New-York tribune., 1882-03-09

on each bank of the stream. Across the horul-
ern part of the Territory, from east to west
runs the Northern Pacific Railroad, which Is
buidinc branches north and south to widen
the area of wheat culture. Thus in most OF
tbe new wheat region the farmer finds sta
tion within n few miles of his fields and
freight train ready to haul his grain to mar
ket.
The work on wheat farm occupies only a
few weeks of the year, and the business Is
attractive on that account apart from us
profits. After the ploughing and sowing are
finished the farmer can look on and see Nature
grow and ripen his crop until the harvest
time comes BY the end of August the years
work is done. Expensive farm buildings
are not required, for the grain Is
threshed in the fields and hauled
Immediately to the nearest railway station.
Very little fencing is needed on a wheat farm.
Frequently the cultivated portion is left un-
inclosed. and a baIbed wire fence put
around the pasture lot to coniine the cattle.
Thus the outlay for improvements is cOmpara-
lively light, and as the country is open and
ready for the plough, the new settler makes a
crop the first season, and is tolerably independent
from the start. village with school, post
cflice stores and churches springs up as II by
magic in the neighborhOOd of bis home, and
he suffers few of the privatiOns which used to
attend frontier life.
The extent of the new Northwestern wheat
region cannot now be estimated, nor its future
production foreseen. 1t appears to include
nearly the whole of Dakota east of the Mis-
souri, River and considerable portion of the
western half of the Territory. How far north
and west in Manitoba it reaches will only be
determined as settlement advances in that
little-known Province One thing is to be
borne in mind about this regiOn-it is
the ultimate and permanent wheat-feld of
the continent. The wheat-growing industry
has been steadily moving west for more
than half O century. Western Newly Ork
and Eastern Pennsylvania were once the great
wheat sections Then Ohio had its turn.
Now the counties of that State which forty
years ago shipped large quantities of wheat
to the East do not raise enough to supply their
own population with bread. Afterward Indi-
ana, Southern Michigan. Northern Illinois and
Wisconsin made wheat the chief crop, to be sue
ceeded by Iowa, and now by Minnesota, Ne
braska and Dakota. The wheat belt cannot
move much further west. 1t will soon reach
the great grassy plains where there is not
sufficient rainfall for successful agriculture.
Beyond the Rocky Mountains, IN Oregon and
Washington Territory, new wheat country of
immense extent is being slowly developed but
on the Atlantic side of the continent the area
where wheat-farming is the chief industry will
not be pushed much beyond the present limits
of Dakota. The rich lands in the Valley of
the Red River of the North and the vast roll
ing plains of Dakota and Manitoba are evil
IDENTIFY destined to be a permanent granary,
like Hungary and Southern Russia.
Their product, it is interesting to
note, seeks the markets Of the world
by way of the harbor of Ncw-YOrk. A glance
at a map will show that the water route from
the head of Lake Superior to Buffalo and
thence to this city by the Erie Canal and the
Hudson River is almost direct line from the
new wheat country of Northern Dakota. a
short stretch of rail transportation brings the
wheat produced on the vast Northwestern
plains to cheap water transportation extending
TO the scabOard. The commerce of Newly
cannot fail to profit directly and largely by
the development of the new wheat region Of
the Far Northwest.