INFORMATION FOR SETTLERS
IN THE
NORTHERN PACIFIC COUNTRY.
Giving Suggestions relating to Farming Implements, Fuel, Animals, Household Goods, Lumber, Breaking New Prairie, Location of Markets, and other valuable Information.
The best time to come to the NORTHERN PACIFIC COUNTRY is in the spring, but farmers can come to this favoured region at any season, properly outfitted, and in a short time acquire a comfortable and prosperous home.
The breaking season extends from about May 15th to July 15th. Three horses or mules, or two yoke of oxen, constitutes a good breaking team for a sulky or walking plough.
Sowing grain commences as soon as the frost is out of the ground to the depth of a few inches. The work is generally begun about April 1st, and completed in 10 to 15 days. Some years the grain can be put in as early as March 20th.
Good farm horses can be bought at from $100 to $150, according to size, &c. Cows are worth from $25 to $40 each, and working oxen from $90 to $125 per yoke. Standard makes of farm wagons cost $60. Breaking costs, usually, from .50 to $3.00 per acre, and back-setting $1.50 to $1.75. The settler opening a new farm can always find plenty of work among his neighbours, after he has done his own breaking and back-setting, and cut his hay. He can raise an abundance of vegetables from the sod the first year. From 150 to 200 bushels potatoes, and from 25 to 45 bushels of oats can be raised on the sod the first year. Good common lumber ranges from $20 to $25 per thousand along the line of the railroad. Car load lots, for settlers, are carried by the railroad at the same rates given to dealers. A good house can be built for $350 to $700. Household goods, farm implements and working stock can be bought at reasonable prices at St. Paul and Minneapolis, and at various points along the road.
Liberal provision is made by law for schools, and, in the towns and country settlements, school-houses and churches of the several denominations abound. The people who come to this country believe in these institutions.
There is an abundance of cheap fuel supplied from the great coalfields of North Dakota and Montana, and also from the extensive forests of Northern Minnesota, Western Montana, Northern Idaho, Washington, and Oregon. Good water abounds all along the line of the Northern Pacific Railroad.