Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1882-08-14

subsoi is solid clay and holds the water like
cement, SO that no drought need be feared.
The inhabitants call this variety of soil
''gumbo," but New England farmer would
pronounce it dry muck. The land agents
will tell you that this land will undoubtedly
yield from twenty to thirty bushels of wheat
to the acre, and that it can never be worn
out so as to need fertilizers. The first part
of this assertion you can see fully disproved
on the journey from Fargo to Grand Forks.
This part ofEthe valleyiwas flooded last spring,
and as n consequence it was impossible to put
the seed in before the last of May and many
did not seed until the first and second week
in June. This, of course, has put back the
crops, and will probably reduce the yield in
many cases to ten or fifteen bushels per
acre.
The railroad runs up the valley at from
two to ten miles from the Red river crossing
many small muddy streams, with well
wooded banks and passing through hamlets
every five or ten miles. The people call them
''cities'' ordinarily, but occasionally you will
find some very conservative citizen who can
bring himself down to speak of them
Gowns" They have all grown up within
three years, and many are not six months old
yet, but though so young they old in
dirt. A more miserable looking place than
Red river town of q few years existence can
hardly be found. The houses are implanted
and without clapboards; no door yards or
fences barns generally mere huts; the
streets are dry rich prairie soil churned into
pigpen muddiness and appearance. Such
mud as it is too! Of course during the dry
weather this mud disappears, but I WAS un-
fortunate enough to arrive after week of
rain, that my impressions may have e1ag-
gerated it.
Grand Forks claims to be the coming place
of the valley, but then every town here is,
according to its own advertisements, 1.-THE
banner town of the great and golden North
Throa ho1 o1ofin
of about 800. To day it is not far from
5000. The explanation of such rapid growth
is to be found in the unrivaled fertility of
the region. Looked at through eastern eyes
it is not an attractive country to live in, but
there is no doubt about its being place
| where any man who will settle down to
| work can make money. This is es-
pecially true of anyone who has some
| capital. He can bring out q stock of
| almost any of the useful and necessary arti-
| cles, and sell them rapidly and probably ;
or, if he has sufficient money, he cannot
| make a better purchase than a farm, for
| from this comes the real prosperity and adj
| vance of this SETON. I sat at the same table
| with young man of "a who came here in
| 1879 with about S., 900, and opened after
time general store. He is reputed now to
| be worth $4,000, and, besides his store,
owns several fine wheat farms. which are be-
| coming more and more valuable every year.
| Such instances of success are not uncom-
| mon, and there are a number of men who
have made from $4,000 to 100000 in few
| years. Such chances as these men had, have
Gin my opinion) passed, they have reaped
| the harvest that comes from the first rapid
| advance. There is still room for further ad-
| vance, but it will be slower and in the nature
of steady growth. There is now no op
| portunity to buy land at from So to Sc per
acre, or take up Government land as then,
| but you must pay for good unimproved land
| about $l5 per acre, while cultivated farms of
first rate quality bring 500 to 1926 per acre.
| In talking with young farmer. who owns
| and runs 800 acres, few miles south of
| Grand Forks, learned that to cultivate a
| section, or GAO acres, as wheat farm,
would require an outlay for buildings. ma
| chnery and stock of about SIS, 700, to
which must be added from Sc. 900 to $12, 900
for the land. Allowing 20 bushels as the
| average yield per acre and $50 acres as the
proportion to be put in crop, gross in
come of $11 900 can be fairly expected, as
wheat is seldom less than $100 per bushel.
OF. this $11 ,OOO certainly one half would be
I expended in cultivating the crop. In not 8
few cases much more is realized, especially
on the 16O acre farms, where yield of sc
| bushels is common, and occasionally 40 pei
| acre are obtained.
Grand Forks is at present on boom,
that is, everybody is wild with land specula
ton and buys and sells ''city lots" farms
several times a week. Every man has 1
scheme by which certain property is to oe al
| valuable as a gold mine. Either the new
railroad depot is to be located there 80 tina
it will be business center, or horse ca
line is to make it the finest residence portion
of the Chicago of the Northwest" or SOM
other equally desirable thing is to happe,
| by which the lot you buy now is to be quad
4 rupled in value. Lots which sold last Apri
for 1915 to 300 cannot now be bought fo
less than $3.50. and this advance is general
Still, it is hard to find any one who will sa.
| that the climax has been reached. On thu
contrary, you are told that by next Novem
| Der, if the crops turn out we'll as is nov
expected, all real estate will be double it
| | present price. The atmosphere of the who'll
| place is very much like that of Wall street
Men talk and think of nothing but land
land, land. You are taken aside and conf
: dentially have ''points" whispered into you
ear. The newspapers are filled with the mos
alluring land advertisements, and ever.
, other building here is land. office. On
, land agent partnership has made in five pc
, cent. commissions on sales about $55, 0O
since last March.
The general appearance of the place is un
atti active, though its situation on the banl
: of the Red River of the North, at the junction
of the Red Lake river is far better than tina
| of most Western towns and might be calle
! | picturesque. Both of these streams hav
thickly wooded banks, most of the timbe
being oak of good size. The houses ar
scattered about in haphazard way on tn
I prairie, owing to the desire of real estat
q ! owners to build up part of each section
and at the same time still hold goodly mum
Der of corner lots from which to reap tn
benefit of the prices of the future. The bus
I mess streets are in the main closely built, bu
many of the buildings are cheap, one stor
| wooden affairs with the high, square, false
, | roof front characteristic of this section
The sidewalks are of planks, but the street
are the unworked prairie with the grass wor
r off, and very rough and muddy after rain.
! The town is we'll supplied with churches
b Presbyterians, Episco palians, Catholics, Bar
g | lists and Methodists all having places of VOL
t ship. Brick is made a short distance froI
| town and consequence there ar
: some few brick buildings, with promise c
. | more in the near future. The general belle
A | is that Grand Fork will be the distributin
9 point for this section, and as such wi
o ! become a city of 10000 or 5000
+ inhabitants. Some hope to make it a gres
q numbering center from its situation at til
y mount of the Red Lake river, as soon as tn
a extensive timber lands about the Red LAX
n are opened. They now belong to the Ii
/, | dians Another point in favor of this town
n future greatness is it's proximity to waite
r transportation around the great lakes vi
n Duluth. Grain can be carried from this r'
g gion to New York as cheaply and quickly 6
!, from central Illinois, the railroad distanc
,, not being much greater from Fargo to Dr.
, luth than to Chicago, and steamers go &
a | quickly from Duluth to Buffalo as frol
q Chicago to that place There is now som
Z. talk of canal from the Red river to LAX
Superior across Minnesota or by making a
international affair of it, running it throug
some of the streams flowing into the Re
| river to the Lake of the Woods and the chat
=, of lakes which form the boundary betwee
the States and British America to Lake S,
perior. Such a plan at first sight seen
chimerical, but study of the map shows tn,
70 comparatively little cutting would have
= be done, and only one ridge of any impor
ance crossed, The single railroad runnir
in here has kept freight rates up to such