Seattle daily post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, W.T. [Wash.]) 1881-1888, 1883-10-14
many POST, Established in 1879.
nAiLY INTEL ucENCER. In 1876.
ACROSS BY THE NORTHERN PACIFIC
Correspondence n. Y. Sun.

correspondents ~. d. CAu
PORTLAND. Ore, Sept. l2.-Ihe his
tory of the Northern Pacific enterprise,
full of interesting and often dramatic
incidents, may be found in Mr. u. v.
Smalley's readable book. A very salts
factory guide has been prepared by Mr..
Henry J. Winser Of st. Paul. Without
reproducing the opinions of Mr.. Small
lev or Mr.. Winser's descriptions, and
especially without attempting that tire
some task, a consecutive account OF a
journey which anybody can make for
himself at an expense of two or three
hundred dollars aud two or three weeks
time, want 70 set down a few OF my
own Impressions that may be briefly
presented.
The first question that occurs to oy-
erybOdy Ia this: What Is the exact
truth about tue country along tsGe line
of tue new transcontiusntai railway AZ
it that y, mLtropical belt of paradise
laAd pictured in the remarkable iitera
ture which the company began to pro
duce in Jay Cookies tune, or IL u the
dreary,arctic waste which Gen hEzen
described after his trip in 1919! IL 1t
an endless garden or an unrelievea des-
ert that the railway traverses~
OF fcourse, it is neither. Like every
other territory of similar extent on toe
face of the earth, the Northern P.c'tc
belt of North America includes all sDrts
Of land, from the poorest To tas test.
Yet 1 think that no candid person wno
has passed through Minnesota, D.ko'1,
Montana, Id ,ho, Washington and Ore
ROn, and who has seen with his own eyes
the actual results of experience, will re-
fuse to admit that the Jay Cooke litera-
ture was much nearer the truth than the
Hazeu report.
The idea, one quite general, that the
Northern Pacific country skirted The
polar regions and WAS practically unin
habitable, is utter nonsense. There IL
no region along the 1900 miles of rail
which is less inhabitable than the coast
of Maine, or central Iowa, or the mount
Ain district of Tennessee. The various
climates are as hOspitable, on the whole,
as those along the parallel of latitude
which crosses Massachusetts,. New York,
and lower Michigan. The rewards Of
fered to diligent toll in the field, i'll the
mine, or i'll the shop are as liberal as
elsewhere in the temperate zone.
Minnesota, from st. Paul to Brainerd
and from Duluth to Moorhead, ON the
lakes, forests, water falls and rich prai-
ries, sure t. be crowded with prosperous
people.
The extreme west of Minnesota, and
the east of Dakota, forming the Red
River valley, and drained by stream
flowing northward tyo hundred miles,
is barn floor prairie Of black soil, ex-
ceadingly productive. This Red River
bad hi tgfa n II la.
which the geologists call Lake Aedssiz.
Ii comprises some OF the best wUeat
lands in the world. Minneapolis mill
ers say that the plump, hard kerRel of
the Red River wheat makes better -four
than anything else that comes to their
mills. Fargo will be the receiving and
dirtributing point for this wheat empire
of the near future. The town already
has ten thouSand inhabitants, and its
population is doubling every year. Near
by are tho great bonanza farms. The
Dalrymple fab has nearly thirty thou
sand acres upIer cultivation. Mr.. DaI.
rymple says that his crop this year av-
erages eightseu to twenty bushels AL
acre. BY the Gems ~ of 1880 the average
weld of wheat lands in the whole ooan
try was about thirteen bushels an acre;
WAS n phenomenal wheat year.
Two important questions respecting
the Red River wheat region are still ia
doubt: Will the soil hold out Will
the great capitalists finally own and
cultivate all the desirable land. to the
exclusion of the small farmer / do
not find that men who are putting mil
lions Of dollars into this region and get
ting back hundreds Of thousands with
every harvest share, tho belief that the
land will exhaust itself IN a generation
or less. An old farmer in the Saskatch.
evan country says that he has raised
wheat for forty years in succession from
soil almost precisely the same. and has
vet to sec the first sign of decreasing
fertility. The othtr ques ion is equ ,lly
interesting. Ii is true that some of the
best land in the basin il held in huge
tracts by heavy capitalists, and Guilt
vsted on gigantic scale. The tend
ency at present. however, seems to-bt
quits rs much toward division and re-
disofibution as toward further consolI-
datlon. Hood wheat lhnd. already eul
tiyat6d, Within reasonable distance oi
Fargo, is worth %25 or $50 an acre
The little fellows arc coming III and oc'
tions, aud planting trees To get more
land under the tree act, aud the rea
prosperity of the region will dep"nd on
them. t.l
Beyond tine Red river valley to Bis
marck ON tho Missouri the wheat coun-
try extends, under slightly different
conditions OF soil and formation. The
soil IL not SO black. The surface Ia
more Jbroken There are moro trees
but they are not many. The suitability
of this region fer the production OF
wheat, corn, and other crops Is no Ion
ger In question. The wheat fields
stretch away west to the Missouri river
and chain of busy, prosperous, ane
promising towns, some of them hare.l'
twelve menths old. has followed th,
line Of railroad. jamestown. halt VA,
between the Red river and the Mlssou
ri, had 400 people three years ago; nav
il has 300 inhabitants, With three banks
three churches, SIX hotels, and in gensr
al the equipment of a New Eugians
town twice or thrice its size.
The eastern half of Dakota, then
along the Northern Pacific il whea
country, recently developed, bat alreitd
we'll understood. The soil of the lso
nanza farms is the same which ap e.Di
nent English analyst returned n sam
pie a few years ago to Col. hambofn
with the report that u was not worth
cent an acre. Fortunes haye been mad
from it. aad are making now.
tis. 3Go miles aoress Dakota--abou
az far - from NeN York. 70 Clevelane
Look At the map and you will see to To
:. north Of, the Black Hills and betwef
- Mis1 hl 81 the Moniasa border
teskitory a. ~ as Indiana. 50 far
the map tells yom this IL as good fare
Ing land as that east Of the Missouf
Bstdf69 9xast vNlne farsAgFspnitdtai pql
pooss has stile - b dBeexntp>d by =
pegience. Il il practically unsettids
The country b aRolIipR AraiElap breal
ing at the extreme west into the extrs
ordinary upset knowa rs the Bad Land
For seventy five or hundred mile
west of Bismarck and Mandan there al
few houses and hardly track OF u
plough. Tn soil il gray and sand
There are no trees. Every thing Is VI
sl09 except duriag the short spring ii N
The grass is not tuxuriant. la the h'
sup of mio-dey In snmmer and ear
autumn the dry atmosphere cures Il
bunch grassjntp hay as 1t stands. He
and there is trace of alkalis noWhe
on the railroad line Is there much OF
The absence of water courses 10 notic
y q. f.asv cxaff 1