The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1902-09-19


the North. Go where you will and
you will find people who know or
think they know all about that won
derfully productive region.
Until recent years it's face complete-
~ overshadowed that of other parts
OF North Dakota. The prevailing i'm
preston was that North Dakota was
made up of blistered, arid plains,
1rlnged on the east by the great Red
River valley. Before men had learned
the ways of nature in the western
part OF the state and how to adapt
themselves to her any fool could raise,
wheat and make money at it in the
rich, black, deep soil of the Red River
valley, with an abundance of moisture
and nothing to do but put seed in the
ground in the spring and cut the re.
sulting wheat in the fall.
There are few richer land areas in
the world. 1t is not easy to saw lust
Where the valley" ends and where it
begins, but as general rule it is con-
sldered to be about sixty miles wide.
thirty on each side of the river. and
to include the counties of Pembina.
Waish, Grand Forks, Traill Cass and
Rlchland, in North Dakota, and Kilt
son, Marshall, Polk, Norman. Clay.
Red Lake and, sometimes, Wilkin. in
Minnesota. At any rate, a glance at
the soil will tell whether you are in
the valley or not, and that cannot be
told by the topography, so gradual is
the rise in most places from the river
to the bench lands. The heavy, black
soil of the valley can be told at a
glance. 1t is beautiful country to
look upon, this Red River valley. A
correspondent of the MINNEAPOLIS
journal who travelled through it in
August, 1901, thus described it:
A Glowing Description.
No better tonic in the world is there
Tor the tired and languid people of the
not and dusty, drouth-stricken region
IMAM to sit at car window and skim
over the cool, moist prairies of North
Dakota, from which the heavy train
squeeZes out not a single particle of
dust. None comes in the open win
dows, the seats are clean, the linen of
the traveller, like that OF the dining
cars, is immaculate. The air is sweet
and pure and often fragrant of the
prairie flowers, the hay and the grain
in shocks. The sun shines brightly
out OF clear sky; you feel and ap-
preciate its warmth, but it cannot take
the GOODNESS out of the air. The at
mosphere is clear and you can see
farm buildings rising miles away out
OF the fiat plain, plain redeemed
from monotony by exquisite coloring
AS took the train at Crookston yes
terday morning, the sun shining
through the trees struck upon a gold
en- carpet of wild sunflowers, which
made the little wooded dale as re-
splendent as any palace of kings, and
far more beautiful. And from there
up to the Canadian line and on to Win
nipeg, 1870 miles away, the golden
CLEAN of those beautiful flowers of the
prairie never ceased. They crowd the
railroad embankment, the cuts, the
plowed strip along the fences, the
corolla ever turning toward the sun.
Supporting their sisters in color are
vast stretches of the two kinds of
golden rod, taking over to themselves
pasture lands and fallow fields. Then
there are the grayish-yellow fields of
standing wheat; the silver-green of
unripe oats; the shocked grain almost
white in the sun, almost brown in the
shade; the pale blue of the blossoming
flax, the rich brown of the matured
flax; the COOL dark green of the fod-
der crops; the stubble field notified
with red, the light green of the mead
ows. And to all this a line of green
forest on the far horizon, a deep blue
sky overhead dotted with fieecy clouds
make allowance for the tonic air and
sunlight and you have some faint idea
of the quiet joy one feels in a drive
across these prairies at thirty miles
an hour behind the iron horse.
AS the train gets farther north
there is little change in the scene,
but not much. White tansy and yell
low buttercups are added and there is
more standing grain and more wild
land.
Striking Comparisons.
The valley is about $50 miles long.
If we call it sixty miles wide it has an
area of 1880 square miles. That is
about one-seventh of the total area of
Minnesota and about one-thirteenth
that of Minnesota and North Dakota
together. These two states together
produce in an average year about $780,
900 900 bushels of wheat. The Red
River valley in good years produces
45,00O,00O bushels or more. Accord
ing to the United States census it pro-
duced in 1899 4O,0OO,O0O bushels. Thus
9 per cent of the total area of these
two states produced q per cent Of
their wheat.
In 1899 the North Dakota valley
counties, which had about 100000
acres in wheat, produced as follows:
Pembina, 3,434,008; Walsh, 3,753,322:
Grand Forks, 1896 JAG; Traill, $780,
212:: Cass, 6,957, 214; Richland, 1894
258; total of rs ,O36, 16O.
In the same year the Minnesota
counties produced wheat as follows:
Kittson, 1,772,12O; Marshall, 1925, 44O;.
Polk, 4,12S,62O; Norman, 1,459,93
Clay, 1858, 800; Red Lake, IA, 45O.
The Minnesota acreage was $4,000.
And this remember is only wheat. It
takes no account of the other cereals
and fax and there Is besides the great
vegetable and stock and dairy wealth
of this favored region. IS. s. 4. Y.
The valle- first began to be a factor
in the whea. raising world about 1880