immigrants cannot get outside of our colonies.
Now having no crop the first year, he works out in the harvest and earns $60.00.
This he requires now, and more when he puts in his first crop, but, as he will get time for some, perhaps all, of the following charges, we will not charge them to his original capital.
SECOND SPRING'S WORK AND EXPENSES.
We have now come down to the harvest and the second year on the land
Up to this the settler's expenses have been $621 75.
Let us see what the land is likely to set off against this sum,
Adding to this the sixty dollars the man earned the first harvest, he has in hand $438.25.
It must be borne in mind that the settler has supported himself and family for sixteen months, his home is made, stock paid for, his farm opened, and at least $300 added to the value of his land. We will suppose that he plows the second year fifty acres more and has one hundred acres under his second crop. With this good set off, we leave him. Now we will give the
CASH EXPENSES,
for the same number of acres, where a man hires all his work done. He may prefer to do this, to buying cattle or horses to break, as he may be a man who can earn high wages, until his first crop comes in.
CREDITS.
Now, the expense of breaking, by right, should not be chargedto the first crop, for it is a permanent value, added to the value of the land, and should be calculated as capital: 50 acres broken on a farm of a 160, adds fully $2 an acre to the value of the property.
But in the above calculation, we have not alone charged the first crop with the breaking expenses, but also with the cash price of every dollar's worth of labor expended, until the wheat is in the railroad elevator, and the owner has nothing more to do, unless to receive his money for it; and yet there is a clear profit over all expenses of $535.00.
In making these calculations, it is necessary to put a certain value on the wheat per bushel, and to allow for a certain amount of bushels to the acre, but it will be obvious to any reader that in both these important items there are continual variations.
The calculations we now give appeared in the edition of our pamphlet for 1877, and were based, in a measure, on our fine wheat crop for that year.
The crop of 1878, as we have already stated, fell short of 1877, and were we basing our estimate on it we should calculate wheat second grade at 66 cents per bushel, but the crop of 1879 may surpass the crop of 1877; taking the average of many years' crops and prices, our calculations are as near correct as they can be made.
SECOND CALCULATION OF HOUSE BUILDING.
In our calculation of the smallest sum a man would require, coming to settle on the land, we made an estimate of a very cheap house indeed, nevertheless one that can be made warmer than many a more expensive one. We give an estimate of the cost of a frame house 16×24, a story and a half high, with a T addition, and a cellar 12 by 16.
We give the exact expenses of a house of this kind as it stands at present in one of our colonies. It has three rooms up stairs with a hall, two rooms down stairs with a hall and pantry, and has had one coat of plaster:
A man himself helping, can lessen this item for work, say $25, leaving the cost of the house $330.
In our first calculation we put down as the lowest sum a man would require to have after his arrival on the land, $409.75. But in this calculation we gave him a house, such as it was, for $38.75. Now, if he wants the better house we have just described, his capital should be $726.
WHAT A MAN WITH MODERATE CAPITAL CAN DO.
We now come to the case of a man with moderate capital, who wishes to start with a complete outfit of farming machinery, &c. Coming in the spring, in time to commence breaking, the end of May, he buys
N. B.—It is calculated that the grain saved by the self-binder over hand work, pays for the wire used in binding, and in labor 50 cents an acre is saved, besides the board of two men. We will soon have twine and straw binders perfected, an improvement which will do away with the expense of wire altogether.
With a sulky plow and three horses, our farmer breaks 100 acres of land, and puts it under wheat the following year.
CREDITS.
Now, it will be born in mind, that we have charged the first crop with horses and machinery, property that, by right, should come under the head of capital; we have charged it with what will work the farm for years, and help to produce successive crops, not of one hundred acres, but of two or three hundred acres; and yet, with all the charges, the crop shows a profit of $773.
What other business can make such a showing as this?
As a matter of fact, all the ready money the settler will require to provide himself with machinery, will be ten per cent. on the price; for the balance he will get two years time at 12 per cent. interest.
While our figures and illustrations in regard to the opening of a farm, and the expenses attending thereon, have been as explicit and full as our space would permit, still we regard them but as a basis for a variety of similar calculations to be made by intending immigrants.
For instance, two friends might buy a breaking team between them, and break, say twenty acres, on each one's farm. One could do the breaking, while the other might be doing some other work.
