Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1906-01-02

FARMER WALLACE GIVES
GIENTE A JOLT
Editor Tribune 1: In a recent issue
of the Tribune ! noticed and read a
communicate from my old soldier.
comrade and pioneer chll1n, J. W..
Foley, ST., of Medora, N. D., wherein
he begged leave to differ with those
who think the climate of the north
belt of states has undergone change.
He is aus combative and vitriolfc now
as i'm his more youthful years. He
delights to dip his sharp pen deep
down in the carmine ink and throw
1.-The fluid at all corners. / rather like
his forceful style, and ann Inclined
to offer reinforce to his little
band of old time thinkers whose best
and dear school has been experience.
Foleyis', ideas about climate changes
are much like those of Tom Van Eft
tan, one of Burleigh county's original
pioneers, who settled on what is NOW
known as Van Ettans addition to Bis
I nanck. Tom was. not an expert at
farming and gardening, but he was a
1 good feeder; he could always eat a
good, square meal. He said to the
writer of this, who was at that time
4 (twenty-five years; ago) a near neigh
bor, that he did not take much stock
lin "sky farming" that he found the
spade, hoe, rake and strong arms bet
! ter implements to work a garden with
than the spy glass and last years al
manac; that the longer he lived in
Dakota the more de learned about
the soil and the climate; that the
knowledge acquired by experience was
a greater help to him than reading
what Horace Greeley knew about
farming. We learn much by. study
and reading, but trial, hard work and
good common sense is best. & # 5
This Van Ettan line of reasoning
is in accord with Foley's ideas. He
has lived long on the frontier of Da-
kota. He has followed the old buff
falo, Indiam, army and emiggant trails,
during the hot summer and the cold
i. winter; he has faced the cold and hot
waves; been exposed to the drifting
snow, the pelting rain and the freez-
!. ing blizzard. He remembers with
pleasure the delightful growing sea-
sons of May, ] Tune and July, and the
ripening periods of Indian summer.
u He still remembers the pioneers and
& the conditions Of that time. The out
!. fit and, equipment required, the slnin-
haIbited region traversed, the long
distance between camping places
where wood, water and forage could
. be had, the depend nce on Wild game
for fresh meat, the primitive cooking,
] and the slight shelter afforded by the
4 old Sibley army tent. He remembers
: the long distance between the army
i and trading post, the long, hand drives
q with the mail. He saw the pioneer
"A settler cut and draw the logs for his
! first cabin; the many miles he went
, Ito the timber for fuel the first little
lpatch of breaking, the sod potatoes,
. the corn, beans and peas cut into the
q Isod with an axe; the dependence ON
! fur bearing animals for money to buy
supplies and ammunition; the store SO
!. far away; nearest neighbor ten, TWEEN
: ty and even thirty miles distant. He
remembe the isolation, exposure.
. toll and poor reward for his struggles
!. lat that time, and with all this inn
dpessed by experience on his strong
mind is it strange THAT he, when
. comparing present conditions OF the
people and country with conditions
. 3of that earlier period, would say THAI
mans work has brought a great
81 change ON earth, but not of climate
: You amid your ways of working and
living have been changed but not the
climate. Il S5$ sa5s
. 80 FrEs
There is NOW no frontier Life Q;
Exposure and isolation. You are Il
close touch with all the world as ligins
ION easy street. Ely eryHhdng that y
! needed and much that You do no
3 need is laid at your door. The radl
d road, telegraph and telephone, th,
+ lstation, bhe store, church, school, hom
( paper, the post office and daily post
q man, the mil, lumber and fuel yards
!, !. the creamery mac inery and eleTal
!, ors, stock yards the &5rlgs STORE, TIL
I bank and hotel, the doctor, minister
lsherdff and Judge all ready and wad1
ing to serve You. You are bette
"A clothed and fed. You have bette