The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1886-07-30
Dakota Letter.
HAROLD, DAKOTA, July II, 1886.

North western IL. II. Inc road strikes
the Missouri river ten or twelve miles
below the town and follows the river
bottom up to East Pierre and mile
further up, to Pierre. These two
places are also connected by horse
railroad. The business portion Of the
town is on the river bottom, and is
subject to ,overfows from the river
during some portions of the year, so
much SO that many of the stores and
side walks are built up about three
feet from the level of the streets. The
land rises from the river bottom in a
succession of benches, as they are call
ed here, until it reaches the high table
land bordering on the river. On these
benches are the churches, court house
and many, of the dwelling houses.
This is, by farthe prettiest part of the
territory that have seen for resi-
dence. The water supply for the
town is furnished by well, dug near
the river bank and pumped by steam
engine to reservoir on the top of the
bluff back of the town. have no fig.
ures at hand giving the population of
the place, but it is quite a business
center for large tract of the sur
rounding country. Many of the mer-
chants do something of wholesale
business which the low river freights
enable them to do, but they have had
their business boom and are now suf.
fering a reaction. Two or three wears
ago the whole of the Black Hills bust
ness centered at this point, and i'm
mense quantities of freight and sup
plies Of all kinds were brought here
by rail and were forwarded to the
Black Hills by the Northwestern
Transportation Co., by means of long
wagon trains drawn by horses and
oxen. Their stables and freight houses,
each several hundred feet in length,
are standing here yet, but for the pres
ent are useless, as all of the Black Hills
business is now done over the Fremont.
Elkhorn and Missouri Valley r. r.,
which | understand is being built and
operated by the Chicago and North
western II. r. Co. This road runs out
through Nebraska and is already COM
pleted to Rapid city in the Black Hills.
The people of Pierre are now hoping
and praying for the opening up to
settlement of the Indian reservation
west of them,' which will put them on
their feet again. Opposite, on the
west side of the river is old Pierre or
Fort Pierre. A steam ferry runs be-
tween the two towns, but l did not
cross.
The only trees which l have seen in
this territory, which are large enough
to be called trees, are along the banks
OF the Missouri, although we find a
few millions along some of the creeks.
think this canntrX 1esxpnld. just. suit
The old farmers up among your hills,
who, when complimented on the beauty
Of the mountains around him replied
''pox take 'em wish they was flat,
never look at 'em."
l mentioned in my last, the hot
weather we had July 4th. On that
lay the thermometer registered los
in the shade. That night we had a
regular simeon wind, and at O'Clock
!. NJ, the mercury stood at 1902. AT
Ashton, sixty or seventy miles north
east of here, at a. M, it was 121.
The highest it was ever known to 60
previous to that, was at Fort Sully,
June 20, 1876, when it stood at iii
degrees, but that was in the middle of
he day. People who have been here
he longest say that this is the hottest
summer they have ever known here.
On most of the days since July COM
nenced, the mercury has raised from
100 to LOG in the shade according to
different locations. We have had no
ain here for about four weeks and
,rops, have suffered. for want of it.
Wheat and oats have ripened off be-
fore attaining their full growth, which
will reduce the yield, although | do
not think they are injured SO much as
people at first thought. All the wheat
which was sown early and put in the
ground properly, will yield fair crop,
1ut land that never was plowed more
han two inches deep and not more
han half plowed at that, will hardly
Day for working. Harvesting has
commenced and all who have grain
'ipe enough are pushing things to get
t cut while the dry weather lasts.
Last Saturday we went down to Hola-
bird, seven miles, to cut nine acres of
barley, used header to cut it with.
They got to work about II o'clock and
It O'Clock had it all cut and drawn to
he house, three-fourths of mile, and
and stopped an hour and one
1alf for dinner. 1t needs four horses
md man to run the header. Then it
needs three two-horse teams with
header boxes to take the grain from
he header to the stack, one man to
Dad the grain and one to build tie
stack. A header will cut from twenty
% twenty-five acres every day, but the
grain must be quite ripe or it will heat
n the stack. Many prefer when the
grain is tall enough, to cut it with
binder. One man with three horses
will cut and bind ten to twelve acres
N day. 1t takes another man to
shock it and then it can be stacked
whenever it is dry enough. Last
tuesday the agent of the Mccormick
invited us to 60 out with him to see a
new binder work which he had just set
mp. We went out about two miles
INTO this old buffalo pasture where
how xvoro met Of a ,fiu u arOuud a w haaf |