Bedford inquirer. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884, 1869-08-27
Red River Of the North.

Mr. C. C. Coffin writes in very enthusi-
astic terms to the Boston journal, from the
Red River of the North, five hundred miles
northwest of Chicago:
One of the most wonderful features oil
this region is its climate Here we are in
latituae 46-segeral degrees further north
than Boston, but the summers are longer
than in Massachusetts, and the winters,
though colder, are lees severe than in that
State The air is dry, the days calm, and
the hundreds of men that | meet, who have
come here from Maine and New Hamp-
shire, selecting This as their future home,
say that this climate is far preferable to that
Of New England
Yesterday / saw a Scotchman, who lives
five hundred miles north Of this point in a
| straight line, on the shore of Lake Winni-
peg The winter there, he says, is not Sc
severe az at Chicago. Scientific men have
speculated on this phenomena, but we have
! seen NJ satisfactory explanation. Doubt
4 less n is due to a combination of CAUSES
the influence of the great lakes on one side
and the Rocky Mountains on the other-to
the Missouri and Mississippi and Red riv-
ers, to the currents of air sweeping up the
Missouri valley from the dry plains Of Ne
braska. BE- the cause what it may, the fact
remains that here-reachiDg from Chicago
northwest over territory embracing Wis
consin, Minnesota, Dacotah, Northern
| Montana aud vast region in the British
Possessions-lie the wheat lands of North
America.
No other country has such domain.
| The plains Of Bavaria and Hungary, upon
which Central Europe relies for its grain,
united, would not exceed in area single
county in Minnesota. The fine lands OF
Prussia have thin soil, while the wheat
fields Of France have been cultivated for
centuries, and are only kept in heart by con-
slant application Of fertilizers, but here the
| soil is in its virgin state, yielding such re-
turns as are not obtained in any other land,
unless it be in the San Joaquin and Santa
Clara valleys of California.
The most fertile acre of the Ganges Val
ley in India will not yield a greater return
than these of the Northwest. The Nile and
the Yangtze-the fertility renewed by each
annual hood-may vie with the uplands of
Minnesota, but there are sections along this
Red river of the North-alOng the Chey-
enne and Mouse rivers of Dacotah, which
are not surpassed by the richest in the heart
OF China or on the Delta of the Nile
All Of this territory lies north and east of
the Missouri, and this side ct the Rocky
Mountains. We have spoken of it as q
wheat field, and have said nothing of It's 9TH
er resources, but here are supplies of timber
from which the people of more southern
sections are to receive their future building
materials. Looking out from my tent to-
ward the northeast can see, on the hori-
zon, the dim blue outline of the timbered re-
glon around the streams forming the head
waters of the Mississippi. If we travel
west We shall find exhaustless supplies of
coal. Between the Red river of the North
and the Rocky Mountains, lies the great
coal field of this granary of the Continent
On the streams that find their way into
Lake Superior, and on the Mississippi, are
sites tor manufactures, where, in coming
years, the hum of machinery, the clatter of
the shuttle, and buzzing of mill wheels, will
break the stiffness of the primeval solitude.