Catholic Colonization in Minnesota Part 7

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 Thres.h.i.+ng 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 surpa.s.s 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 1624, 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 Thres.h.i.+ng 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 ill.u.s.trations in regard to the opening of a farm, and the expenses attending thereon, have been as explicit and full as our s.p.a.ce 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 a.s.sist 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 G.o.d, 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.