Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1882-09-07
GUILFORD.

The REL RIVER CoUNTRY.-A series of
papers on 1.-THE New Northwest" by E. V.
Smalley, opens graphically, in the Century,
with description of the Dakota wheat region,
and facts, like the following, are of great in
terest to persons seeking new homes in the
West:
Nowhere else in the United States, unless it
be in the distant and little known valleys of
Eastern Oregon and Washington Territory,
are such large crops of wheat raised with such
small expense and such certainty of success
year after year. The grain is sown late in the
spring, as soon as the hot suns of the northern
latitude have dried the soaked lands, and
grows with marvellous rapdity. In August it
is fully matured and ready for reaping. All
the farm work is done by machinery. The
plowman rides upon sulky plow the grain
is Sown with a drill or Il broad-caster; the
reaping machines bind the sheayes as they
move over the ground, and the threshers do
their work in the fields, driven by portable
steam-engines that burn the straw for fuel.
The grain is hauled at once to elevators at the
nearest railway station, and then the whole
farm equipment of apparatus is left standing
in the fields until needed the next year. Ex-
cept on the big "bonanA farms," owned and
operated by capitalists it is rare to find any
sheds for implements, or, indeed, any farm
buildings save little bare box of dwelling,
and a rude stable of boards, sod and straw, to
shelter the horses from the winter bllzzards.
The red barns Of the bonanza farms make
great show upon the wild vacant prairie, but
they are not much larger than thrifty PENN
sylvania farmers, who till hundred acres,
build to house their crops and stock.
1t is within bounds to say that, taking one
year with another, profit of ten dollars an
-, Jo fbo oo6 xrho
after paying all expenses of seed, cultivation,j
and marketing. The great merit of the magf
niicent grain-field does not lie wholly in Us
richness, however. It's structure is peculiarly
favorable for the transportation OF it's prodnct
to the seaboard. Two hundred and fifty nhles
of rail transit brings the Red River wheft to
Duluth, at the head of Lake Superior, from
whence there is a water-carriage all the Way to
New York harbor. Dakota seems toy have
been fitted by nature for vast, perpanent
wheat field. The conditions OF cllm3te and
soil exist for producing the best gIade of
wheat, and the largest average crops harvested
for succession of years in the Unitea States,
except, perhaps, Washington Territory.
a. The centre of population in thb United
States was twenty-five miles from Baltimore
in 1880, and has moved westward att the aver
age rate of about fifty-one miles every decade,
never deviating to the extent of "a degree
north or south of the thirty-ninth! parallel
The greatest progress was between the years
| 1950-6O, when it Travelled eighty-one miles
from a point in Virginia to twenty miles
south of Chillicothe, Ohio. This movement
was caused by the settlement of the Pacific
coast. The centre of population in 1870 was
forty-eight miles northeast of Cincinnati.
According to the last census, the centre had
advanced westward fifty-eight miles, and de-
tected to the south about eight, being near
the village of Taylorsville, KY, about eight
miles from Cincinnati 1t is anticipated that
the next census will find it in Jennings coun-
ty, Indiana. Supposing the westward move,
ment of population to continue, the central
point should cross the Mississippi about 1850,
not far from the mouth of the Missouri. 1t is
considered probable, however, that it will
never 90 so far westward, as there are large
areas in the west which are only adapted for
mining and grazing pursuits, and will support
but a scanty population. The increase in the
region beyond the Mississippi, after the close
of the present century, may not much more
than counterbalance that of the rest OF the
country, in which case the centre of popula-
tion will remain almost stationary in southern
Illinois.
az Ulema is word that frequently occurs in
the dispatches from Egypt. 1t is the plural
of the Arabic word ''alim," a learned man.
''Ulema" is the collective name of the body of
learned men in Turkey. In a general sense,
''ulema" are persons who are learned in both
law and divinity. They constitute distinct
body in ConstantinOple whose function it is
to watch over the correct Interpretation of the
Koran and the right application of it's teach
ings to law and polity. The head of the ulema
is the grand multi, or Sheikh-ul-Islam next
to him come the Kaziaskiers, of whom there
is one for Egypt and one for Asia the third
class are the Mollahs, the superior judges of
the province, and after them are the Cadis and