Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1896-04-21
TUESDAY,
RED LAKE RESERVATION
NOT WHAT 1T is
DRAGGED UP TO BE.

III ~ ILL.
A gentleman from Candy by
name of Sivert Olson write let
to Minnesota Folkeblad from the
Red Lake Reservation and gives
a rather black picture of the
Eden up there than we have been
in the habit Of reading in the
newspapers of late. He says
that the soil is light and under
laid with gravel in some parts at
least that he visited. There is
no doubt that there arc small
tracts of good land, but this is
evidently only in streaks. Mr..
Olson says that the real good
land is as a rule covered with
heavy timber and it would take
life time to clear out Il farm of
any size. Now we don't want to
discourage anybody from going
there, and take their chances for
a good piece of land, but we do
think that a man that has farm
here, or that can get an eighty
of land here should look sharp
and close and think twice before
he leaves it, for the Red Lake
Reservation or any other place
for that matter.
Minnesota is pretty clearly
divided into the big woods and
the prairie sections. Taking Rush
City as starting point, and run
ming an air line thence in north
westerly direct on to'Wadena and
Detroit City and then north to
the bounding line and you have
fairly divided the timbered dist
trict from the agricultural.
North and East of this line there
is no agricultural land to speak
of. What there is lies in small
patches, and is generally covered
with hard wood timber. These
spots are only small GASES where
the clay till is left uncovered
with sand. The balance is
either bare rock north of Lake
Superior, or further southwest
where there is till deposit that
is covered with a bed of sand and
pine timber, or else swamp that
grows cedar and tamarack. This
section of the state will never be,
cannot be from the nature of the
soil, an agricultural region.
South and west of the line we
have mentioned from Rush City
to Detroit City lies a strip some
what over a hund red miles wide
that is pretty evenly divided and
interspersed with timber and
prairie. Some of the best farming
land in the state is found in this
belt, and especially the south
half of it. Still the land in this
strip is very variable and only
in certain localities fit for closej
and heavy settlements.
South and west of this strip
comes the real agricultural re-
gion of Minnesota. The latter re-
gion is covered with a till deposit
of from one to three hundred
feet in depth except the south
eastern counties where an
alluvial clay forms the subsoil.
This till (by till is meant that
peculiar mixture Of clay gravel
and sand deposited in ancient
times by great glazier)is one of
the mostaremarkable IN the world
andsaceounts for the excellence of
the soil for agricultural purposes.
It contains all the mineral sub
stances almost mixed ID due
proportion for plant food. Here
the chemistry 81 nature has
mixed sand, clay and lime, the
three great bases for grain grow,
ing, with a due proportion Of
Soda, Potash, IRON Phosph US.
sulphur, etc. as the elements out.
o o which The sim 81 its light and
heat has further elab oratsd the
black Cop [ ll soil .by uniting with
them the tarbosn, Nitrogen md