, 1881-07-17
~ T
Wheat Country 440 Miles Long
and 225 Miles Wide.
No Alkaline Wastes, and the Rain
Belt Covers It All.
But Gen. Hazen Once Declared
It Good for No thing.
Gen. Hazen rs Now Predicting
Our Winds and Weather.
The Mistake Of Jay Cooke and the
EARLY Settlers Of Minnesota.
Important Difference of Level Between
Dakota and the Country SoutIts

l1.-LFc!l slS LAT; WcSL as 'CHlcnE0, IlOSG pet
pie believe that the Great American Desert
Of our school-day Biographies runs far Ii
= into Dakota. Western stockholders IL
b Northern Pacific, who expect great things 0
the property, "concede'' that it has grea
0 deal of bad land along its tracks III Dakota
o but they comfort themselves with th
8 thought that elsewhere the land is goot
!. enough to make it all up. 1t is only latel,
that the road has been open by rail through
to the Yellowstone, and the popular nliscon
ceptons about Western Dakota have beer
strengthened by the reports Of those wlc
5 went to the Yellowstone by way ot
the Missouri, along the banks Of which the
land is blutfy and unnyitin.. There seems to
be natural tendency in the mind Of man to
believe that poor land and the fever and aglle
are to be found in the ''ncxt town. Gen.
1lazen was by no means the first person to
declare that Dakota was
4 WORTHLESS WASTE.
1t Is admitted by old settlers i'll Minnesota
that it was their universal opinion iu the
early days That the upllllds Of DakOta-so
called because the streams are considerably
below the surface of the country-were good
for nothing. Any one who proposed to set
tie on those lands was lissuaded by the kind
remonstranceS Of his neighbors. So well
posted a man as Mr.. F. Il. Delano, of st.
Paul, who knows more about the Northwest
than anybody else, fell into this error
Iwenty-nlne years ago Mr.. Dciano, in 1852,
rode from Winnipeg Oh horseback 600 miles
to the northwest, and found the land was
good all the way, and farther. In 1861 lie built
| out Of st. Paul to the West the first rail-
road in Minnesota, and he remembers won-
| dering, lis he pushed his work along, Of
what earthly use the land in Dakota would
eyer be to anybody. 4 mistake Of the same
Kind was made BY Gen. Tilton, of tine regu-
lar army, when lie made many years ago the
first army map Of the Wa1la Walla Valley.
| Narrow strips of land in the valley half
| mile wide we're mar ked as fertile, but III! be-
| waste land is now known to be the best Of
| all. It is one of tile peculiarties of Oregon
that, comparatively, the valleys are poor and
the mountains good. But the
MOST AMUSING OF ALL THE HL.UNDEKs
about the real character of Dakota was made
of the party, travelling with afr. Willard is a
gentleman who was tile first person invited
W jay Cooke to take bold Of the Northern
Pacitic atits start "WelI. 3Ir. Cooke,'' asked |
Northern Pacific going thhrou ush:" llr: Cooke
explained At great length what All aEricuit- |
ural paradise Minnesota was. But how |
about Dakotao'' s. Well,'' replied Mr. Cooke,
Dhhotd Alll AAIlLu Is lllt NOISl we've E0L. !
But it is good grazing country" The great
entreprencuE thought the ''worst he had"
was Dakota, where wheat has always grown
wherever planted. where there has never
the Bad Lands are fertile.
The early misunderstanding about the real
character of Dakota was helped along by the
reports OF the soldiers who traversed it. The
expeditions that went in pursuit Of the Sioux
after the lnassacres that occurred about the
beginning Of the Civil War hal very hard
time. The country was absolutely bare OF
all settlement. the Surface water
scuutres 2a Il er it Swys %ssSs i boke @ p2rs aMn
ing march lloueward. They had nothing
good to say Of Il country where they lad suf-
1erea SO much, and their account remained
nndlspnted for many years as a true descrip-
ton. The real nature Of the country was not
knoWll till the sQuatter, tile
SCOUT OF QUE WESTWARD MARCH,
ventured OIL these, lands and found out the
secret Of bonanza farming.
region in the Eastern Imagination we ali
expected to lind some stretches OF barren
alkaline land. There is not all acre of it. Mr.,
r. X. Delano, spoken OF above, declares that
there tEe % are not dozen alkali lakes between
Around these, the land is fertile, and cattle
are, grazing and fattening. From the
wei-lnfo[Ined ',iid1 11n y; gentlemen who accom-
pa.,!Gu '"a,. ..nl. sl!a[u IRON ot- raul some
about this subject Of alkali land and ;lkaIi !
water. Mayor Rice, Of st. Paul who, by | ,
ne ne wy WY though Democrat, has just made :.
[he ne nrSt itd appolntment Of colored man on
ne early days great complaint WAS made BY )
ne settlers near St. Paul of the alkaline r
lu2Ilty ct the water. 4 specimen was sent q
= ~ MNew York for analysis, and found to be 4
lttlc better than concentrated lye. Mr.
1erman Irott. one Of the original promot- .
RS OF the first railroad III Minnesota, the St. | h
aul = @ @iaclf1c, OF which he was for many u
e 'HaIs rs Lang conssloner remembers that
vas impregnated with alkaline matter. He Q
arly discovered that the running water, and p
ne lakes CONNECTED with running streams, i
fere perfectly fresh. This and Some other y
~ observations led him to the conclusion,
which is now universally accepted, that tie S
1kall was the resldnum Of the /.
ASHES OF COUNTLESS PRAIRIE FIRES. 2
tatn Ia had washed away the soluble parts and e.
,it M fae fi 50 salts Of soda and potash in the soil
70 4b III ne Stagnant pools This il the extent
no rain the alkaH, Of course, remains, and
lls is the origin CT the great barren wastes tt
+, tne Southwest: But Eastern ideas Of
lKan 1;i lands need complete reconstruction.
on, Tue 'alkali IS all advantage. Gen. i. S.
risbin, now stationed at Fort Keogh, whom
. m net at Bismarck, states that the farmers
= Sa!4ioIl!it live IOunu that alk1li lands | te
lowed to lie fallow a year after blowing arc
le strongest wheat lands Already com {.
alnts are being heard in Southern Mime /.
ia that the ground is losing these {:
'!ts ,nssontooo too IA hrapid!y, and that il !,
! short, in this alkaline resitluum of tie g.
. mes OF tue prairie fires. which have burned i
e Western farmer wish the very same ele- i
ents Of fertility which the Eastern farmer 4
IS to buy and haul to his fields When the | q
aln n OF successive crops begins to tell on 3
e western wheat regions those lands will q
found most lasting which are undcrlaiu IS
clay, as Is the case nearly all through Da- !J
ta, and those lands will be especially long II
'ed below which the clay subsoil, as ill tie {F
tn lime. u
If you ask Dakotian what are the DOOR SSyn
1ds III the Territory, he will point to the Il
d Lands and the coteaus Of the Missouri. I s.
le Bad Lands have been already thorough q:
described. The coteaus in Dakota arc ~
III bluffs, miles wide, along the Missouri, s.
ey are grassed to the top. Between them Isl
she sheltered valleys, in which are found IS.
tches of twenty to 160 acres each of tie IN
rtRhaHf it7ff /