Part 4

"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.

FARM STATISTICS.

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:

1,600 feet of lumber $25 00 2 windows, 2 doors 6 50 Shingles 7 25 ------ Total $38 75

Now, we must furnish the house:

HOUSE FURNITURE.

Cooking stove $25 00 Crockery 5 00 Chairs 2 00 Table 2 00 3 bedsteads 9 00 ------ Total $43 00

CATTLE AND FARMING IMPLEMENTS

He buys a breaking yoke of oxen, weighing from 3,200 to 3,400 lbs. at about $100 00 Breaking plow 23 00 Wagon 75 00 ------- Total $198 00

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.

For a family of four, 30 bushels of wheat, ground into flour, at $1, a bushel $30 00 Groceries 15 00 1 cow for milk 25 00 Fuel 30 00 ------ Total $100 00

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.

He has laid out, for a house $38 75 For Fuel 30 00 " Furniture 43 00 " Cattle and farming implements 198 00 Cost of living, including price of cow 100 00 ------- Total $409 75

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.

1 drag to put in the crop, shaking the seed by hand $12 00 Seed wheat for 50 acres. 1 bushel and 2 pecks to the acre 75 00 Hires his grain cut and bound 75 00 Shocking, stacking, etc., done by exchanging work with neighbors. Machine threshing at 5 cents a bushel 50 00 Extra labor done by exchanging work. ------- $212 00

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, 50 acres of wheat 20 bushels to the acre $1,000 00 Charges 621 75 --------- Balance in favor of crop $378 25

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.

Breaking 50 acres, at $2.50 per acre $125 00 Seed wheat 75 00 Seeding and dragging, at 90 cents per acre 45 00 Cutting and binding, $1.50 per acre 75 00 Stacking, five days, two men and team 25 00 Threshing and hauling to market, at 12 cents a bushel 120 00 ------- Cash expenses of crop $465 00

CREDITS.

Fifty acres of wheat, 20 bushels to the acre, at $1 per bushel $1,000 00 Charged to the crop 465 00 --------- Balance in favor of crop $535 00

Now, the expense of breaking, by right, should not be charged to 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:

Material for house $280 Work 75 ---- Total $355

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

Three horses $375 00 One sulky plow--seat for driver, breaker attachment 70 00 Seeder 65 00 Harrow 12 00 Harvester and self-binder 285 00 Horse rake and mower 125 00 Wagon 75 00 --------- Total $1,007 00

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.

He has been already at an outlay for horses and machinery of $1,007 00 Seed wheat costs 150 00 Shocking and stacking 70 00 Threshing and hauling, using his three horses, 10 cents a bushel 200 00 --------- Total $1,427 00

CREDITS.

2,000 bushels of wheat $2,000 00 Hay cut by mower 200 00 --------- $2,200 00 Expenses 1,427 00 --------- Balance in favor of crop $773 00

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.

GENERAL REMARKS.

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 earnestly impress 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.

CATHOLIC COLONIES IN MINNESOTA.

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.

SWIFT COUNTY COLONY.

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.