The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1879-06-27
THE RED RIVER OF THE NORTH.
BY ELI PERKINS.

The great Red River Valley OF TIT
North, about which SO much has beer
written, is really about 500 miles Ions
and seventy-five miles wide. 1t extendl
from about 100 miles south of Fargo
and Moorhead, on the Northern Pacific
northward 400 miles to Lake Winni
peg, in Canada. About $50 miles o.
tire valley is in Manitoba. The river il
about one-half as large as the Ohio. II
is navigable from Fargo to Lake Win
nipeg at all times. 1t forms the boun
Diary between Minnesota and Dakota
1t is into this valley, and farther on up
into Manitoba, that the swarms OF I'M
migrants are now pouring.
Trains are now running over the ST.
Paul and south branch OF the Cana
dian Pacific, from st. Paul to Winni-
peg, in thirty hours. / took enc OF the
Red river boats, the Manitoba, Mt the
end of the st. Paul and Pacific, on the
Canadian boundary, and arrived i'll
Winnipeg in thirty-six hours.
Is this wheat country?
1t is really the wheat country of
North America. At the south end of
the valley, on the Northern Pacific, is
the famous Dalrymple farm of 55,555
acres; and from Dalrymple's farm to
Winnipeg, in less than three years, will
be one continuous wheat field, 400 miles
long, and from fifty to eighty miles
wide, containing more than 100000
acres. The soil is rich and black. It
is the black prairie-soil of Illinois in a
spring-wheat latitude. Gov. Howard,
of Dakota. tells me that the Red river
valley and the prairie contributory to
it will one day produce 25O,OOO,OOO
bushels of wheat annually, and wheat
worth - barrel more than wheat
grown in Illinois and Missouri. The
Dakota side of Red river is the high
est, and l advise settlers to go there.
Are settlers filling up the country?
Yes. 1t is seldom, in riding the first
300 miles, that you are out of the sight
of settlers huts. Beyond that the
prairies are specked with emigrant
wagons. / suppose 1 saw teams break
ing up the prairie as often as once in a
mile during the entire distance. One
million three hundred and twenty nine
thousand acres Of wheat land were taken
up in the Red river valley in 1878,
and over 2, 200, 900 acres are said to have
been taken up during 1889. The
present crop looks exceedingly good,
and 1 suppose 6,000,0 900 bushels of wheat
will be raised in this valley alone this
year. The yield is always from twenty
five to thirty-fve bushels to the acre.
Where are the immigrants coming
from?
On the train and Red river boats I
saw people from almost every nation.
There were Mennonites for the Men
monte settlements in Manitoba, Cana
dams from Quebec, Yankees from Yer
mont, and one party of Scotchmen who
had come across the Atlantic The
Scotchmen had eleven horses and full
carload of implements and furniture.
How can a settler come to the Red
River valley?
/ should advise him to come to St.
Paul, and then report to the Land
Office at Grand Forks or Crookston,
which are about halfway up Red river
one on the Dakota and one on the
Minnesota side. 1t is about Grand
Forks that I think the best wheat land
lies, and about here there is still Gov
eminent land for sale. Crookston and
Grand Forks are the very best points
for a settler to come to in all the North
west. The lands on the Minnesota and
Dakota sides of Red river are about half
taken up. For about fifty miles be-
yond Glyndon, where the ST. Paul and
Pacific railroad crosses the Northern
Pacific, the best wheat land has been
taken; then, for the next 100 miles,
about one acre in four is selected
while, for seventy miles south of st.
Vincent, on the boundary between
Minnesota and Manitoba, the country is
all wild prairie.
Many shrewd Canadians and Yankees
return every day on the cars from Win
nipeg, and settle on Minnesota and Da-
kota land in the Red river valley.
Yesterday ! met a party of Canadians
in Winnipeg, who were going.back up
Red river into the States to locate.
why do you go back there?" I
asked.
Because the land is better there, sir
Winnipeg is too far north"
But you nave 100 miles OF the LED
river in Manitoba" l said.
"Yes; but the Red river after it
crosses into Manitoba from Minnesota
is settled up with half-breeds. We can
buy their farms for 81 per acre, but we
will be surrounded by semi-savages.
There will be no schools in Canada for
years. Over in Minnesota and Dakota
the people are public-spirited. They
build nice houses, and have schools and
churches. Then there we do not have
to pay 80 per cent. tax on our farm i'm
elements, and we do not have to pay ID
cents per bushel export-tax on our
wheat when we send it to the Mime
sofa millers. No-the Red river from
Crookston to the Northern Pacific suits
us best"