Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1892-04-14
The Red River Valley.
THE MOST FERTILE REGION IN
AMERICA.
[Harper's Magazine.

Harper's Magazine.
The famous Red River Valley is
by some students of such compare
tive values declared to be the third
agricultural region, in point Of fer
tility, in the world, there being one
Asiatic and one African valley in the
foreground beyond it. This Red
River Valley takes in many counties
of Minnesota and the most Easterly
counties of the two Dakotas. 1t is
prairie land of black soil that once
formed the bed or deposit of an
ancient sea. 1t reaches up into Can
ada, beyond Winnipeg, and is a great
deal richer at its Southern end in the
United States than in Canada. This
region pours its wealth of grain (or
a great part of it) into Minnesota's
twin cities, there to exchange it for
merchandise. Other cereals and cat
tie are produced beyond this valley
in the new States, and the valley
itself returns the same commodities
along with its wonderful output of
wheat. In the extra fruitful year
Just closed-wonderful for its crops
and for the world. vide demand for
breadstuffs from this country-the
predictions that were based upon the
results Of the sale of the crops seemed
fabulous. For instance, it was
boastel that the farmers of the
Northwest would make sufficient
profits to pay off all their mortgages
this year.
It is in the Red River Valley that
one may hear of farmer whose pro-
fits last season were close to $4,000;
it is there that men bought farms OF
great extent, expecting to pay for
them in an indefinite number of
years, and then paid for them out of
the first crop raised upon The land,
the wonderful yield of last year.
Such is the region at the very doors
of the twin cities of the Northwest.
| If Ceres left the Old World when
the worship of her went out of fash
ion, it must have been to the valley
of the Red River that she came; but
if mythology is suggested at all by a
study of this marvellous region, it is
in the recollection of the fabled river
Pactolus, wherein King Midas washed
off his power to turn into gold all
that he touched. That may well
have been the stream that once
swelled from side to side of this val
ley, for truly its sediment retains lit
tie less than Midas power.
We realize the majesty Of agricul-
ture as we never did before when we
learn that in Minnesota and the two
Dakotas the wheat crop alone was.
nth c@c hundred ana I'VE;
lions Of dollars last year.
for yourself the estimated
one hundred and fifty millions of
bushels selling at from IS cents to 80
cents bushel. In what story OF
fairyland is there an account of
literal field Of gold to equal that?
There are 8,S32,O00 acres III the
valley, and less than quarter Of it
was in crop last year. If every acre
were put-into wheat there would be,
no market for the wheat; it would
become a drug. As it is, Of the por-
ton that is under cultivation only
about three-quarters were in wheat,
and the yield of last year was esti-
mated at from 3O,0OO,000 to 37,OO0,-
0O0 bushels, grown at the average
proportion of 30 bushels to the acre.
The wheat crop of the valley,
therefore, fetched about S27 900, 900.
At 50 cents a bushel each acre
returned SIG, at a cost of from Sc to
sS. Good land has produced 81
bushels to the acre, and good land
farmed scientifically has yielded as
high as Al bushels to the acre, but
20 bushels is the average product,
and the farmer is entitled to pro-
fit of so an acre with prices as they
were last year. Matured farming
will raise the yield to an average of
25 bushels an acre.