Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1882-02-16

| Riding Through Wheat Fields On the
| COw.catcher OF an Enxine--The SEN
satiOn and the Scenes Growth OF
| the Country During seven Years.
| The Thriving, Prosperous Towns
Along the Line, and Promises for
| the Future.
| Correspondence of The Inter Ocean.
JAMESTOWN, Dakota, Aug 1S.-From
Fargo to- Bismarck, along the line OF
the Northern Pacific Railroad, dist
ance something more than 200 miles,
lies the great wheat belt of the country,
stretching from the boundaries of the
British Possessions on the north to an
indefinite point southwark
/ wanted to see this golden belt" as
we passed through it, and Colonel Ho-
bart, the Superintendent of this divis-
ion of the Northern Pacific invited me
to take seat with him upon the cow
catcher Of the engine. Accepting the
invition was offered an uninterrupted
view of the country at the expense of
considerable nerve and exertion. There
was
TWINKLE In THE ENGINEERS EYE
as we got aboard, and he took advant-
age of the situation to demonstrate the
running capacity of a Northern Pacific
engine. There are good reasons to
suspect that the train was ahead of
time when it stopped at the next sta
tion, some thirty miles away, for no
human being ever rode any faster than
we did through the miles Of harvest
| fields that stretch on either side of the
track from Fargo to Valley City. The
shocks of grain looked like yellow
ribbon, and the golden stubhle like a
robe of satin spread for leagues upon
the ground. The bright turf along the
track made border of emerald to the
field of gold, and while the strain upon
the nerves andi,muscles was intense,
the beauty of the picture was compen-
sation thousand-fold for the danger of
the adventure.
Seven years ago came across this
country, and then there was but one
settlement between Fargo and Bis
mack, small cluster of houses around
the barracks of Fort Seward, where is
now this thriving city of Jamestown.
Now, all along the line of the road,
at intervals of ten or eleven miles, are
busy towns, with white houses, we'll
stocked stores, elevators, and preten-
| tious hotels, and between the towns,
among the grain fields, comfortable.
looking rm-houses, surrounded by
huge barns. Where then we're nothing
but miles of unbroken, painless prairie,
gray and forlorn, are now miles of
ripened wheat fields, yielding twenty
and twenty-five bushels to the acre of
the finest grain known to the market
No. hard
From the time the road was built
until 1877 the country lay in a sort of
oomatose state, when few settlers be-
gan to come in. A few acres were cul-
tivated for home consumption, and the
pioneers waited for the boom, which
came year later, in 1878. Then the
houses commenced to cluster together
in spots, from the natural disposition
of humankind, like animals to live in
herds, and in 1879 we began 70 hear of
"cities" springing up upon the plains.
THE AMBITIOUS YOUNG TOWNS
of Castleton, Wheatland, Tower City,
Valley City and jamestown are Won
ders of growth, and the statements
| made of the amount of business trans
acted at them seem almost incredible
! wher one remembers that four years
ago, where they now istand, the smoke
of chimney could not be seen for a
distance OF thirty miles.
In Cass county, where the boom
commenced, by the census of 1880,
there was a population of 1900 peo-
pie, and as the last has been the most
rapid year of its growth, that number
has doubtless doubled. Seven years
ago there were but few houses and no
farms. This year $4,000 acres are un-
der cultivation, and the production of
wheat will be more than 5000, 900 BUSH
els. The railroad lands here are nearly all
taken up, but there are still $4,000
acres of government land open to
homestead and presumption settle
ment.
Then comes Barnes county, adjoin-
| ing Cass on the west, with about mil
| lion acres, not one of which was under
cultivation seven years ago. This yea
about 60, 900 acres are being harvested,
and the yield of wheat will not be less
than million bushels. Valley City,
the County town." is thriving place
of 5000 population, and is growing at
the rate of fifty families a month.
Stutsman and kidder counties, lay
ing farther west, are being rapidly de-
veloped, and five years from now will
add their millions of bushels to the
wheat yield of DAKOTA.
| MARSHALL FIELD, OF CHICAGO,
owns farm of three full sections, p
600 acres, thirty miles northwest of
Fargo, and it is in charge of Mr..
Smith. from Chicago. No crop has yet