Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1869-11-10
THE
THE NORTHWEST.
r"Carlton" in the Boston Journal

I'LL - W =
r"Carlton" in the Boston Journal
One of the most wonderful features of
this region is its climate. Here we are
in latitude 46-several degrees further
north than Boston, but the summers are
longer than in Massachusetts, and the
winters, though colder, are less severe
than in that State. The air is dry, the
days calm, and the hundreds of men
that / meet, who have come hither from
Maine and New Hampshire, selecting
this as their future home, say that this
climate is far preferable to that of New
England.
Yesterday 1 saw a Scotchman, who
lives five hundred miles north of this
point in a straight line, on the shore of
Lake Winnipeg. The winter there he
avs, Is not so severe as at Chicago.
Scientific men have s~peculated on this
phenomenon, but we have seen no salts
factory explanation. Doubtless, It'll due
to a combination OF several cause.-the
influence of the great lakes on the one
side and the Rocky Mountains on the
other-tO the Missouri and Mississippi
and Red rivers, to the currents of air
sweeping up the Missouri Valley, from
the dry plains Of Nebraska. Be the
cause what it may the fact remains that
h-ere-reaching from Chicago northwest
ONCA a NClAlAOll tLllDIdCllE W lSNOLloAAf
Minnesota, Dacotah, Northern Montana
and a vast region of British Possessions
lie the wheat lands of North America.
No other country has such a domain.
The plains of Bavaria and Hungary, up
on which Central Europe relies for its
grain, united, would not exceed in area
a single county in Minnesota. The fine
lands of Prussia have a thin soil, while
the wheat fields of France have been cul-
tivated for centuries, and are only kept
in heart by constant application OF
fertilizers, but here is the soil in its yir-
gin state, yielding such returns as are
not obtained in any other land, unless it
be in the San joaquin and Santa Clara
valleys of California.
The most fertile acres of the Ganges
valley in India will not yield a greater
return than these of the Northwest. The
Nile and the YangtZe-their fertility re-
newed by each annual fOOd-may vie
with the uplands of Minnesota, but there
are sections along this Red River of the
North-alOng the Cheyenne and Mouse
rivers of Dacotah-which are not sur
passed by the richest in the heart Of
China or on the delta of the Nile.
know that many of those who viii
read this letter are accustomed to look
into the future and to take enlarged
views of what u country is to to be Il
coming years; but 1 am confident thai
there is no man-even of The most com
prehensive mind-that has taken a JUS
measure of the future greatness of this
region.
Many of those who, perchance, may
read this letter, have visited Illinois, anC
seen the wheat and corn fields and cult
waited lands of that State, reaching OF
and on in boundless eXpanse-havt
heard the music of the reapers gathering
the ripened grain-haYe beheld the har
vest fields all in their glory. Think nov
of those fields extended as far as it i
from Boston to Omaha, over a track a
wide a from Montreal to Philadelphia
and YOU have the area of the wheat tielC
lying Northwest of Chicago.
1t is a region presenting features diff
ferent from the country along the high
way opened to San Francisco by tn
Union Pacific road. The plains of Ne
braska and kansaS-magni1cent in ex
tent-are traversed by no great waite
course. The streams are few-and whel
the summer heats prevail, they dwindl
to rivulets, and become wholly dry; bu
here there are even flowing streams an,
lakes of pure fresh water, fed by neve
falling springs. Ride where will owe
this vast territory and you are always il
sight of a river, a creek, or a lake of tn
pureSt water, where the waves break OF
pebbly beaches, and where thousands O
waterfowl rear their young beneath tn
oaks and naples that fringe the ripplin.
streams.
Beautiful as are the prairies of ulinoi
and Iowa, nature has been ven NOR
generous in her adornment of the North
west. The larger lakes are bOrdered b,
parks and groves, presenting landscape
of Undesirable beauty. Many a piO
neer on this northwestern verge of civil
ization may look out from the door o
his log cabin OF scenery rs e~nchantin!
as any in Old England. True, there
no background of mountains, no rocky
crag, or deep and tortuous defles, bu
there are undulatiOns, sunny slopes, gen
tie swells, rounded wood-crowned sum
mits, looking down upon lakes RnC
ponds dotted with emerald islands, o.
clear waters dancing in the sunlight, o.
rejecting from the CLASSY surface thu
t~ranScendent beauty of the landscape.