The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1891-07-03

I0i NSot anu thAooiiihH
time The appearance of No. hard wheat
would not impress you that il would make
the best flour In the world, but it does. The
berry is small and handful of Clawson
wheat would put to shame In point of beauty
a similar amount of No. hard. However
examine the market reports and see how
No. hard is rated. The country west of
Valley City is still open rolling prairie.
The Northern Pacific road has attempted to
plant trees along the line but with indiffer-
ent success. Twenty miles west of Valley
city our route was across the prairie to ex-
anime tract of land on foot. There are
no roads i'm particular across the prairie;
every man has his own and these develop at
last into trails. The prairie Is rolling
meadow of green with here and there
tract still greener and this is wheat. Ii
makes one feel bad to see so much good
grass going to waste and nothing to eat 1t
save gophers and jack rabbits. The ele-
vatOr at the railroad station is our land
mark and when we get'se miles away 1t
is still in sight. Our directions are to go
past an old sod house and then keep south
east until we come TO the section post and
from this we could locate the land. The
directions were specific, but with the won
derful sameness of the country they were
not so easily followed after all. The sod
house was discovered and examined but 1t
was deserted castle; it doubtless however
had served its purpose as house for pre-
emption or homestead claim and when the
title was secured the sod house was aban-
doned and the land passed into the hands of
Spectators. There are spots on the prairie
where there seems to have been several
wagon loads of earth removed. These spots
4. 4 toll thx,
query comes as to the cause. Here has
been the wallowing and stamping place of
buffaloes, whose habitatiOn for years was
such question. Just then gopher keeps
the trail ahead of us with such persistence
that one of the party attempts to accelerate
its speed by throwing stone at it and when
he once attempted stoning gophers it became
a passion; however the gophers were safe
because they were never where the stone
struck. The only serious thing about the
matter was that he lost his fountain pen and
we had to retrace our steps to find it. An
other house was sought with the hope of
more specific instructions. Here
was the story of privatiOn and misfortune,
and withal hopefulnesS was yet the control
ing element. Emigrating from England this
family had obtained $50 acres of land and
each year had expected harvests, haryests
that never came in abundance. One year
their house burned down and with it little
girl four years old and all the binder Irvine
that was to have been used the following
harvest. The granary was converted into
a house and there the family still live and
If this year a good crop is secured from
their large acreage there will come the COM
forts of life to this home, and the past
now is frightened by the prospects of the
future. With drink of alkai water and
specific instructions we soon found section
So. for which we had been searching. 1t
was a beautifel tract of land with half
mile streak of green wheat set i'm between
the rolling swells of the prairie. In pacing
off half mile of wheat it seemed as though
the distance would have been enormous in
Michigan, but in Dakota the way land goes
1t was but small piece of wheat. All
government land is obtained in three ways
in Dakota; by homestead, by presumption
and by tree claim, A tree claim is supposed
to encourage the growth of timber on the
prairie, but it has nursed hopes that have
very slowly and in most in
stances never at all. One tree claim with
growing trees is an instance among one
and the nine hundred and
are but the places Of scattered
seeds and hopes. Faithfully have many
tried to raise trees, almost watering them
with their tears, and the scOrching winds or
drouth sapped their life away. What the
government will do with the timber culture
entry claims when the time for growing
trees has expired is question of interest to
Dakota people, They reason that after
they have done all that can be done to grow
trees and then fail, that equity demands
that they should receive their lands. Across
the tract of land visited was the old trail
over which the government supplies were
hauled by oxen across the prairie before the
of the Northern Pacific rail-
road. The trail leads from Fargo to Bis
mark and is worn six inches or more
into the prairie soil and still remains as one
of the evidences of ante-railroad days. A
broken musket stock of the oldest pattern
was found on the prairie. What its history
was and how it came there might furnish
theme for speculation, but that kind of
speculation is not what people i'm Dakota in
dulge in. All the sentiment about the
destruction of the buffalo, and driving the
Indians from their hunting grounds has no
place in the make up of the raisers of wheat
and sheep in Dakota. The fact is that the
buffalo and Indian were unfaithful servants
and their stewardship was revoked. It's
stern law, that of the survival of the fittest,
but the wheat farms and sheep ranches are
of more benefit to mankind than the whole
pack of tawny Sioux who used to hunt the
buffalo in days gone by. It's of no use to
waste any sentiment ever the subject i'm the
west; you would have equal success in con-
vincing Michigan farmer of the perfect
loneliness of Canada thistles and red root.
The houses upon the prairie are upon the
knobs so that snow will not drift around
them i'm the winter as the case would be If
they were located in the valleys. Two or
three rooms, shed barn covered with
straw, well with bucket attached to
rope and the water drawn up hand over
hand, the ever present binder covered by
the broad canopy of heaven and chattel
this is a fair presentation of many
places. Dakota has future and such
pictures are not so disheartening as many
of the scenes depicted in the early days Of
Michigan and told around the firesides by
pioneers today. Dakota was doomed, over
doomed, and the dissatisfied element that
are the advance guards of civilization swept
over it and were then swept on to the
Pacific coast. Wheat farming was the great
stake and upon this all was wagered; with
several failures of this crop hard times came
and what were but temporary abodes have
been continued as permanent. Wild land
outside of the Red River valley is worth