In fact, each man's case has its own peculiar features, which he must bring his own judgment to bear upon, and we don't pretend to have done more than to have given him a good guide to assist him in his calculations.
Twenty acres would be a pretty fair breaking for a poor man the first year, and quite sufficient to enable him to support a small family. We have farmers in the woods, now prosperous men, who for years had not more than from five to ten acres cleared, for it is hard work to clear heavy timbered land, and much easier to plant young trees than to cut old ones down. But heretofore poor men were frequently deterred from going on prairie land on account of the heavy expense attached to fencing their tillage land. This was about the highest item of expense. It is not so now, for in the counties in which our Catholic colonies are situated, and in the adjoining counties,
A HERD LAW
is in force, whereby cattle have to be herded during the day, and confined within bounds during the night. In this way one man or boy can herd the cattle of a whole settlement, and the heavy, vexatious and continual tax of fencing is entirely done away with.
All the lands in our Catholic colonies are prairie lands, and in the colonies and adjoining counties, as we have already stated, the herd law is in full force.
No one, at the present day, who has any experience in farming in the West, would settle on an unimproved timber farm. It takes a lifetime to clear such a farm, and even then a man leaves some stumps for his grandchildren to take out. But we earnestlyimpress upon our settlers the necessity of setting out trees around their prairie homes. The rapid growth of trees set out on any of our prairies, is absolutely wonderful. In six years after planting, a man will have nice, sheltering, young groves, around his house. One of the first things a settler should do after breaking up his land is to set out some young trees, which he can buy very cheap. All our railroads carry such freight free. If he cannot get the trees he can sow the seed, which will do as well.
For comfort on a prairie, trees are a necessity; but it is worse than useless, it is loss of time, to set them out, unless they are taken care of: give them solitude, and keep the weeds and cattle from them for a little while, and they will soon be able to take care of themselves. Cord-wood can be bought at any of the railroad stations in our colonies at an average of about five dollars a cord.
There is another matter which may well come under the head of general remarks.
While we have shown by figures the good profits which may be calculated upon by an industrious farmer, still, he must not look for a great increase of money capital, for some years at least.
While he will be enabled under God, by industry, sobriety and perseverance to give his family a good, comfortable living, it must be to the increase in the value of his farm each year, that he must look for an increase of capital, to that and the increase of his
LIVE STOCK.
Above all things, he must attend to the latter; it is almost incredible the way young stock will increase. A man starting with one cow will have his yard full of young stock in a few years by raising the calves that come to him.
It is a fact that men who came to this State without any means whatever, and settled on land, are to-day among our most prosperous farmers; but they came uninvited, at their own risk, and if they had failed, they could only blame themselves.
The case is altogether different in regard to persons coming to our Catholic colonies. They come invited, and depending upon the information we give to them; therefore, there must be no misunderstanding on either side.
We say to the immigrant, with the capital we have specified, you can open a farm in Minnesota, and if you are industrious, brave and hopeful, we promise you, under God, an independent home. If you come without this capital, you do so at your own risk.
LOCATION, POPULATION, SOIL, TOWNS, EXTRACTS FROM INTERESTING LETTERS FROM RESIDENTS, &c., &c.
LOCATION, POPULATION, SOIL, TOWNS, EXTRACTS FROM INTERESTING LETTERS FROM RESIDENTS, &c., &c.
We now come to speak of our Catholic Colonies. In doing so we will be as accurate and as truthful as it is possible to be. At the same time we recognize the difficulty of making others see things as we see them, they are too apt to draw imaginary pictures from our facts. For instance when we speak of settled communities and towns, it should be borne in mind that our oldest settlement was only opened in the spring of 1876, our two latest in the spring of 1878, and that both farms and towns exhibit the rough, unfinished appearance of new places in the West, which it takes time, perseverance and industry to mould into thrifty comeliness; with the aid of the two latter (perseverance and industry) the former (time) will be but a very short period indeed. We have now four Catholic Colonies in Minnesota, two in the western and two in the southwestern part of the State.
This is the oldest and doubtless best known of our colonies. The colony lands commence 120 miles west of St. Paul and extend for 30 miles on each side of the St. Paul and Pacific railroad. Within the bounds of the colony are four railroad towns, one of them, Benson, being the county seat; but the two colony towns proper, are De Graff and Clontarf, being organized and run, as they say out West, by our own people.
