River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1879-12-18
The Wheat Reg ion of the Northwest.

The commercial condition OF the
United States presents this novel
feature. For the first time in our
history our exports of food are paid for
in gold. We now substantially supply
ourselves with the fabrics and metals
we consume. Heretofore the debt we
made by importing goods w&s used by
Europe to pay us for our exports of
cotton, wheat, flour, meat, butter,
cheese, and oil. the system of paying
America for food with Americas own
debts to other countries is at present
ended. Wheat may be said to be the
chief agent of the revolution that has
made New York the center to which
gold is flowing from England and
very long. One of the parliamentary
commissioners to inquire into the
causes of and remedy for the British
agricultural distress, now making OBJ
servations in this country, has been re-
ported to have publicly said that he
had about come to the conclusion that
farming lands in Great Britain were
worth only what the deep, rich, friable
soils of our northwest were worth, plus
the cost of transporting their products
to England. He uttered a momentous
truth. Nearly one-half OF the best of
our northwestern wheat land west of
the Mississippi has cost, and will cost,
its owners only the expense of making
and recording the title deeds 10 1t.
Under the homestead, presumption,
soldiers bounty, and tree-culture
laws, farms in this wonderful
wheat region are in effect given away.
1t is utterly impossible for careful agri-
culture on the old high-priced lands of
eastern Europe to compete with grain
growing on this new soil, which costs
nothing, and is conveniently traver> ed
by rival railroads undertaking each
other for freight to the Atlantic. SO long
as the United States shall supply them
selves with textile fabrics, metals and
hardware, this northwestern wheat will,
generation after generation, compel the
flow of gold here from Europe, and
make money abundant and cheap.
The Canadian dominion also possess
es a wheat garden, on which large ex-
pectations are founded. It's eastern
boundary is the limit of the Red River
valley. The international line on paral-
lei 40 is its southern limit. With an
average width of one hundred miles, it
sweeps northwesterly through eighteen
meridians of longitude to the foot of
the Rocky Mountains, turns southwark
in parallel "a and goes down again
to 40.
The dominion geologist, Dawson, esti-
mates the productive area of only half
of the Red River valley within Mantle
ba at II, 10000 acres. Surprising it to
be all in wheat, and reducing its yield
down to the average of southern Min
nesota-seven bushels per acre-the
crop of one-half of Canada's Red River
valley would amount to Sc, 992, 600 BUSH
els Those are tremendous figures,
but the Canadians have faith in them.
John Macoun. professor Of botany, at
tached to the Canadian Pacific railway
survey after careful examination, esti-
mated the number of acres of arabic
land available for settlement between
the Lake of the Woods in Manitoba
and the Peace river district at the foot
of the Rocky Mountains to be 200,-
320.000 At Lake Athabasca, in lat
itude 81, he claims TO have found the
best barley and wheat he had ever
seen. He weighed both, and was as
tonished that each exceeded the stand
ard to the bushel by ten pounds, and
found by count that many of the
wheat heads contained one hundred
grains. On Peace river. in latitude 560
80 Sec, and longitude 121, he saw
cucumbers ripe on the vines on the
10th of August, and wrote in his jour
nal this enthusiastic opinion of the
agricultural richness of the whole
region: at would be folly to attempt
to depict the appearance of the coun-
try, as it was so utterly beyond what |
ever saw before that | dare hardly
make use of truthful words to portray
| it,
Surprising that the Canadians are
right about the extent and richness OF
their wheat-growing territory IN the
northwest, the mind recoils from a
computation of its productive capa-
city. Man has never before contemp-
lated such an agricultural fact. Should
| this enormous Canadian wheat field be
successfully cultivated,its annual crop in
favorable years would come into the
business and interest of the entire globe
with revolutionary force and master
" power heretofore unknown TO II
nance and trade.