Morning journal and courier., 1882-09-12


 constant and untiring superintendent, and to whom we owe much for information and kindly entertainment. They own 1000 acres, purchased from the road for song when it's stock was low, and have, besides large farm house and barn, accommodations for fifty horses and mules, trim little office and cottage, the home of the superlntende nt. A windmill pumps water for the seventy odd head of cattle on the place, besides the horses and mules. To disprove & current belief that sheep would not thrive owing to the wild oats which are supposed to work through the wool and into the flesh, killing thell, the superintendent introduced some twenty sheep last year, which now double that number and looking finely. A row of shan ties known about the place as "Castle Gar den" was built to accommodate settlers who came in to take up the intervening govern ment sections, for in the land grant to the Northern Pacific every alternate GAO acres was reserved by the government. Here we had our first insight into the way harvesting Is done in this region, and it was really a grand sight to see fifteen "Wood Binders" each drawn by three horses or mules, ad- vance, like an army cutting swath of over hundred feet through an oat field of eighty acres. Here, toC, we saw square mile cov- cred with full-headed swaying wheat, which promised to yield over twectv-fve bushels per acre. It is no small task to e.art fifteen of these huge reaping machines with all the complicated machinery in the twine binding attachments. The scene was 8 stirring one as we came out into the fresh air of early morning and approached the barns and ad- joining field of murmering oats, conscious perhaps how soon they were to be laid low before the remorselcss knives of the reaping machines. Teams of three horses were be- ing attached to the machines, rearing and plunging as they started off with the unac- customed rattle behind. Two machinists sent out by the manufacturers to attend to the reapers every year were instructlng green hands how to use them or arranging something amiss, hands frem Q distance were applying for work to the superintendent, who seemed to be omnipresent, arranging, directing, overseeing everything Presently the line is ready to start and all goes we'll un- til 8 refractory team refuses to move. They are ordered out to take the last place, in the meantime becoming accustomed to their work now binder beRi to throw out the loose straw, instead of the tightly bound shocks it should, and at once one of the machine experts rides up on his mule to put 1t in order, and so it goes all day, the wide
 field of the morning being reduced to small patch by night. One realizes the waste on such farm by little items that come into mo- tice-as an instance, only one oil can could
 be found among all the machines, and was
 told that last year every one was provided for. A machine in this use is estimated to last not over five years. Besides attending to the farming the superintendent has to
 maintain sort of paternal government, keeping sufficient stock of groceries and
 other prime necessities to supply the thirty or forty workmen about the place, and per- forming the office of postmaster.
 The soil of this section from Jamestown to Bismarck is fine black sand of moderate
 depth with some pebbles in it, and the sub soil gravelly with some clay mingled. It
 does not strike the observer as being nearly fartiln xhotT of seem to have the lasting qualities of those sections previously visited by your core spondent, but so good judge as Superintsn- dent Van Dusen maintains that 1t is much quicker and gathers and retains moisture in a dry season better than the heavier soils, and certainly in 6 wet season like the present the crops are superior to those in the water soaked Red River valley. However, the ma
 jority of farmers do not hesitate to say that this black sand will not endure drouth or & long series of years of wheat cultivation. In our journey eastward to Fargo we
 passed through the famous monster Dalrym
 pie farm. where, it is whispered among the
 knowing ones, $1OO, ,OOO was lost last year through the failure of the crops. This year the crops appeared, as far as could be judged from the train, to be fairly good, but it is becoming conviction among many here that "bonanza farming don't pay" At any rate Mr. Oliver Dalrymple is selling off his lands
 
 since what he paid less than dollar an acre for now sells for $2O.
 Fargo is the most inflated town in the Ter ritory. Everything in it and about it is done for the effect it will have an advertisement ! to be circulated through the cars by means of the elaborate pamphlets distributed to passengers here. They have electric lights blazing in many of the stores and just by the depot is slender iron trestle several hun
 dred feet high, they say, on the top of which l beams coronet of electric lights. horse
 railway runs through the town to some indef mite points on the prairie, but rarely did see passenger. All this, however, does to go into that ultra-western paper, the Fargo Aayus, which posts at the head of it's most l conspicuous column, Population of Fargo | August 1Gth, 5000" This all seems the l height of absurdity when one looks across I from the station and sees clothing store es | abolished in tent Still there are q mum | Der of good brick buildings in the place and owing to it's railway connections it may con l tinue to grow if the Red river will only stoI flooding the town as it did last spring. This | was the point at which entered Dakota, anc 1 here also we left it for the hub of the North
 vest St Paul, to which, as to Rome, al l roads lead. D. A. E.