Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1908-01-04
PEERLESS NORTH DAKOTA
Excellent Descriptive Article From the Pen Of Commits
siOner Gilbfeath for the Dakota Farmer...Sympo-
stun Of the States Resources ForCibly Told

The story of North Dakota is the
story of state new, yet wealthy both
in developed and undeveloped re-
sources. 1t is story of a state
wrested from the unbroken prairie
barely more than third of century
ago, and yet leading the world in it's
production of hard wheat, flax, beef
and the products that come from the
soil. 1t is state rich in things &C
complished and yet richer in things
still to be done. 1t is a state of much
individual wealth, per capita an
nual production larger than that of
the majority of it's sister states, and
its wealth is so well distributed that
there are no millionaires and no
paupers. Within the past few years
1t has added by the hundreds of thou
sands to it's population, and yet the
resources of the state far from being
at their fullest, have scarcely been
drawn upon.
It would require far more than the
space of a single article to describe
the state, or dwell at any length upon
its soil, it's climate its productiveness
or it's offerings to the homesteader. 1t
is state in which disease and i'll
health are reduced to the minimum.
1t has no large cities or congested
centers. It's climate is invigorating
and health giving. Its air is crisp
and exhilirating. It's summers are
cool and tempered with the mild eli
mate of its zone. Its growing season
is ample for the production of the
finest of grain the most succulent and
firm of vegetables and the fattening
OF a superior grade Of cattle and
sheep. It's autumns are long and af-
ford ample time for the gathering Of
the harvest and the preparing of the
soil, by fall blowing, for the harvest
of another year. Its winters are
characterized by dry, crisp, atmo.
sphere that is far less Objectionable
than the damp, chilling climate of
the eastern states. In the present
year the autumn season has been one
long Indian summer, from Septem
Der until this writing - November
25th-when the weather. is warm and
clear. altogether delightful, when
the wheat and grain has been thresh-
ed and stored, the soil prepared for
the coming spring and the peculiar
haze of Indian summer hangs over
the landscape and lends every scene
its own particular charm.
North Dakota affords opportunity
for variety of occupations along the
agricultural line. There is the Red
river valley, lying along the eastern
part of the state, where for miles and
miles the land is level as floor, and
in the summer season resembles an
ocean of wheat-waves of a great sea
of grain that extends from Wahpeton
on the south to Pembina on the north
and from the Red river westward for
distance of many miles. Board a
train at Wahpeton and travel all
night and all day and the journey is
through an almost unbroken field.
In the summer season the green Of
the fields is delightful, refreshing
view, and as the grain turns to gold
in the fall there is material for the
lines of the poet or the pencil of the
artist beyond the power Of prose des-
cription. Later the hum of the har-
vesters in the fields, the shocks and
shocks covering thousands of miles
and the music of the thresher with
chaff flying from thousand spouts
and grain flowing down and ready for
the bread of the world to eat. The
Red River valley this year produced
its generally large crop, and the
prices at which it was sold guarantee
happiness and prosperity to the farm
er fortunate enough to be possessed
of a heritage of fertile acres.
The central part of the state is
higher, little more rolling and the
yields of grain have been gratifying.
Towns by the dozen boast their five
and six and ten elevators, with ca
pacities that vary from 10000 to 5O,-
600 bushels, and the grain marketed
at some towns of only a few people
aggregate million or more bushels.
At the price of wheat this year, about
a dollar bushel at the elevators,
this means another golden stream Of
wealth pouring into the channels of
trade and opportunity everywhere for
the business man to reap profit from
his wares. Trains a half mile in
length bearing wheat to terminals to
be. transported to all parts Of the
world, and to be exchanged for wares
and merchandise, means continu-
GUS hustle and industry.
After all, real wealth is in the
land. There are times Of short crops
and times of 1onc cronc hrf fIo ayar