In fact, Swift County Colony may very well be spoken of as two colonies, for the present under one name, the Chippewa River dividing the colony lands about in the center, having De Graff on the east and Clontarf on the west. Each town too, has its own Catholic church, congregation and resident priest—the Rev. F. J. Swift, pastor at De Graff, and the Rev. A. Oster, pastor at Clontarf.
The colony lands on the east side of the Chippewa, stretch out from the town of De Graff, 18 miles in length and 12 miles in width, and Clontarf lands on the west side of the river, have equal proportions.
This division and explanation may be of service to correspondents, some of whom frequently write to one or other of the resident priests, for information, in preference to writing direct to the Catholic Bureau, in St. Paul.
When Bishop Ireland in 1876, got control of the unsold railroad lands within the present bounds of Swift County Colony, there was a large quantity of Government lands lying beside these railroad lands, and open for homestead and pre-emption entries, so that a great number of our people were able to secure farms of 80 and 160 acres by merely paying the fees of the U. S. Land Office.
Early settlers too, on the railroad lands, had an opportunity by paying cash to get their farms much below the market value, for the St. Paul and Pacific Railroad Company (the owner) having fallen behind hand in paying the interest on its bonds held by foreign capitalists, these bonds became depreciated in the market, but were, nevertheless, good for their full amount, in payment of the lands belonging to the company.
In this way we were enabled in the first edition of our pamphlet for the year 1877, to offer lands, much below, in some instancesmore than half below, their average value; but as prices depend altogether on the market value of the bonds, a value which is always fluctuating, we deem it unwise to bind ourselves to arbitrary prices. The average railroad price of lands in Swift County Colony is $6.50 per acre; the actual cash price, by buying bonds and paying for the land with same, will be much less than this, and we will, when called upon get the bonds for the immigrant at their then value, but what the exact prices of the bonds may be or how long they will remain in the market available for the purchase of land, we cannot take upon ourselves to say.
In this connection we wish to point out to immigrants, that irrespective of paying for land in bonds, for which they must pay cash, they can make contracts, on long time, with the company, for their farms.
There are other ways too by which our people can make homes in this well-settled colony. Non-Catholics who were settled in the county before the colony was established, will be willing to sell out. Homesteaders, too, who got their land free from the government, and made improvements, are frequently anxious to realize a little capital by the sale of those improved farms, and go still farther west. There is also a large quantity of school and State lands in the county, which will be in the market in 1879; so notwithstanding that the greater part of the colony railroad lands have passed from the control of the Bureau into the possession of settlers, and that all the government lands have been taken up, we look forward, with pleasure, to see many more of our people settling in Swift county next spring. They will find a goodly number of their co-religionists settled before them and anxious to give them a friendly welcome. There are very few of the New England or Middle States that have not representatives in the colony.
From a communication received from the Register of the United States Land Office at Benson, the county seat, we find that since the Bureau opened this colony in 1876, 425 Catholic settlers have taken up government land in the colony; of these, 300 families were Irish, the remainder Germans, Poles and French. About an equal number of Catholics—a large majority Irish—have taken railroad lands—80,000 acres of which have been sold; so that we can claim at least 800 Catholic settlers, with their families, in Swift County Colony at the present writing. Driving west from De Graff to Clontarf, seventeen miles, and still eleven miles farther west from Clontarf to thePomme de TerreRiver, one is never out of sight of a settler's house; and some of those farm houses wouldbe a credit to a much older settlement, for we have settlers who farm as much as five hundred acres, while others again farm but eighty acres. The general quality of the soil is a dark loam, slightly mixed with sand and with a clay sub-soil, admirably adapted for wheat, oats, &c., &c., while the bountiful supply of good water and the large quantity of natural meadow lands, scattered all over the colony—there is scarcely a quarter section (160 acres) without its patch of natural meadow—give the settler an opportunity to combine stock raising and tillage on his farm.
The village or town of De Graff has a railroad depot and telegraph office; a grain elevator, with steam power—which is the same as saying, a cash market for all farm produce—six or seven stores, with the general merchandise found in a country town; lumber yard, machine warehouse, blacksmith, carpenter and wagon maker shops; an immigrant house, where persons in search of land can lodge their families until they are suited; a resident doctor, and resident priest, Rev. F. J. Swift; a fine commodious church; a handsome school house and pastor's residence. No saloon. The business men of the town are our own people, and a Catholic fair, for the benefit of the new church, held last fall, and patronized exclusively by the colonists, netted $1,000 clear.
