The semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1882-1886, 1883-05-16

VOLUME 6,
least that necessary adjunct to
prosperous COMMUNICATIVE electri
light. The people are active, ener
getic, enterprising and thorough,
alive to their surrounding adyan
tages and show every evidence o
their ability to supply the great de
mands which a swarming immiera
ton will make upon them. The,
are making their city the CONNER
clal centre of this great New North
west which is now attracting th,
attention of home seekers from nearl,
every portion of the civilized world
During the boating season a line o
steamers ply between Fargo ant
Moorehead to points on the Re.
river down to and beyond the bound
ary line of British Columbia. Pas
senger trains also run daily down tx
the line, where they are met b,
English trains which take the trav
eller on to Winnipeg or other points
in the far north.
This is the land Of great wheat
fields. The celebrated Dalrymple
and Grandon farm is only eighteen
miles to the westward of Fargo.
Wheat raising is the principle indus.
try. Barley and oats are raised in suf:
cient quantities to supply the home
demand but not with the view to its
expectation. No. l Hard is the cake
they are ali after. This is wheat OF
the variety known as "Scotch Fife, y
and is remarkable for its fine mill
ing qualities. It is sown in the spring
and produces little brown berry,
but extremely hard and heavy. If
offered for sale in Montana market
by the side Of the large, white plump
berry grown there the unlnitiated
would regard it only as rather infe-
rior chicken feed. Yet this wheat
makes flour extremely nutricious
and nearly as white as that made
from Montana raised wheat. The
average yield per acre is about %
bushels and the price during the last
few months has ranged from 81 to 80
cents per bushel of 60 pounds at the
elevators. Your correspondent saw
on the farm of Mr.. John DeGroat
near Hillsboro over 1900 bushels of
this wheat which averages 614 pounds
to the bushel, all mo. l, Hard"
Montana farmers would be disposed
to smile at the average yield and
price of Dakota wheat and point
with pride to their own fields from
which they reap from 40 to SO BUSH
els per acre and which they sell at
over double the Dakota price, but the
Dakota farmer laughs at the garden
patches-which they call the Mon
tana wheat farms-and asserts he
he can raise his thousand or fifty
thousand bushels of No. l Hard at
the cost the Montana farm
er can produce the same amount.
But Dakota, or rather northern
Dakota, is only perfect as wheat
growing country. 1t is an immense
treeless level expanse of fertile SOL.
When that is said the reader can
imagine the rest without being told.
The eye can take in miles upon miles
Of country as level as a croquet
ground without meeting a tree or a
ience or a hillock to relieve the mo-
lotony of the scene. The "no fence
aw" prevails and horses, oxen and
lows must be herded or picketed to |
Keep them from the vast unfenced
ields of waving grain to be seen
lpon every hand. One can we'll see
What a tine scope the playful zephyr
has upon those n northern prairies.
IN the winter, as they come down
rom the north, they gather force in
heir race for q warmer sphere,
md then they are called "blizzards."
Woe to the man or woman who is
;aught in one of them. Nothing but
he directing hand of Divine Provi-
lence can save him or her. The air
8 filled with a sheet of fine snow
trough which one cannot see his
land at arms length. Instances
AVE occurred in which persons have
,een lost and perished in going from
heir house to the wood-pile or barn.
indeed so numerous haye they be-
ome that many have strung wire
II rope from the door of their
|welling to their out houses to guide
hem from one to the other when
me of those terrible billiards. come
|own upon them. One story l was
old which I must repeat. The gen.
leman who vouched for its truthful
less is prominent and respected cit
f Hillsboro, whose word was never
While a neighbor and
wife were on a visit to a distant &C
uaintance a regular blizzard set in.
t lasted only about six hours. After
t had ceased the party returned TO
heir home and found fourteen 0a!sh-
Is of snow in their front room when
lad been blown through a nail hote
n the door. Montanians have not
he least conception of a blizzard; M l:
They think they do and talk ABOUT
out there, but there II as
much difference between DaKota
,iizzard and the Montana article as
here is between an Italian naisa, zephyr zephyr
md gale at sea. Another d1awm as
Jack which North Dakota laoors
,nder is the inferior if not disgust
ng character of the water. In
he winter the people VINO