Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1883-02-22
THE ORANGE HARVEST.
A Big Panning Out Along the Banana
Belt. Hot Weather EPISODES.
Minneapolis Tribune Correspondence

Minneapolis Tribune Correspondence
FARGO, January 27.-Just now the entire
new Northwest is up to its ears in the annual
orange and banana harvest. The crop has
been trife late in maturing, but the deli
cious quality of the fruit more than COM
pensates for the tardines in ripening. To
one unaccustomed to the harvest scenes in
a tropical region, weeks sojourn in North
Minnesota, Dakota and Manitoba at this in
teresting season is a revelation. The sights
and sounds incident to the gathering of 80, )
100000 bushels of No. l hard oranges, and
nearly an equal yield of Scotch fife bananas,
are charming beyond description. They re-
mind one of the beautiful bucolic exper-
fences which render the odes of Horace i'm
mortal and lend a nameless charm to life
beneath the equator.
| Reports from
JAMESTOWN AND BISMARCK
are to the effect that mildew from too great
heat has struck part of the orange trees in
those localities, in spite of the fact that Or
chard owners have for three weeks past had
Cinnamon holding sun-umbrellas over each
tree for their protection. At Larimore and
Grand Forks few patches of bananas on
low ground were parboied during the recent
warm spell-but on the whole the outlook is
good. A week hence the elevators will be
overfowing with the bountiful crop of
1898, and the railroads will be taxed to
their utmost to handle the golden shower
tide Some of the harvest incidents which
pass under the tourists eye are singularly
humorous, while others pass over into the
pathetic The spectacle of Edwards of the
Fargo argus and Lounsberry of the Bismarck
Tribune, (both of whom put together would
scarcely cast a shadow in our ardent sum
toasting their skeleton forms under the
SAME ORANGE TREE,
sheltered by the same parasol and eating
fraternally from the same pineapple, while
debating sanguinary editorials for their blood
thirsty sheets-I say such a spectacle is
enough to make Minneapolis or ST. Paul
journalist saffron with jealousy. Barnes of
the Northwestern Elevator Company, who
has fayorite group Of banana shrubs in his
front yard, fell from the branches Of one last
evening, seriously dislocating the gate post,
which was unlucky enough to be where he
dropped. The tree remains.
The method of harvesting the crop of NAL
aga grapes in the Red river valley shall furn-
ish matter for second dispatch. This is
now at its height. Most of the work is done
by ladies, and the gay troupes of bare-armed
and bare-footed lassies and danes going to
and from the vineyards form picture upon
which the leisurely and pipe-smoking male
cftfzen never tires Of gazing. In fact he does
nothing but sit on the fence and gaze-that
is, he gazes and smokes.
but men must smoke and women must work,
There's little to earn and many to shirk,
Tho the harbor bar be moaning"
Telegrams from Winnipeg claim that they
have had it hotter there than here, but they
are always claiming something or other. The
fact is that ia in the shade is the hottest
they have it north of the boundary since
New Years, while here on the N. P.-well,
you'll get some idea Of temperature when l
make my affidavit that one-half the present
dividends of old Wizards road are paid out
OF money saved by using no fuel whatever
the natural heat of the climate, when aided
by Chinook wind, generating all the steam
in the locomotive boilers that can be used.
In fact so superabundant is this gratuitous
motive power that the fireman, having moth
ing else to do, generally passes through Fargo
sitting astride the safety valve to prevent an
explosion. My sworn statement covering
these interesting facts will 60 by next mail.
The only surviving notary has just been
carried out under an orange tree Frustrated
by sun stroke. X. X. X.