Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1880-02-14

gion of the Upper Mississippi, will find
himself on the eastern edge of this bread |
land of the future-the valley of the Red |
river, stream flowing northward to Lake
Winnipeg, and thence to Hudson bay.
In August, 1869, the writer of this AZ
ticle rode over this hunting ground of the
Sioux, where through by-gOne ages they |
chased the buffalo and fought the Chippe-
was. The valley of the Red river was a
vast expanse. No hill, no gentle undula-
ton, nothing but the fringes of trees along
the streams bounded the sight. 1t was Il
reach of prairie unbroken by the plough.
Our own voices, Or the song of meadow
lark, plover, and curlew, and other fowl,
alone broke the solemn and oppressive
stiffness of the solitude. At Georgetown
the Hudson bay company had reared a
house, and two or three settlers had set up
their cabins upon the banks of the river.
We encountered man whose birthplace
was in Virginia, who had been frontier
man in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin,
vidette of civilization.
"Have you any neighbors % we asked.
"Oh yes :; three families have just set
tied about twelve miles from here. They
are getting pretty thick, and shall have
to move on, reckon"
They have been getting thicker since,
and the locomotive is speeding its way
across the valley, on to the Missouri, and
beyond to the Yellowstone; it is flying
down the valley to Winnipeg, and soon it
will thunder along the Saskatchewan, far
away in the distant NOrthland. Farm
houses dot the landscape towns have
sprung up; the traveller beholds piles of
lumber, long lines of farm wagons, ploughs,
seeders, harrows, reapers, threshers and
firm engines at every railroad station.
Marvellous the change in 1869 furrOw-
less plain in 1879, a harvest of eight mil
lion bushels Of grain-ere long to be eighty
million!
Harvesting Oh a Large Dakota Farm.
Ride over these fertile fields of Dakota,
and behold the working of this latest tri-
umph of American genius. You are in
sea of wheat. On the farms managed by
Oliver Dalrymp!c are $4,000 acres in one
| field. There are other farmers who cult-
! vatc from 100 to G,OOO acres. The railroad
| train rolls through an ocean of grain. Plea
SAINT the music of the ripping waves as the
west winds sweep over the eXpanse. We
encounter squadron of war chariOtS, not
such as once swept over the Delta of the
Nile in pursuit of All army of fugitive Is
raelites, not such as the warriors of Rome
were wont to drive, with glittering knives
projecting from the axles to NOW a swath
through the ranks of an enemy, to
drencG the ground with blood, to cut down
the human race, as if men where noxiOus
weeds, but chariots of peace, doing the
work of human hands for the sustenance
of men. There are twenty-five of them i'll
this one brigade of the grand army of 115,
under the narshalship of this Dakota
farmer. A superintendent upon 4 superb
horse, like brigadier directing his forces,
rides along the line, accompanied by his
staff of two on horseback. They are
| fully armed and equipped, not with
swords, but the implements of peace
wrenches, hammers, chisels. They are
surgeons in waiting, with nuts and screws,
or whatever may be needed.
This brigade of horse artillery sweeps by
in echelon-in close order, reaper following
reaper There is sound of wheels. The
grain disappears an instant and then re-
appears iron arms clasp it, hold it a mo-
ment in their embrace, wind it with wire,
then toss it disdainfully at your feet. You
hear in the rattling of the wheels the mech
anism saying to itself, ''See how easy l
| can do it ~
| An army of ''shockers'' follow the reap
ers, setting up the bunnles to ripen before
threshing. The reaping must ordinarily
| all be done in fifteen days, else the grain
ed, therefore, are cut before the ripening
is complete. Each reaper averages about
| fifteen acres per day and is drawn by three
horses or mules.
The reaping ended, threshing begins.
Again memory goes back to early years, to
the pounding out of the grain upon the
| threShing-hOOr with the flail--the
| slow tedious work of the
winter days. Poets no more will
rehearse the music of the fail. The picture
for February in the old Farmers Alnaanac
is obsolete. September is the month for
| threshing, the thresher doing it's 600 Or
700 bushels per day, driven 10y steam
engine of sixteen-hOrse power. Remorse-
less that sharp-toothed devourer, swallow
| ing its food as fast as two men can cut the
wire bands, requiring six teams to supply
its demands ! and what a cataract of grain
pours from it's spout, faster than two men
can bag it!
The latest triumph of invention in this
| direction is a straw-burning engine, utiliz-
ing the stalks of the grain for fuel.
The cost of raising wheat per bushel is
from thirty-five to forty cents the aver
age yield, from twenty to twenty-five
bushels per acre. The nearness of these
lands to Lake Superior, and the rates eS-
tablished by the railroad-fifteen cents per
bushel from any point between Bismarck
and Duluth-give the Dakota farmers a
wide margin of profit.
Since the first furrOw was turned in the
Red River valley in 1870, there has been
no failure of crops from drought, excessive
rains, blight, mildew, rust, or other influ-
ence of climatology. The clinchbug has
not made its appearance; the grasshOppers
alone have troubled the farmers, but they |
have disappeared and the fields are smiling |
with bounty. With good tilth, the farmer
may count upon net return Of from eight |
to ten dollars per acre per annum. The
employment of capital has accomplished |
beneticent end by demonstrating that |
the region, instead of being incapa-
bic of settlement, is one of the fair
est sections of the continent. Nor is it a
wonder that the land-offices are besieged
by emigrants making entries, or that the
surveyors find the lands ''squatted " upon
before they can survey them; that hotels
are crowded that on every hand there is
activity. During the months of May,
June, and July, 1879, the sales of govern
ment land were nearly zoo, 900 acres, and
the entries for the year will probably
aggregate !, 500, 600, taken in homestead,
pre- -emption, and tree claims. There are
other millions of acres, as fair and fertile,
yet to be occupied.-C C. Coffin, in Har-
per's Magazine for March.