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1'OL. AT, AT0. 17
LINCOLN, NEBRASKA, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY ., 7fl0:.
ESTABLISHED IN ISSt;
REMARKABLE RISE IN VALUES
Wealth-Producing Capabilities of Nebraska Farms Lead
to Phenomenal Increase in
Prices that Discount the Old and Forgotten Boom Days
Now is the time, in nil the history of
the state of Nebraska, when pros
perity, measured in real estate values,
registers the loftiest.
It is greatest because truest. Fig
ures are not fictitious. There is no
inllntion.. It is not a boom time.
There was a boom once, hut that hys
terical season has long passed, since
when a gradual straightening up has
ensued. It has been a steady growth
and for thai reason the result is a
robust strength, a healthful, whole
some condition of prosperity.
I'nanimity on this prevails among
the real estate men, both those who
deal chiefly in city property and those
whose interests are more largely
state-wide.
Dealers in farming tracts from one
end of the state to. the other-are on.
the lly as never before. One man
alone in Lincoln has sold over $.".0,000
worth of farms since the first of the
year a little over a month and others
are doing nearly as well. Purely spec
ulative buying is not the rage. Peo
ple are after homes. Many buy fully
witli the intention of making homes
who find excellent opportunities to re
sell for good profits and not all of them
hesitate at such an offer. They sell
and go buy again elsewhere. Many
people who have money in the banks,
rather than let it lie idle there, they
seek until they find a tract which ap
peals to both their admiration and
sagacity and into it they put their
funds. They have learned this that
even though farms may not always be
the most lucrative class of investment
they are absolutely safe and are sure
of developing some profit to the owner.
Northeast Nebraska, in the region of
lloyd county, boasts the greatest per
centage of rise in value in the past
year or two. Tracts up there which
have been selling for $3 an acre have
risen to $1:1 and $13. Throughout the
eastern counties and as far west as
Hastings, keeping south of the Platte
valley, farms have risen in value on an
average of thirty-five per cent in the
past year. West and north of Hast
ings the country for the most part
rapidly becomes range land, and there
has been a comparatively slight rise.
Six dollais an acre and less has been
the standard price for a long time,
while there beyond, so long as you
keep out of the irrigated parts and
those well patronized by rivers.
Cheyenne county, through which runs
the Platte river, has been redeemed
through irrigation and is becoming a
vry valuable portion of the state.
Even the ranges are rising in value,
but at the present time the cattlemen
are in a state of anxiety and suspense.
They are afraid the government will
order them to remove the fences they
have erected, by which to guard them
selves from the encroachments of the
sheep men. A lease bill is before con
gress providing the privilege of erect
ing fences, but to get around the law
as it stands now the cattlemen have
been in the habit of fencing just one
side of their ranges. In this each cat
tleman through neutrality gets a
fence on four sides as good as if he
had put them all there himself. One
real estate man predicts a considerable
exodus of people from the ranges if
the bill fails to pass. There never is
much speculation in ranches. They
are no good unless stocked and it
takes money to do this and money and
men to keep them up. Kanch invest
ments to amount to anything require
much patience and personal super
vision and this a thorough-bred specu
lator is not inclined to exercise.
One thing that has tended greatly
to the rise in value of land in the
northeast part of the state is the pros
pect of the construction of new rail
roads. In the spring the Elkhorn will
start from Verdigris northwest into
Boyd county and beyond. Then. too.
homesteaders are looking to the Kose
bud agency. Farm prices in the east
ern portion of the state have taken
excelled and he was blessed with an
abuiidaiu-e of money. E. T. Peters
bought a 320 near Maymoud last Sep
tember for $,.1oO. He has sold it al
ready to Charles Kaymoud for $:i.000.
Two years ago A. W. Jansen bought an
eighty a few miles south of town,
paying $33 an acre for it. A short
time ago lie sold it to Mr. Dean for
$.10 and that gentleman resold it for
$.0 :m acre, even before the deed had
been made out to himself. The profit
of r.iiming is illustrated by one man
in Imcaster county, one out of many.
Ten years ago he bought a tract of
Irto acres. The price was $3,200 and
all the money he had was $200. lie
went into debt for the whole thing and
put the money into calves, bringing
them up on hay tea. It was a heavy,
discouraging undertaking, but the man
had a fixed determination. Long since
he has piid out entirely and only a
short time ago he s orned an offer of
$.1,000 for his place.
r
LAND VALUES IN NEBRASKA
Itud values in ('(Mitral mid eastern Nebraska are increasing
with rapid strides. In many instances they have doubled within
the last twelve months.
