Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1878-09-13
The Great Wheat Country.

The Great Wheat Country.
The word valley conveys to the gener
al understanding no idea of what the
Red river country valley is. 1t is not
bordered by ranges of mountains, or
hills, or bluffs of any considerable di-
mansions, but only by trolling prairies"
slightly higher than this enormous level
prairie. 1t is a vast treeless plain, from
sixty to 100 miles wide and 400 miles
long-an area larger than that of Lake
Michigan, with surface almost as level,
in appearance, as that of this ''unsalted
sea" in calm. 1t is the bed of an ancient
shallow lake, whose outlet was southwark
through the Minnesota river into the
primeval Mississippi. 1t received the
waters of the Assiniboin and other large
streams that now reach the ocean by a
shorter route through Hudson's bay.
At length its waters broke through the
range of hills that confined them, below
the present mouth of the Assiniboin,
the lake was emptied in to Lake Winni-
peg, and gave place to the so-called Red
river valley-the richest wheat-produc.
ing land in the Northwest.
the soil, from two to four feet in
depth, is a very rich loan, resting on a
bed of deposited clay and mari from
twenty to fifty feet in depth. Neither
ledge nor bowlder nor gravel nor sand,
in even the smallest quantity, have been
anywhere found, either on the surface
or in the substance of this formation.
The bed of the Red river is simply O
tortuous gorge worn by water in the
clay, and the water, even at the lowest
stage, is still deeply colored by clay held
in solution. The Cheyenne and other
tributaries of the Red river present the
same features. The evidences of forma-
ton by deposition from the waters of a
great lake are conclusive.
The plain is not wholly treeless. Tin
belts or ribbons of timber skirt the prin-
cipal streams; but the quantity of timber
is too small to be of any economic value.
When within the range of vision it
serves to break the oppressive monotony
of landscape, otherwise without limits,
and it also serves the useful purpose of
a wind-break in the immediate vicinity
of the streams; but there is too little of
it for any other purpose.
This is the new and wonderful winter
wheat region of the Northwest, where
can be seen fields OF wheat whose bound
aries are only the limit of human vision.
Here are wheat fields whose dimensions
are expressed in figures, as 5, 900 acres,
5000 acres, 1000 acres, etc., and whose
aggregated area might be described as a
township of growing wheat. But these
are terms of exact definition which the
mind comprehends only as subjective
limitations. The objective spectacle is
indefinite, unlimited. Standing at the
center of this ''farm," and looking in
any direction, the beholder gazes only
upon level sea of wheat whose boun-
Diary is where the earth and sky come
together.
1t is said by disinterested experts that
every acre of these wonderful wheat
fields will yield not less than twenty-five
bushels, and that every bushel will
weigh sixty pounds, and grade as No. 1,
The harvest is somewhat better this
year than it was last. The yield is I'M
expectedly large. The grain is simply
perfect.
And this is part of the country
which the scientific Gen. Hazen pro-
nounced to be barren, worthless
desert, that would not produce anything.
The latitude was too high (between
forty-six and fifty degrees): the climate
was too frigid; the seasons were too
short; there was no water, no anything
to render it habitable. The opening of
it by the Northern Pacific railway has
proven by actual test and experience
that the unfavorable opinion which Gen.
Hazen put into such positive statements
was not we'll founded.
For wheat culture the experience of
two years has shown the Red river
country to be the most favored portion
of America. While in the southern
half Of Minnesota the wheat crop is q
failure, in the extreme north of Dakota,
in latitude forty-seven degrees, within
$50 miles of the British boundary, upon
Gen. Hazen's worthless desert, the best
and most bountiful wheat-harvests on
the continent are found. On the banks
of the Red river this wheat crop will
command within fifteen cents of the
price of the same grade on the Chicago
market. 1t can be placed at tide water
at cost not exceeding one cent bushel
more than the cost of placing the crop
of, Eastern Iowa at the same place. Tc
some these statements may, be surpris.
ing. But they are facts. In view Of
such facts, is it wonderful that Gen.
Hazen's desert is rapidly acquiring O
vigorous and thrifty population?-hi.
cGgo Times.