Traveling along the railroad and passing through Benson, half way between De Graff and Clontarf, we come to the latter, the youngest town in this young settlement, but it has a very fine class of settlers around it: west of the village the land is as fine as any in the State, known as the Hancock Ridge.
Clontarf has two general stores, a grain elevator, an immigrant house, a railroad depot, blacksmith shop, a large church and a very handsome residence for the priest, the Rev. A. Oster. No part of the colony is settling up more rapidly than the portion around Clontarf and several new buildings will go up in the village next summer. Swift County Colony is fast beginning to wear the features of a settled community. Many of our farmers have harvested this year their second crop; our merchants report that they are doing a lively business; bridges are being built, roads laid out, plans of improvement discussed by the settlers; and we challenge any part of the West to produce a more intelligent rural class.
True to the memory of the old land and their love for their church, the settlers have given familiar names to many of the townships in the colony, such as Kildare, Cashel, Dublin, Clontarf, Tara, St. Michaels, St. Josephs, St. Francis, &c., &c.
The St. Paul and Pacific Railroad, running through the wholelength of the colony, has, by its late extension, become one of the great railroad thoroughfares of the northwest, and added much to the value of the colony lands. Commencing at St. Paul, the capital of Minnesota, it crosses the Northern Pacific at Glyndon in this State and continues on to St. Vincent, situated on the line separating the State of Minnesota and the British Possessions in Manitoba. Here it connects with a railroad just completed and running to Winnipeg, the capital of the British province of Manitoba.
This colony is located in Big Stone County, west of Swift. It is our Homestead Colony, and one which we feel very proud of. What is thought of Big Stone County by Western men, in connection with stock raising, is shown by the following extract from a published communication.
"Stock raising now receives more attention from the prairie farmers than ever before, since the erroneous impression heretofore existing that the wintering of cattle was too expensive, has been entirely disproved. Numbers of settlers from the lower part of our State, and from Iowa, have removed to Big Stone County with large droves of cattle, that they herd on the vast natural meadows of that county, which also furnish all the necessary hay for winter food." We will add to this, that the soil of Big Stone County, for agricultural purposes, is deemed as good as any in the State, without exception.
The lands in the county being government lands, we could not of course have any control of them, they were open to all comers; but by prompt action the Bureau located during the months of March, April and May, one hundred and seventy-five families in the county. Many of those colonists were poor people who were induced to leave Minnesota towns and settle on land.
But we will let a resident of the colony, one who has examined every quarter section in it and materially aided in its settlement, speak for it.
In answer to a letter from us, Col. J. R. King, a resident of Graceville, and a practical surveyor, who has acted as agent for the Bureau since the opening of the colony, writes:
"During the months of March and April, 1878, a great number of claims for our people were entered in the United States Land Office, but before any of them come on to their lands, Bishop Ireland shipped, in March, five car loads of lumber for erecting a church building; the church was commenced the same month and completed, in the rough, in about three weeks. This is the first instance, in my knowledge, where a church was erected in advance of settlement. Our Right Rev. Bishop must have had a foreknowledge of what was to follow.
"In the short space of three months there was built, in a radius of six miles from Graceville Church, over 150 comfortable cabins, and on each claim from five to ten acres broken for a garden and planted with potatoes, corn, beans, turnips, &c., &c., which yielded quite a good supply for the present winter. Our colonists had the advantage of being early on the ground and had their gardens planted in May.
"The colonists broke during last summer from fifteen to thirty acres per man, so that next spring they will be able to get in wheat sufficient to carry them through the second winter handsomely. They are all in the very best spirits and could not be induced to return to the cities—for they already feel independent and masters of the situation.
"The soil here is splendid and the country beautiful. Gently rolling prairie, with numerous ponds or small lakes and plenty of the finest hay.
"The balance of Big Stone County, outside of our colony, has all been taken up; a large majority of the claims occupied and substantial improvements made by the settlers, who are first class. Traverse County, adjoining us on the north, is fast filling up.
"I must not forget to say that we have good water in abundance; my own well is sixteen feet deep, with as fine, pure water as ever was found.
