Catholic Colonization in Minnesota Part 6

The law reads--

"That a homestead consisting of any quant.i.ty 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 quant.i.ty 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, ent.i.tled 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 s.h.i.+ngles 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 princ.i.p.al 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 thres.h.i.+ng 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.