Throughout the entire state there is a steady demand for land.
School land is being leased as fast as put up at auction.
Homesteads are being taken rapidly but yet there are 9.000,
000 acres in the state subject to homestead entry and much of it
is valuable for agricultural purposes.
an excellent spurt in the past year or
two. In some places a lise of 100 per
i-ent lias been recorded. A man living
near Waverly bought a farm some
time ago for $2.1 an acre. Itecently he
was offered $.10 an acre for it, and re
spectfully declined. The most insig
nificant farm anywhere in the eastern
part of the state has risen from $.1 ami
$10 to $1.1 an acre.
Though the drouth last summer was
a check, and to some a very serious
one. it was not a setback. Hardly any
of the farmers suffered a total loss of
crops and uite a number harvested
a leal good one. regardless. Dave
Truell is a farmer who lives in the
north part of Iincaster county. I-nst
year at this time he possessed but lfio
acres. He put in corn and so abund
ant was his harvest that he was able
to buy an adjoining eighty and pay
$4,000 for it in cash. It happens that
the nook in which he resides is so
formed as to prov ide a shield for his
corn last summer and the hot winds
did not hurt it. His crop could not be
Counties such as York and its
neighbors aie filling up more rapidly
than others with immigrant popula
tion. It is the fault of the railroads,
if fault it is. They are doing their
best to encourage the incoming of
homeseekers from the east and do not
make rates to points in the eastern
end of the state. Their purpose seems
to be to encourage multiplication to the
westward, and it is a rather opulent
homeseeker who gets a choice in the
eastern counties. The soil is good at
their fixed destination and if agricul
ture does not suit their tastes and in
clinations the charms of the range lie
just beyond. All over the state, how
ever, where the soil is at ail tillable,
the inllux of homeseekers in the past
year has been something remarkable.
The state never enjoyed better health
and prospects. With the greatest
acn age of winter wheat ever sown.
thriing now under the best of con
ditions and with the rapidly spreading
webs of irrigation ditches the state is
like to have an iridescent future.
Even the hair-trigger pessimists are
disconcerted.
An idea of the magnitude of Ne
braska may be gleaned from the fact
that despite this remarkable rise In
alues throughout the eastern and
central portions there are still 'j.onn.oon
acres subject to homestead within the
state. Much of this land is valuable
for agricultural purposes as well as
for grazing the principal use to which
it Is being put at present. Some of
it is tlat. some rolling and some hilly.
In some quarters the soil is rich, in
others it is almost barren, but for the
most part it is productive and in many
places subject to irrigation.
Tlie method of securing desirable
homes under the homestead law is sim
ple, and Nebraska lands are attractive.
James Whitehead, register of the
1'nlted States land office at 1 token
How, writes that 3C0 entries were filed
witli him during the eleven months
ending December 1. 1!0I. At the
O'Neill laud office over 1.10.000 acres
were disposed of in that way during
the year ending January 1, 11(02.
The cost of making a homestead for
ln ;icres is $H.(M. Residence mustbe
established within six months there
after. At the end of fourteen mouths
from date of entry proof can be made
after paying $1.2.1 -v acre, or, at the
end of five years, by settlement. Sol
diers are allowed to apply the time
they served in the army as a part of
the five years, to the extent of four
years.
In the Sidney district consisting f
Manner. Cheyenne. Deuel. Keith. Kim
ball and Scotts I'luff counties then
are 3.13.000 acres that may be had
at $2..10 per acre from the gov
eminent. being less than twenty
miles from the I'nion Pacific and
317.000 acres that may be had
at $1.2.1 per acre. The Platte river
and Lodge Pole creek are a prolifit
source of irrigation for this district,
which now is being used principal
for grazing purposes.
Then too, there are in the state al
most 23.000 acres of school lands sub
ject to lease on desirable terms. The
demand for this land is steadily in
creasing and since the middle of last
September the state land commission
er has leased 137.300 acres. In a state
ment to the Courier. Commissioner
Follmer said, concerning th- school
lands:
"Previous to the year IM7. no land
could be leased at less than the .ip
praised value, which in many of the
western counties was entirely too high,
hence the ieop!e used the land with
out making payment or taking lea.-e.
in the year 1817. the legislature passed
a law, which, to a great extent, ob
viated the appraised value by passing
a law to the effect that if the commis
sioner could not obtain the appraised
value, he was then to offer it at pub
lic auction to the highest bidder This
(Continued on page D)