The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-05-22
VAST INLAND SEA
MILES UPON MILES OF THE RED
RIVER COUNTRY UNDER
WATER,
SITUATION IS DIscoURAGlNG.
UNDER BEST OF CIRCUMSTANCES
FARM WORK WILL BE MUCH
DELAYED.
THE DAMAGE WILL BE SLIGHT.
Flood Already Receding-High Wa
ter at CIOquet and aat Other
Points.

CROOKSTON, Minn., May 81 = Although
the food in this section of the country has
begun to recede, the situation is truly dis
couraging. There has been nothing like it
for years. Shallow lakes cover the prairie
for miles in every direction. Many farms
are almost entirely under. water and where
they are not the soil is saturated to such
an extent that 1t will be weeks under the
most favorable circumstances before any
farm work can be done. The extent to which
the country is covered with water can be
guessed at from the fact that one can start
from Warren, Mimi, In a boat and row to
Hallock, forty miles north, and not be obliged
to portage the boat to exceed three miles
for that distance. Or, to put it another way,
1t would be unsafe for an inexperienced
man to drive three miles in any direction
rem and Hallock When 1t is remembered
that this country is usually dry prairie, too
dry at times for the best crop results, it is
possible perhaps, from these suggestions to
catch a glimpse of the condition in that sec
ton at this time.
The crop outlook Is exceedingly unprom
Using in the northern counties. The re-
ports of soil condition hsve in no way been
exaggerated; there is mud wherever the
water has left place uncovered. and it must
not be understood that this mud is the or
binary kind. 1t is almest q quagmire, SO
deep that no driver ventures upon it except
in favored places. The streets of the towns
are impossible, and they are in large part
deserted.
The seeding has been practically completed
in all this section, though some of it is late.
The water is not putting stop to farm work
in this section, generally speaking, but it is
threatening the life of the seed in the
ground The opinion is that not much dam
age will be done, however.
The Red Lake river at Crookston is pour
ing its food over the town, and not since
in the seventies has anything like it been
seen. Nearly a hundred residences are un-
der water, some buried to the caves. The
property loss has been heavy, many poor
people being deprived of all they had in the
world-their modest house furnishings. The
more fortunate residents have opened their
doors to the flood sufferers. The city council
voted to feed the people until homes could
be secured, either in new places, where old
ones had been hopelessly wrecked, or until
the old ones could be again occupied.
The water reached from the river toward
the business center of the city nearly three
blocks Whole streets are under water and
the sidewalks are floating around in the mo-
tionless pool like so many RATS. On the
west side of town the big dam at the Walker
mill is entirely submerged, and the river
flows smoothly over it with no suggestion
in it's surface of fall. The streets are prac-
tically impossible, even above the food line.
The heavy clay bed has been soaked until 1t
has become mire on which only an occa-
sional driver ventures. There is no such
thing as pleasure drive in this whole coun-
try.
GRAND FORKS, N. D., May 21.-More rain
yesterday and last night makes prospects for
the Red river valley look still more dubious.
The high water of the Red rivershas reached
here and the fats are flooded, but nothing