"And now to tell you about our little village, Graceville, named in honor of our revered Bishop, the Right Rev. Thos. L. Grace. It is beautifully situated on the north shore of one of the two large lakes known as Tokua Lakes, and has three general stores, one hotel, one blacksmith and wagon shop, a very handsome little church and the priest's residence attached. Around the lake is a fine belt of timber which adds much to the beauty of the place. The village is 26 miles due east from Morris, on the St. Paul & Pacific Railroad, but the Hastings & Dakota Railroad, now built close to the line, will run through our county next summer; by and by we will have a cross road running through the colony lands.
"Our resident pastor is the Rev. A. V. Pelisson, a veteran missionary, who is doing a wonderful deal of good, temporal and spiritual, among his people, and is 'the right man in the right place,' full of energy and zeal.
"The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is offered up in our church every day, and on Sundays we have High Mass, for Graceville has a sweet church choir.
"It is most edifying to see the crowd of men, women and children who flock in from all points of the compass to church on Sundays. Father Pelisson had the first temporary church taken down and in its place he has erected one of the prettiest and neatest churches in the State; a credit both to the good father and his people who so cheerfully assisted in its erection, under many difficulties.
"From the roof of the church I can count to-day over 70 houses where last March there was nothing but a bare prairie. If God prospers our people next season with good crops, they will be over their difficulties, in a fair way to prosperity."
We do not know that we have anything to add to Col. King's very graphic and truthful statement in regard to Graceville Colony and the prospects of its settlers, very many of whom were so poor when they went in, that it required Western pluck to face the prairie. The building of the Hastings & Dakota Railroad last summer, giving them employment, was a great help.
No doubt they had and will have a rough time of it for a little longer, but, they are toiling with hope, with the hope of an honest independence in the future. And with this hope in his heart, the settler toils and feels himself "every inch a man."
Traverse County, mentioned in Col. King's letter, has, at the present writing, a large quantity of government land open to homestead and pre-emption entries. (See the Homestead Law in another place.) There is no doubt too, but that persons, during the land excitement last year, made government claims in Big Stone County—some within the colony bounds—which, from one cause or another, they will neglect to hold, by not fulfilling the conditions required by the law governing such claims. In all cases of the kind the lands revert to the government and are again subject to entry. Yet, so rapidly are those lands taken up that we cannot promise to our people, coming from the East, that when they arrive, they will find any homestead land adjoining or within any of our colonies.
This colony, situated in Nobles County, in the southwestern portion of the State, close to the State line of Iowa, on the Luverne and Sioux Falls branch of the Sioux City and St. Paul Railroad, was opened in September, 1877.
Before going into details in regard to the colony we will give some extracts from an article (lately published) treating of southwestern Minnesota, where, as we have stated, St. Adrian colony is located.
"Southwestern Minnesota has made rapid progress in stock raising. As capital increases, and the utility and profit of stock raising become better understood by the farmer, we shall see fine flocks and herds, in addition to the fields of waving grain, and our rich prairies teeming with the life they can so amply sustain. The abundance of clear, sweet water, dry atmosphere, its elevation, rich pasturage, freedom from disease, and direct and ready access to all the prominent markets, unite to make Minnesota the paradise of stock raisers. Good hay can be put in the stack in Southwestern Minnesota for $1.25 per ton. It can be secured without other expense than cutting, and with very little labor, enough can be made for the maintenance of a large amount of stock.
"This section has been settled but seven years, yet it is already teeming with a population of wide-awake, industrious people, whose fields are evidences of the innate wealth of the region. The soil of Southwestern Minnesota is adapted to the successful cultivation of grain, and so celebrated has its grain producing qualities become, that capitalists have put their money into large tracts of land, and have now immense fields under cultivation, and their investments have proven extremely profitable. There are farms of 600, 1,000 and 2,000 acres, all producing Minnesota's great staple, wheat. Every year, as the success of these investments becomes known, new and large farms are opening.
"Southwestern Minnesota is on the move, and to those who wish to locate in a thriving, driving, pushing, growing country, no locality on the green earth promises more faithfully, and none will redeem its pledges with greater pride to the wide-awake,stirring husbandman. The very soil teams with wealth, and the air is laden with the most precious gifts of health."
Making allowance for the rather high coloring of the above extracts, its facts are correct. Southwestern Minnesota has many advantages for stock raising, its soil is good, none better. Stock raising has been carried on successfully there to the advantage of a great many poor settlers, and men of wealth have opened large grain farms in this section of the State; the largest of these farms adjoins the colony lands of St. Adrian.
