Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1897-01-04
LIFE IN THE WHEAT BELT.
4 Maddsning Monotony to DweIIers in
Cities-The Present Pioneers.

This Langdon, N. D., is the home of
King Wheat, the spot in (which. all
thought is centered and all business
based on the raising and the price of
wheat. 1t is in the most fertile por-
ton of that richest of all wheat fields,
the Red river Of the North Valley. 1t
seems odd to see in history that North
Dakota was settled in 1882 at Pembina,
many years before many of the great
states of the middle West were settled.
That settlement at Pembina wasmore-
over permanent. 1t came from some
tradesmen of the great Hudson Bay
Company, who drifted down a little to
the south and thus came upon what
were then French possessions. AT that
time, Manitoba was simply a land of
Indians and trading posts, and this
whole section was given over to In
dians.. 1t is said that the fact that
this section is very rich wheat-grow =
ing portion of the earth was found out
by accident. At any rate, this land,
now renowned all over the world for its
No. / hard wheat. which obtains the
highest rank in Liverpool over the
wheat from all the world, was for gem
erations regarded as unfit for cultiva-
ton and utterly. uninhabitable. For
some reason, investors would not bring
their money here, and the cold weather
acted as a bar, as it does yet and al
ways will, to active settlement. And
it is a curious fact that the upper Red
river valley was settled. not by people
from the United States, but by Manito-
bans. And it was a bursted boom which
populated North Dakota.
In the early eighties, the Canadian
Pacific Railway Company, aided by
private interests, began a systematic
booming of Manitoba, which was the
only Canadian land serving as a refuge
for the crowded people of Ontario,
Quebec and the other provinces of the
East There was. as a consequence, a
tremendous immigration from those
eastern provinces to Manitoba. Values
rose very high, and lnnipeg seemed
destined to be in few years as large
as Toronto. But the settlers were not
satisfied with either crop conditions or
government. Hundreds of them left
the province and came across the line
into this county, which was organized
in 1885. They were pleased with the
county, and sent for their relatives and
friends from their old homes in the
East. In this way, Cavalier county was
settled. AT this time, more Canadian
newspapers are taken than newspapers
printed in America. Just at this sea-
son, at least two hundred people are
going back to their old homes in Can
ada to spend the winter in visiting
friends Since this county was organ
lied, 1885, over two thousand aliens
have been made citizens. They come
from every nation on earth, chiefly
from Norway and Germany.
Pioneer days seem to readers of the
Transcript to be thing of the past in
this country, but that such is not the
case may be easily shown by visit 10
this section. One third of the area of
this county is as yet unorganiZed ter
ritory. There are still, in spite OF the
heavy and somewhat loose taking up
of land" over 100000 acres of govern
ment land in the county, which are yet
open to settlers. Every township, UNI
organized or organized, contains thirty
quarter sections reserved to the state
for the support of state institutions, a
wise provision which will give the
state large endowment some day.
one can ride for miles and miles on this
boundless prairie without seeing a
house. Here and there are the little
claim shacks, erected by the home
stead seeker who has filed" on quar-
ter section. The way some of these
persons are able to get hold of land is
a revelation to an eastern man. Think
of a man obtaining 100 acres by pre-
emption, 100 acres by tree claim, ana
100 acres by homestead rights. Ihe
tree claim and the presumption acts nave
sheen repealed, and the secretary OF
agriculture recommends the repeal OF
the homestead acts, but this VIII prop
ably not be done. 1t is an undlsputed
fact that the free land of the West mas
caused, to some extent, the decline III
values of eastern farm land, but 1T IS
equally true that in no other way could
the great West have been settled so
soon. To determine whether good or
evil in the greater quantity has followed
the passage of the free land acts is a
very difficult task That maav who get
land have not honestly earned 1t goes
without saying. The laws are strict
enough but their Interpretation is most
liberal
The life of the farmer of this great
wheat belt is one which would seem 70
an urban resident as maddenlng. Here IN
this Red river valley live thousands OF
farmers whose lives are full of hardship,
Int it is true that the natural condltlons
are fun of good to them and only the
defects of human laws have made the lot
of some of them very bad. This county
is certainly one of the pioneers. IL Is
situated on what is called the noun
tain i. e.. on the first elevation which
rises from the level plain west OF the
Red river. Farther west people tnlnk the
land is too high and this land was un,
sci tied for years because IL was Regarded
f6t many years as lying too high ana
therefore subject to frost and hail. Farm
ing in this country is very unlike farm
ing in the East in the great corn states
of the middle West. 1t requires at least
two seasons before new piece OF land
is worth cultivating. One year 1t is
..broken'' and the next soWn IN some
thing, but the yield is not usually very
good. The third year it begins to yield
richly. and up to this time there has been
no thought of diminution of the fertility
of this land. The farmers of this section
SOW in addition to wheat. oats and bar
lev. AS soon as the ground is free from
frost, the sowing time begins and for two
and more weeks one sees almost no farm
ers in the villages. The grain is sown in
a hurry Then there is little to do but
wait for the harvest. The whole world
knows of the great wheat farms of the
Dalrympies near Casselton. There $50
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