The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1906-01-26
PRECIPITATION FOLLOWING
CULTIVATION

CULTIVATION
Practical Talk by.Vice President
Hannaford of the Northern
Pacific Railroad. ::
................. OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES.
So much has been said in the state
press in reference to the changing of
our climate that The Times repro
duces the following article from the
able pen of Vice. President Hannaford
of the Northern Pacific Railway, who
has been a careful observer of this
matter. He says:
The remarkable agricultural deyel-
opment of the western part of North
Dakota during the last few years has
attracted widespread attention from
residents of the eastern part of the
state, from government agricultural
experts, and from railway officials
whose interest in the growth of the
territory along these lines cannot be
underestimate. The query is: will
these conditions continue and the
western country keep on growing?
In this connection, Vice President
]. M, Hannaford, of the Northern Pa
cific railway, whose active relations
of thirtysfive years, generation, as
time is reckoned in the life of man,
and his opinions and observations are
worthy of careful consideration when
ever he is disposed to speak for pub
lication. 1t is not often that Mr.. Han
naford, although one of the most APP
proachable of men, consents to be in
teryiewed, but the subject in hand
&c ca iv11r Nrf0 mt hot he S01c Id FNrry
days ago and said to The Forum:
During the past summer 1 made
an extended drive through that portion
river, known as the Missouri slope,
proposed branch line extensions. For
gion mainly from a stock-growing
has been most successful, but had
noted the movement of farmers into
that county for some time past with
ever, made decided impression and
modified my opinions. Wherever /
went l saw evidence of successful ag-
On all sides new homes were seer with
munities in the east. The heretofore
dry land had blossomed into bountiful
yields. learned that there had been
perhaps a little more seasonable rain
fall for several years, but not in ex-
cess of the annual average. remem-
bered that the eastern part of the state
was once considered a doubtful agri-
cultural country, even the Red River
Inv
almost the entire area of the valley of
the Red is plowed land, the sod all
gone. The valley sod, as it is in the
west, was very dense, a mat of roots
SO closely knit. together that it she'd
water like shingles when used on log
houses and dug-outs. Before the sod
was broken in the Red River valley
the rain passed off to the river and lit
tie or none of it entered the ground.
Now that the sod is gone, nearly all
the rain goes into the ground and for
some years we have heard the cry that
the land is too wet for cultivation, and
associated with it we hear the ques-
ton of drainage, where once such a
thing was scarcely thought of. l am
glad to know that movement is under
way, on the west side of the river, to
do the same as is being done on the
Minnesota side, in the digging of
bitches to carry off the surplus water
which now sinks into the land instead
of flowing off into the river as it once
did over the farm sod
"But in the slope country there has
been an extensive area of land broken
up and the rain, instead of fastening
away over the unimpenatrable sod into
thn alyc nv,l ,,sr &C., H.
served to considerable extent in the
soil. am not soil expert and await
with interest the completion of the
soil investigation now in progress by
the state and United States geological
surveys, which will throw desired light
upon this and other subjects. 1t is the
express opinion of scientific men, who
have studied the matter, that most of
the soil of North Dakota is more re-
tentive of moisture than many of the
regions where the rainfall is double
that of the Red River valley.
1T is the accepted theory Of geolo-
gists that an immense glacier, plowed
down over what Is now North Dakota
and helped to make soil, which, after
the Ice melted, rested for a long period
as the bottom of various lakes. do
not know what differences there may
be between this pulverized rock soil
and the soils of other parts of the
country not so constituted, but Il know
that the average annual rainfall of the
Red River valley has not increased
and for the last year it was less sea-
sonable than for several years and yet
last year it was again too wet. am
not prepared to say that the rain belt
has moved westward but for several
years large crops have been gathered
In what was once believed to be dry
belt. North, In the Dominion of Cam
ada, very much west of the one hun
dred and fourth meridian Of longitude,
the western boundary of North Dakota,
farming has been successfully carried
on for years. The farmers up there
evidently adapted themselves and
crops to conditions.
The movement of population clear
through from the Atlantic coast, has