Hot Springs Weekly Star

THE "BACK TO THE LAND" CRY IS EFFECTIVE.

Traveling through the state of Iowa the other day, and Iowa is no exception to the story about to be related, the writer was shown a farm that was offered three years ago for $250 an acre. That appeared to be a high figure for land upon which the owner depended upon the crops of corn, hogs and cattle that could be raised upon it. But it wasn't. A few weeks since the farm changed hands at $325 an acre. Over in Illinois, down in Indiana, up in Wisconsin, across the line in Minnesota, the same experience was met with. And then attention is directed to Canada, which has been the Mecca of so many hundred thousand Americans during the past few years. Not only in Eastern Canada has the price of lands increased, but in Western Canada, during the past few weeks, farm lands have increased from three to five dollars an acre, with the prospect of a similar advance during the next three months.

The reason for this is very apparent, and in a few words it may be pointed out that the lands are worth a great deal more than the present prices. The Northwestern Agriculturist of Minneapolis, a paper that was one of the first of the American farm papers to discover the real merits of the lands of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, says: "The reciprocity schedule would encourage American farmers to move to Canada, where the virgin soil will produce greater crops of grain with less labor than can be produced in our own farms in the Northwest. The result will be to enhance land values in Canada." This paper is afraid land values in Canada will be enhanced at the expense of land values in the United States. In face of the fact that land values in the United States are increasing the reasoning scarcely holds. The reason for the advance in value of Canadian lands is partly accounted from the fact, admitted by this paper, that Canada's virgin soil will produce "greater crops of grain with less labor." But that is not the only reason. During the past twelve months 320,000 people have made Canada their home and these are mostly of the farming class. They want farms, and the demand as well as the wealth of the soil is regulating the price. A study of the increase in the acreage of land put under crop last year, which can be had from any Canadian government representative, will prove the point, that the demand is increasing at a greater ratio than even the most sanguine would have predicted.