The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1899-03-18
WORLDS LARGEST FARM.
SITUATED IN CANADA AND CON-
TAINs 100 SQUARE MILES.

1t;sa fact not generally known to
tha nublic. though well understood TO |
The Grain trade of the Northwest, that |
in the new and far Canadian North
west. in province whose very name
;s SYNONYM for desolation, in Assln1-
boia 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,
;s without much doubt, the largest
connected block of land devoted to
the raising of wheat to be found on the
olobe. This farm is owned by syn
dictate of Englishmen; who have made
il a sort of staking-out ground for
their younger sons, in so far as they
have been able, sand have subsequent
" wondered why their profits 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.
Tt is named after Major Bell, the
military manager of the estate, and
has an area of ten miles aquare, or 100
square miles, of which $4,000 acres,
or about three-q quarters, is under Gull
tiyation. This farm is in country
which 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 the bones
of bufaloes and Indians, the latter
from the results of the last fierce bat
tie of the Crows and Blackfeet, not
MANY wears ago. All through this
country piles of buffalo bones, some OF
them 500 to 1000 feet long, and per.
haps 100 feet wide, and as high as
man could reach. have been gathered
together and shipped east to fertlliz-
ing 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 yielding thirty
to fortv bushels of wheat to the acre,
where these lands can be bought fol
.. from 80 to SO an acre, with the best OF
; rail facilities, the Bell Farm people
have been able to sell thousands Of
acres at IS to so an acre, and in one
case the purchaser was subsequently
enabled to turn his purchase OF CAT
, acres at SO an acre to an incoming
farmer. This latter price, though it
seems very high, when the vast
> stretches of arabic and unoccupiee
land all around are considered, is no
so high but that it permits good inter
est on the investment, year after year.
. by wheat farming.
The problems of farming in thes'
great plains that stretch northwestern.
. $500 miles from the head of Lake Su
: porior. into a latitude that furthe
east is a region of cold SO intense tina
scarcely any vegetation will grow
have been long in solution, and hav
7 ruined many q man who has struggles
against them. The soil is, general.
speaking, a heavy, black loan, an
the rainfall is very little, sometime
:. amounting to but few light shower
n during an entire summer. 1t has bee
4 found necessary to so handle this so
4 as to preserve the moisture and
1 keep all the water that comes frol
y the melting SHOWS of the long, col
10 winters. and to do this new metho
"A of soil culture has been inauguratet
n Fall blowing, so common and so muc
"a desired in the prairies of the Dakots
Iu and Western Minnesota, is said to
% worse than no blowing at all, an
nothing is done to lands after harves
ing. A third of the land under cult
walton is allowed tolie fallow all til
~ time. so that but two thirds is in Gre
no in any one season. BY such farmil
10 methods Northwestern farmers a
~ able to raise crops of from thirty
- forty bushels Of hard Scotch fife whe
m to the acre.
". Such a farm as the Bell, with A
,rt 600 to SO, 900 acres under cultivate
lite and two-thirds of this immense la
an in crop every year, yielding at t
am rate of thirty bushels to the acre. gi'
crop of from 100000 to 5000
bushels of grain. But this crop
nearly 1000 miles from navigation
=, Lake Superior, where the wheat
reu the Canadian lands comes in dir
u r. competition for the export and Ea
ern markets with that of the Nor
my western prairies of the United Stat
o Wheat is worth within six to se'
III cents as much on these farms, II
sn. miles beyond the jumping off place
nv it is in Duluth, where buyers for
~ worlds food are congregated. ,Th
'e'' far-off farmers are now getting actus
more money for their grain than
~, those of the famed Red River Vail
: $50 miles from one of the chief m
u kets of the world The demand fl
~ { mills in Western Canada, those of
e Ogilvies and others, and their succ
% in selling -four in both Europe {
9 the antipodes, has had much to
&c with this condition.
% In these hyperborean regions, all
II Z the fifty-frst parallel, the cold is
u far different from that of the prai
g Q to the south of the American Ii
$ The thermometer sometimes gets
d forty and fifty degrees below zero,
Cd it does not stay there, and this {
e is not felt more than the twenty
- thirty sometimes enjoyed in Mil
sofa. Cattle do not run out free