Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 38, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 October 1905 — PANORAMA OF ACTIVITY. [ARTICLE]

PANORAMA OF ACTIVITY.

An Unusual Condition in the Prosperous Northwest. The farmers of the Northwest are staggering under the biggest crops that section has witnessed in years. Furthermore, the industrial and merchntile prosperity is wonderful. Not a city or hamlet in Minnesota or the two Dakotas is exempt from the prosperous conditions. In all the cities there is a . remarkable amount of building in progress, and as far as the eye can see from the railway train the prairie country is dotted thickly with grain and hay stacks. From all appearances, South Dakota will produce a big yield of all kinds of grain this year. This wheat is averaging well and yields run from 15 to 30 bushels per acre. The delayed frost has greatly increased the corn crop and there is not a county in the Northwest that will not produce a free crop of corn. On all sides the thfashers are busy and the entire country presents a panorama of activity. It will require all the winter and next spring to dispose of fhis fall’s enormous yield. of crops in South Dakota. The crop of wheat alone will certainly aggregate 40,000,000 bushels, not including the big yield of maccaroni wheat. South Dakota alone has an area of 76,000 square miles — more than 49,000,000 acres —and is larger by a fourth than the combined area of the New England States. For the past seven consecutive years it has led all others In the production of wealth per capita, the State report for 1904 being $148,956,663, or estimated at 500.000 population, $297.91 for each man, woman and child. It is a remarkable fact that people are pouring into the Northwest so fast to acquire lands and to engage in business that the railways are taxed to find accommodations. Trains are full to overflowing, it being difficult to find seats. People are for once too busy for politics. The farmer is strictly in it this year, and he faces big crops on his own and neighbors’ lands, good prices and increased valuation of his farm property. It is no uncommon thing to find men who have paid for their land with the sale of their crop this or last year.