Morning journal and courier., 1883-09-19
CORRESPONDENCE.

VI
 Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth the marvels of the new Northwest, it has seemed good to me also, having been an eyewitness to the same, to write concern ing what have seen in the land of the Da- kotas. Like the Queen of Sheba, may say, 'I believed not the words until I came and mine eyes had seen it, and behold the half had not been told me!' Many things are different from what had heard, and some things it was found had been exaggerated and yet the rapid development of the region is certainly phenomenal and extraordinary. Before starting on so long 8 journey it was proper to obtain information from authentic sources; and accordingly l turned to that valuable and generally reliable work, the En- cyclopssdia Britannica, which certainly ought to be up with the times, as there are eight more volumes to appear before its publica tion can be fairly said to be completed From this standard work learned that the territo- " of Dakota had been but partially ex- plored, that military men speak faVorably of the soil and climate, and that large portion of it seems fitted for raising stock. Buffa
 loes, bears, antelopes and elks are still abund- ant. The population is mainly aboriginal the principal tribe being the Sioux who number about 26, 900. The chief settlement
 of whites is at Yankton, where there are 737
 inhabitants. The whole amount of land un
 der cultivation in the territory is 42, 645 acres What would that writer say to the
 famous Dairy mple farm, with 10000 acres
 of wheat under cultivation, and which is
 only noble specimen Of the thousands of
 farms that now make Dakota the most at
 tractive spot to the emigrant in the world
 Where would he find his buffaloes and other
 large game The Indians whom he described
 as almost the sole occupants of the region
 arc cornered in their reservation, and the
 tourist may travel thousands of miles in the
 k1-r ,1 ,of of,, T..1s
 white settlers have poured into the country
 in such tide of immigration as to tax to the
 utmost the facilities at the command of the
 railroads. The population is now about
 300, 900, and the next session of Congress
 will be asked to carve two new States out
 of this one territory. The capital has been
 transferred from Yankton to Bismark, and
 the capital of the southern half will proba-
 ply be located at Huron. Under such cir
 cumstances 1t is hard for the best of us to
 keep up with the new geography. In ex- amining some young ladies from the East
 who sspired to teacn school in Dakota, one of them was asked, 'How many navigable rivers would you cross in going from Bis
 mark to St. Paul?" and she demurely re- piled by the natural question, Do you mean Bismark in Germany OF in the Uni. ted States ?"
 Recent accounts that have fallen under my notice have described either the south ern or else the northern portion of this prosperous territory, and especially the re- zion along the line of the Northern Pacific railroad. I shall therefore describe central
 Dokota, of which I do not remember to have seen any account in the eastern news
 papers. This fertile region is traversed by
 two lines of railroads, the Chicago, Mil
 waukee and St. Paul and the Chicago and Northwestern. I went over about seven hundred miles of the latter in company
 with Mir. George F. Bidwell, one of the
 train masters of the road, and whose
 attentions gratefully acknowledged. When this great railroad entered Dakota there was not single village, and proba- bly, not cultivated farm, on the line of it's construction. As the track was laid towns were plated and lots were readily
 sold at uniform price of $50 each, on condition that a house was built on the lot within specified time and of 8 value of not less than $500. This rule is not now
 enforced, I believe, but 1t has played an
 important part in preventing speculation in city lots to the disadvantage of actual
 settlers. It is by no means meant to convey the idea that there has been no speculation, for it has been rife and
 mischievous notwithstanding every precau- tion There has been great deal of cheat ing done by non-residents especially. The law allows citizen of the United States to stake out claim of 16o acres, which he may prove up after living on it for six months and buy in at the rate of $125 per acre. One of the proofs of residence must be the exist ence of habitable dwelling on the claiRl. On many claim the building erected is little more than dry-goods box with door and window, and utterly uninhabitable except perhaps during some of the warmest days of summer. These edifces are called ''shacks," and, aside from the lumber, cost from $3 to $1O apiece Sometimes you will see string of them stretching away on series of claims
 and not sign of occupancy. Now and then
 R-. .En Ofn
 and build 8 shack with four wings, each
 resting on different quarter section. With in the last month the government has very
 properly decided that shack is not 8 habita-
 bIe dwelling. Hence there will evidently be
 crop of lawsuits; for many 8 claim has been proved up by means of it's shack. Sod
 houses are usually the sign of actual occu-
 pancy. Unsightly as they appear, there is
 really good deal of warmth and comfort in
 them. The sod house is usually temporary
 make shift till the more substantial home can
 be constructed, when the former serves as a
 barn. By stalking out claim, locating a
 homestead and making tree claim, an actu-
 al settler may, in few years, be the lawful
 owner of as much ss 4S0 acres Suppose
 this to be all in wheat, and the harvest to be
 as good as 1t was this year, it is estimated
 that the farmer may clear from $5,0o0 to
 SIC, 900, according to his management of the
 farm. The yield this year is from fifteen to
 thirty bushels per acre, and the grain is ex-
 ceedingly heavy and firm. As a general
 thing all that can be done the first year is to
 plant sod-corn, which does not always yield @
 very large return The next year crop of
 barley may be raised. and the wheat may be
 planted to good advantage the third year, and thereafter till the soil is worn ont and as the soil is very deep and rich there is no telling when 1t will show signs of exhaustion. It is by many regarded as unWise to raise only one sort of crop But as a matter of
 fpct that ia what ia haino donA for fha Trnoo&
 part. did not see field of potatoes in all
 Dakota, nor corn fields except those on which
 sod corn is raised. There are no market gardens nor melon patches. All is wheat,
 wheat, till the monotony of the yellow fields grow wearisome. One cannot help wonder ing what would be the result of single
 years failure of the wheat crop.
 Of course there is plenty of unoccupied land. Thousands of fertile acres are yet un-