Of the 70,000 acres of railroad land which Bishop Ireland holds the control of for colony purposes, 22,000 acres have been sold to settlers.
The colony lands adjoin the railroad town of Adrian. A little over a year ago it had three houses, now it is one of the brightest, liveliest, most bustling little burgs in Southwestern Minnesota. But, as in the case of Graceville, we will let a resident of St. Adrian speak for the town and colony. The following is an extract from a letter which we received the other day from the Rev. C. J. Knauf, the pastor in charge of the St. Adrian colony.
Father Knauf resides in the town of Adrian—where immigrants, bound for the colony, leave the train—and takes an active part in locating immigrants. Father Knauf writes:
"The village of Adrian consisted of three houses when I came here, September 20, 1877, one year and three months ago to-morrow; now there are 68 houses in the village. We have three hotels, one restaurant (no beer,) three lumber yards, one steam feed mill, four general stores, one drug, two hardware stores, one jewelry store, one barber shop, one large livery stable, two furniture dealers, four dealers in farming machinery, one shoe maker, one tailor, three blacksmiths, one carpenter shop, four wheat and produce buyers; a public school house, costing $1,800; a Catholic Church, well finished, and the pastor's house, the latter costing $1,840.
"I sold, up to date, 22,000 acres of land. Thousands of acres were broken last season. I was the first Catholic to arrive here: now we have sixty Catholic families in the colony. Next spring we will have 160 Catholic families, for a great many bought farms last year, had breaking done—some broke extensively, others moderately—and will move on, with their families, to their new farms, next spring, in time to put in their first crop."
In explanation of that portion of Father Knauf's letter which speaks of parties who have purchased farms in the colony but who have not moved on to them as yet, we will say, that since the Bureau, at the solicitation of many correspondents, agreed to haveland selected and contracts made out for persons anxious to secure land in some one of our colonies, and yet unable, from one cause or another, to come on immediately; a great many have adopted this mode to get land.
We find from Father Knauf's letter that he has on his books the names of one hundred families who have secured land in St. Adrian colony, and will move on to their new homes next spring, so that he is looking forward to very lively times.
There is also coming out to St. Adrian Colony in the spring a brave-hearted little lady from Brooklyn, N. Y., to get in her first crop, and put up her first farm house. She was on here last summer, spent a month or so at St. Adrian, bought 270 acres of land, left money to pay for the breaking of 200 acres, and will come on to settle in the spring. She has no doubt but that she will make the venture pay, and prefers to make the trial rather than have her money bearing small interest in the East.
Lands sell in the colony from $5 to $7.50 per acre. A discount of 20 per cent. from these prices is allowed for cash. The conditions for time contracts are as follows: At time of purchase, one-tenth of principal and interest on unpaid principal; second year, interest only; third year one-fourth of remaining principal and interest on unpaid principal; same for three ensuing years: after the expiration of which the full price of the land is paid.
As an instance, showing the value set on land in this part of Minnesota, we will state, that school lands, sold last spring, at public sale, in the neighborhood of St. Adrian, brought from $7.50 to $17 per acre: the price obtained heretofore having been $5 per acre.
On stepping from the train at St. Adrian, last summer, one witnessed a scene of bustle and activity similar to those frequently described by writers in sketches of Western life in new settlements, with some important exceptions, for neither in Adrian nor in any of the towns under the control of the Catholic Bureau, can there be found rowdies, nor the saloons that vomit them forth. This fact may take from the dramatic effect of such sketches, but it is the anchor of family unity and love, the harbinger of prosperity.
The town of Adrian is 197 miles from St. Paul. A daily train from St. Paul to Sioux Falls, D. T., passes through it; it has also railroad communication with Sioux City, Iowa.
The lands of the colony are first-class, both for agriculture and stock raising: and to those of fair capital we strongly recommend St. Adrian Colony.
The colonists are German and Irish Catholics.
This is the latest opened of our colonies, Bishop Ireland having only secured control of the lands last April. It is situated in Murray County (Southwestern Minnesota,) adjoining Nobles County on the north, and in the whole 52,000 acres of land secured by the Bishop for the colony, we very much doubt if one poor section (640 acres) could be found, nor do we suppose that any of the land will remain unsold by the 1st of next July.
