The Ward County independent. [volume] (Minot, Ward County, N.D.) 1902-1965, 1903-03-18
they know all about that wonderfully

OuIll lcCCAL SCdlo lLS A0AAS 1870
pletely overshadowed that OF other
parts of North Dakota. The prevail
ing impression was that North Dakota
was made up of blistered, arid plains,
fringed on the east by the green Red
river valley. Before men had learned
the ways of nature in the western part
of the state and how to-adapt them
selves 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 the seed IN
the ground in the spring and cut the
resulting wheat in the fall.
There are few richer land areas in
the world 1t is not easy to say just
where the valley" ends and where IT
begins, but as a general rule it is con-
sidered to be about sixty miles wide,
thirty on each side of the river, and
to include the counties Of Pembina,
Walsh, Grand Forks, Trail, Cass and
Richland 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.
Striking Comparisons.
The valley is about $50 miles long.
If we call it 60 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 OF
that of Minnesota and North Dakota
together These two states together
produce in an average year about $780,
100000 bushels of wheat. The Red
river valley in good years produces
45,OOO,OO0 bushels. Thus 8 per cent
of the total area of these two states
produces q per cent of their wheat.
The valley first began to be factor
in the wheat-raising world about 1880,
and experienced boom in 1882. The
first wheat raised here was practically
all No 1 hard. Scotch Fift being the
seed. But the farmers, finding that
blue stem wheat grows better, turned
to it, so that No Northern is more
common grade in the Red river valley
now than No. / hard.
Plenty Of Room.
Yet for all it's wealth, the Red river
valley is not yet thicklX settled. the
price of it's lands is low compared with
their productive capacity and value,
and there is room in them for thou
sands. 1t is true that recently there
have been some sharp advances in
prices, but there will certainly be still
further advances, until the value of a
farm corresponds to the capitalization
of the income that can be derived from
it at prevailing interest rates. J. j.
HILL the great railway man, was asked
awhile ago what he thought about the
tendency of these lands to advance in
price. He declared that the tendency
was permanent and bound to continue.
Hills Views.
t'The population of the United
States" he said, sis increasing at the
rate of 1000 daily. We are growing
at the rate of nearly 100000 a year.
We have doubled in every thirty or
forty years of our history. Inside OF
fifty years we will have 100000, 900.
Where are they going? Are we send
ing them away? No; we are taking
care Of thin at home. Where is this
extra million and half year going?
Where else but into the new lands OF
the West, and into the Northwest
above all? Where else are cheap
lands, fertile soil, healthful climate,
transportation facilities to good mar
kets, and conditions favorable to hui
man energy and enterprise so abun-
dant and ready to hand as right here
in the Northwest?
''Is there anything of a boom char
acter about such condition Of this!
Not bit 1t is not only normal and
natural, it is necessary, it is com
PEELED. What else can this population
do, where else can they go? The
cities canot absorb the 50,00O,00O in
crease of the next thirty years. The
bulk Of the population must be en-
gagged in productive occupations. They
must be at work providing that great
and fundamental necessity of mankind
everywhere. food for subsistence. The
great absorbing industry, the most i'm
pCrtant from a practical. material
standpoint, is the production OF food,
and food comes from the soil. The
cities flourish and prosper and our
civilizatio mis- enduring only when the
vast majority of the people is on the
soil, toiling by the sweat of the brow
to produce food, on the one hand, and
the raw material for manufacture,
trade and transportation on the other.
The bulk of this 50,O00,O00 human in
crease must go to the soil. and they
pour into the Northwest as naturally
as water flows down hill. This popu-
lation movement innto the Northwest
is as normal ard natural as the fact
that water seeks a level
Incessant War on Steam