The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1905-10-19
Che Land Boon1 In the
NORTHWEST.

was Informed by the neighbor that it
was his intention to 60 back East to
Gods country and live with his wife's
kin.
"But where did you get the calfp"
"Swapped with Jim Smith, and say
skinned him pretty bad, too"
allow is that?"
"Well, you see he was to take my
south eighty with the shanty on it for
the critter, but when we made out the
papers, run in the other eighty, too.
Say, he didn't notice it. Jerusalem!
but I certainly fixed that man Smith
plenty"
Today farm lands near the scene
where it is averred the above took
place, are selling from twenty-five to
thirty-five dollars an acre. The prog
ress which the Dakotas have made and
in which they have established the rep
utation for stability and reliability, so
long denied them, has not been made
wholly by their own efforts. Their
value has been enhanced wonderfully
by the progress of the Southwest; by
that / mean Kansas, Nebraska, Okla
homa, and the Indian Territory. The
center of population in the district
just mentioned has been gradually
drifting westward, until it is now
asserted, on reliable authority, that
more than fifty per cent of the wheat
raised in these communities is grown
In their western half.
What effect, you ask, can this possi-
bly, have on the fertility and produc-
tiveness of the Dakotas. Simply this:
The people who originally migrated to
the Southwest came, ia majority of
cases, from timbered country to q
treeless prairie. The natural conse-
quence was, the newcomers COM
menced the planting of trees, realizing
as they did the material advantages de-
rived in many ways from trees, both as
a protection against the breezes from
their northern neighbors in the winter,
and from their southern neighbors in
the summer. They also we're aware
that trees have a tendency to retain
moisture to much larger degree than
is commonly known. The results both
to themselves and to their northern
neighb0rs from the planting of trees
as medium to reduce the intensity of
the heat of the winds which blow from
south to north, during the growing
season, from the northern territory OF
, Western Kansas and Nebraska to
North and South Dakota, has only been
recently demonstrated and become an
, established fact. This last fact
coupled with their irrigation, has solved
! very vexed question, both to them
. selves and their northern neighbors.
f The settlement of the southwest BY
I. an intelligent, up-to-date class of citi
: zens, the driving westward of the ever
f present "boomer," has been a grea
;, factor in making both of these sections
Q a permanently reliable country. Th'
i prosperity of the Northwest has no
: been acquired by the industry an.
; activity of their neighbors of th,
t Southwest alone, but also by the fac
r that the Northwest co-operated hearth
{ Fly with their southern neighbofs an,
q adopted the tree-planting idea, also th
u irrigation idea. Only with the latter
= the irrigation was from srtesian we'll
f and not from the rivers, as with tn
Q former. That the North and South
+ west have gone hand in hand in thei
/ efforts to overcome the one great draw
" back to their mutual welfare an
l. prosperity, and have worked conscieI
g tiously to the accomplishment Of thi
" result, is established beyond any quel
J. tion whatsoever. What has been sai
10 Of the Southwest relative to the d
N parture of the boomer is true to
q large extent Of the Northwest. Th
10 boomer has been supplanted by e
p practical farmer Of the East who plov
,e his corn more than once between plan
er ] ing and husking, and knows ono cal