While the beauty of the location and fertility of the soil, make Avoca one of the most desirable locations in Minnesota, the easy terms on which a farm can be secured, are additional and substantial advantages for men of small means.
The centre of the colony—the village of Avoca, situated on a beautiful lake—is just twenty miles from Heron Lake, a station on the St. Paul and Sioux City Railroad, 160 miles southwest of St. Paul; but the Southern Minnesota Railroad, which will give this portion of the State a direct communication with the Milwaukee and Chicago markets, is now completed to within forty-five miles of Avoca, and we expect to see it running through our colony lands by next fall. This will give to the settlers in Avoca Colony, a direct southern route to Chicago, and a choice of markets for their produce: the latter an advantage which farmers can well appreciate.
The price of lands in the colony are from $5 to $6.50 per acre, on the following easy terms of payment. At the time of purchase, interest only, one year in advance, seven per cent., is required; at the end of one year, interest only for another year; at the end of two years, one-tenth of the principal, and a year's interest on the balance; at the end of three years, one-tenth of the principal, and interest on balance; at the end of each year thereafter, twenty per cent. of the principal, and interest on balance; until all is paid.
We subjoin a practical illustration of these terms:
We will say that January, 1879, a man contracts for 80 acres of land at $5 per acre, this will come to $400, with 7 per cent. interest, which sums he will have to pay as follows:
The advantage of the terms is, that the principal payments are all postponed until the farmer has had time to raise several crops from his land. A quarter-section of land will support a family, pay for itself, leave after seven years a balance in cash, and be worth more than twice its original value.
We have already selected several 80 and 160 acre farms in Avoca for persons not in a position to come on immediately to the land. Now let us explain how this operates.
An intending immigrant writes to the Bureau to have 80 acres of land in Avoca at $5 per acre, selected for him, (as a general rule a man should take a quarter-section, 160 acres, by doing so he will be likely to have both meadow and tillage land on his farm.) For those 80 acres, he pays down, before getting his contract from the railroad company, one year's interest, $28. He writes on then, next spring, to the Bureau, to have 30 acres of his land broken and ready for a crop the following spring—1880. His breaking will cost at $2.50 per acre, $75. He will have paid the first year $103, and have his land ready for the seed; he comes on then the second spring, 1880, pays $28, another year's interest, to the railroad company, puts in his crop and has it saved and ready for market in August. Up to this time—not calculating the expenses chargeable to the crop, which we have estimated already in another place—he has paid out $131, and has his farm opened and in a fair way to pay for itself.
In soil and location the Colony of Avoca is not surpassed in the Northwest. Nine miles from the village of Avoca there is a large body of timber. Settlers can also get coal from Iowa.
The Rev. Chas. Kœberl is pastor of the colony, address, Avoca, Murray County, Minnesota. He writes to us under date of December 20th, 1878:
"In regard to this colony it promises, thank God, to be a great success. Since June, when the land sales commenced, we have sold 9,850 acres, and forty-five Catholic families are preparing to move into the colony next spring. Immigrants will have in our village of Avoca, a building where they can leave their families until they have put up their houses, also a boarding house and store.
"In speaking of our climate you can boast honestly of its health. Among 200 families belonging to my missionary district, I have not known of one case of internal disease, during my seven months' stay here. It would be well to particularly mention in your forthcoming pamphlet, that this is a prairie, not a timber county. I receive so many letters asking about the cost of clearings, &c., &c.
"I expect quite a rush for land in Avoca, next spring, and will be glad if our people come on early, in time to plant potatoes, corn, &c."
In bringing this brief review of our Catholic colonies to a close, we again thank the Catholic press of this country, for its honest advocacy of Catholic immigration to the land. The favorable notices its editors have given to our humble labors in our own field of duty, and the service rendered to our work thereby, can never be forgotten by us.
Our friend, P. Hickey, Esq., editor of theCatholic Review, came specially from New York, last summer to visit our colonies, to judge for himself; and what he saw, the favorable impressions he carried away with him, together with sound argument in favor of Catholic colonization, have appeared, from time to time, since his return, in able and lucid articles from his pen.
God has blessed our labors beyond our expectations. We see our colonies fast merging into settled communities, where honest labor goes hand in hand with religion, and where men work not for a mere pittance from a master's hand, to support them for a day or a week, but with the hope, the prospect, of an inheritance for their children, in the future.