Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1897-07-23
OUR CANDIDATE IN 1900
DEMOCRATIC STATE TICKET.
The Bread Basket of America


The Bread Basket OF America
Is term often applied to the Red
River Valley of Minnesota and the
Dakotas. A trip of observation
through the region would convince
the most skeptical that the title has
great appropriateness. The Moor
head Northern branch of the Great
Northern railroad from Moorhead to
Crookston built last year but not
opened to travel until the first of
May, 1897, follows few miles east of
the river through prairie region
the entire distance, but in plain sight
of the Red River timber. The dis
tance between Moorhead and Crook
ston is sixty-nine miles and the coun-
try so level that in the construction
of the road it was scarcely neces-
sary to break the surface, the road
bed being upon a direct line through
its entire distance. Between the
starting and terminal point of the
Moorhead northern branch are eleven
stations, viz: Kragnes, Georgetown,
Perley, Hendrum, Halstead, Colenso,
Neilsville, Climax, Eldred. Girard
and Carman, and all but two thriv-
ing villages have come as if by mag
ic, all being new and several of them
already having population which
we should estimate at from $50 to five
hundred, with elevators, hotels, liv-
cry stables, and shops of various
kinds. Carman, really suberb of
the manufacture of pine lumber, i'm
mense quantities of which are in its
mill yards. The close proximity of
the farms and stations along this
branch road to this great lumber re-
gion and plant ought to insure the
people abundance of building ma
terial at reasonable rates.
This entire region from Moorhead
to Cfookston as far as the eye can
reach on either side of the road is
one vast wheat field. The crop is
very promising for the first of July,
being already to head out with a fair
growth of stalk and abundance OF
moisture thus far in the season. This
vast wheat field over which we
passed is about thirty miles in width
between the points mentioned, Moor.
head and Crookston. But it must be
remembered that this is but small
patch of the country devoted to tile
production of this cereal, which for 6
distance of about sixty miles in width
extends the entire length of the Rec
River in the Dakotas and Minnesota
and probably extending far inte
Manitoba, with soil which in rich
ness and production rivals the famed
valley of the Nile.
The farms along the route from
Moorhead to Crookston, judging
from the distances between houses
are very large and we are told tina
nearly the entire population j
Scandinavian. School houses dot TIL
country for the entire distance, Will
church buildings may be seen off tn
line of the road in various places
This region has been in cultivation
for several years, but until now with
ont railroad facilities. But little stoc
beyond what is required for use i
tilling the farms was seen for the dir
tance travelled, though the soil an
climate is admirably adapted to graz
ing, cattle and dairying industries
which the people will ultimately fin
more profitable and less laboriou
than growing ank marketing wheat
and subject to vastly less peril froI
the elements. The growing and han6
ling horses, cattle and sheep, require
vastly less manual labor and will b
more profitable beside, than CROWN
wheat, and it is not putting one
eggs in a single basket, which if droI
ped through any of the vicissitud e
to which exposed, brings hard time
and pr1vatlOn.
Through Dakota from Grand Fork
west, we learn from reliable source
that the acreage to wheat is at leas
25 per cent greater than last year. i
the vicinity of Emerado, we saw
timothy meadow of fully two hui
dred acres, of as fine growth as W
ever saw in the grass growing regio
OF western New York. The farmer
must become something beside
+ wheat growers. The competition i
the worlds markets from the whea
fields of Siberia, India and Argentine
where labor can be employed at les
per week than it's daily cost in thi
country, precludes the possibility 0
ever realizing former prices. Hence
the almost imperative necessity o