The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-12-18
A FARM OF 100 SQUARE MILES.
1t Is Devoted to Wheat, and Is the
Largest in the World.

Canadian Letter in New York Times.
1t is a fact not generally known to the
public, though we'll understood to the grain
trade of the Northwest, that in the new
and far Canadian Northwest, in province
whose very name is a synonym for deSola-
ton, in Assiniboia, 1000 miles to the north
and west from the head of Lake Superior,
are situated some of the largest and most
successful wheat farms in the world One
of them, the Bell farm, is without much
doubt, the largest connected block &C land
devoted to the raising of wheat to be found
on the globe This farm is owned by a SYM
dictate of Englishmen, who have made 1t
sort of staking-out ground for their younger
sons in so far as they have been able, and
have subsequently wondered WHY their prof
its were no greater, though the yield OF
grain was so large, forgetting that these
same younger sons had to be provided Tor
and that salary lists mounted up.
1t is named after Maj0r Bell, the military
manager of the estate and has an area
of ten miles square, or 100 square miles, of
which 45O00 acres, or about three-quarters,
Brassey farm owned by Loru Brassey, gov
ernor of Australia, and the Sunbeam, owned
by the ScottiSh~American syndicate, besides
many others of less Importance, and stock
farm of the Bell corporation nearly as large
as it's wheat acreage. These farms are in
country which a few years ago was the
last stalking ground of the buffalo, and
where the relics of buffaloes and of Indian
battles are still thick on the ground. A
few miles southerly from Regina is an alkali
plain, sixty miles across, that is covered
with bones of buffaloes and Indians, the
latter from the results of the last fierce
battle of the Crows and Blackfeet, not many
years ago. All through this country piles
of buffalo bones, some of them 500 TO LOCO
feet long and perhaps 100 feet wide, and
as high as a man could reach, have been
gathered together and shipped East to fer
tilizing works
In This district, where for hundreds Of
miles the train passes no houses nor titled
soil where there are millions and millions
of acres apparently as good as those that
are Welding thirty to forty bushels Of wheat
to the acre, where these lands can be bought
for from 81 to 81 an acre, with the best or
rail facilities. the Bell farm people have been
able to sell thousands of acres this summer
at s. to SIC an acre. and in one case the
purchaser was subsequently enabled to turn
his purchase of $40 acres al SIS an acre to
though it seems very high, when the vast
stretches of arabic and unoccupied land all
around are considered. Is not so high but
that 1t permits good interest on the invest
ment. year after year, by wheat farming.
The problems of farming In these great
plains that stretch northwesterly $500 miles
from the head of Lake Superior. into a lat
itude that further east is a region OF cold
grow, have been long in solution, and have
ruined many a man who has struggled
against them. The soil is, generally speak
ing, a heavy, black loan, and the rainfall Is
very little, sometimes amounting TO but
few light showers during an entire summer.
1t has been found necessary TO so handle
this soil as TO preserve the moisture and 10
keep all the water that comes from the
melting SHOWS of the long, cold winters, and
to do this a new method of soil culture has
been inaugurated. Fall blowing, so common
and so much desired IN the prairies of the
Dakotas and western Minnesota, Is said TO
be worse than no blowing at all, and Moth
ing is done TO lands in crop after the har-
vesting A third OF the land under cutiva-
ton Is allowed to lie fallow all the time. so
that but two-thirds is In crop in any one
season. BY such farming methods North