CHAPTER X

       A FAMILIAR TALK

       Table of Contents

      I have called to have a little talk about the West, and think that I should like a farm in Minnesota or in the Red River country," said a gentleman not long since, who introduced himself as Mr. Blotter, and who said he was "clerking it."

      "I want to go out West and raise stock," said another gentleman who stopped me on the street.

      "Where would you advise a fellow to go who hasn't much money, but who isn't afraid to work?" said a stout young man from Maine.

      "I am a machinist, and want to try my luck out West," said another young man hailing from a manufacturing town in Massachusetts.

      "I am manufacturing chairs, and want to know if there is a place out West where I can build up a good business," said another.

      Many other gentlemen, either in person or by letter, have asked for specific information.

      It is not to be expected that I can point out the exact locality suited to each individual, or with which they would be suited, but for the benefit of all concerned I give the substance of an evening's talk with Mr. Blotter.

      "I want a farm, I am tired of the city," said he.

      Well, sir, you can be accommodated. The United States government has several million acres of land, — at least 30,000,000 in Minnesota, to say nothing of Dakota and the region beyond, — and you can help yourself to a farm out of any unoccupied territory. The Homestead Law of 1862 gives a hundred and sixty acres, free of cost, to actual settlers, whether foreign or native, male or female, over twenty-one years old, or to minors having served fourteen days in the army. Foreigners must declare their intention to become citizens. Under the present Pre-emption Law settlers often live on their claims many years before they are called on to pay the $1.25 per acre, — the land in the mean time having risen to $10 or $12 per acre. A recent decision gives single women the right to pre-empt. Five years' residence on the land is required by the Homestead Law, and it is not liable to any debts contracted before the issuing of the patent.

      The State of Minnesota has a liberal law relative to the exemption of real estate from execution. A homestead of eighty acres, or one lot and house, is exempt; also, five hundred dollars' worth of furniture, besides tools, bed and bedding, sewing-machine, three cows, ten hogs, twenty sheep, a span of horses, or one horse and one yoke of oxen, twelve months' provisions for family and stock, one wagon, two ploughs, tools of a mechanic, library of a professional man, five hundred dollars' worth of stock if a trader, and various other articles.

      You will find several railroad companies ready to sell you eighty, or a hundred and sixty, or six hundred and forty acres in a body, at reasonable rates, giving you accommodating terms.

      "Would you take a homestead from government, or would you buy lands along the line of a railroad?"

      That is for you to say. If you take a homestead it will necessarily be beyond the ten-mile limit of the land granted to the road, where the advance in value will not keep pace with lands nearer the line. You will find government lands near some of the railroads, which you can purchase for $2.50 per acre, cash down. The railroad companies will charge you from $2 to $10, according to location, but will give you time for payment.

      "What are their terms?"

      The St. Paul and Pacific Railroad, the main line of which is to be completed to the Red River this year, and which owns the branch line running from St. Paul up the east bank of the Mississippi to St. Cloud, have a million acres of prairie, meadow, and timber lands which they will sell in tracts of forty acres or more, and make the terms easy. Suppose you were to buy eighty acres at $8 per acre, that would give you a snug farm for $640. If you can pay cash down, they will make it $7 per acre, — $80 saved at the outset; but if you have only a few dollars in your pocket they will let you pay a year's interest at seven per cent to begin with, and the principal and interest in ten annual payments. The figures would then run in this way: —

      Eighty acres at $8 per acre, $640

      "The second year will be the hardest," said Mr. Blotter, "for I shall have to fence my farm, build a cabin, and purchase stock and tools. Is there fencing material near?"

      That depends upon where you locate. If you are near the line of the railway, you can have it brought by cars. If you locate near the "Big Woods" on the main line west of Minneapolis, you will have timber near at hand. Numerous saw-mills are being erected, some driven by water and others by steam. The timbered lands of the company are already held at high rates, — from $7 to $10 per acre. The country beyond the "Big Woods" is all prairie, with no timber except a few trees along the streams. It is filling up so rapidly with settlers that wood-lands are in great demand, for when cleared they are just as valuable as the prairie for farming purposes.

      Many settlers who took up homesteads before the railroad was surveyed now find themselves in good circumstances, especially if they are near a station. In many places near towns, land which a year ago could have been had for $2.50 per acre is worth $20 to-day.

      "Is the land in the Mississippi Valley above St. Paul any better than that of the prairies?"

      Perhaps you have a mistaken idea in regard to the Mississippi Valley. There are no bottom-lands on the Upper Mississippi. The prairie borders upon the river. You will find the land on the east side better adapted to grazing than for raising wheat. The company do not hold their lands along the branch at so high a figure as on the main line. Some of my Minnesota friends say that stock-growing on the light lands east of the Mississippi