Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1908-09-30

ness. harvest begins from August
Goth to 25th, and as the weather at
this time of the year is always fine.
most of the grain is threshed from the
shock.
We left Winnipeg on Tuesday night
about nine o'clock, over the Canadian
Northern, the magnificent railroad
system which has during the past
twelve years been piercing the hereto
fore unbroken territory of northwest
Canada at the rate of mile q day,
opening this great western empire to
settlement and industry, and through
its immigration department speedily
covering it with sturdy, thrifty set
tiers from all parts of the world. who
are making the desolated prairies OF a
decade ago blossom as the rose, bear
ing millions of bushels of the best
hard wheat the world produces upon
land which the explorer of a few
years ago would scarcely have accept
ed as gift; building splendid, thriv.
ing cities. modern and p.to-date in
every particular, and gradually push
ing on into the great expanse of terri
tory to the north. and at every step
further on the industry and ingenuity
of man seems to find way to till
the soil and make it yield him many
fold in return. So surprising has
been the result that the wonder ID
where it will end.
During the night we made the trip
west from Winnipeg, distance of &C
miles to Portage la Prairie, beauti-
full city of 5000 people on the AS
siniboine river, surrounded by one of
the finest agricultural districts in the
west. For over sixty years grain has
been produced on these fertile plains
Perhaps no district in merica during
the last twenty five years, has pro-
duced as much grain as the renowned
Portage Plains district. Continuing
on at 2 40 O'Clock (midnight) we
came to Dauphin. a division point of
some 2. 500 people. just west of Lake
Dauphin, OIL the Vermillion river,
surrounded by splendid wheat
section, where quarter section Of
land is worth from $1,000 to $4,000
To the southwest lie the Riding
Mountains, long. low range of hills.
densely covered with valuable timber.
In the morning we crossed the line
from the Province of Manitoba into
Saskatchewan. great country in it,
self, 700 miles from north to south
and over 400 miles from east to west.
The northern half of the province is
largely unexplored. In the southern
half. the eastern portion, for q dis
tauce of l20 miles, is practically a
of the grain growing
areas of Manitoba. Further north. be-
tween the two branches of the Sas-
katchewan river, are immense
stretches OF open prairie land, suited
to wheat growing on an extensive
scale. North and east are extensive
tracts of fine spruce timber.
A stop of an hour or so was made at
Kamsack, a goodly town on the east
ern border of Saskatchewan, and
then we rode through a somewhat
rougher country, where the farms are
more scattering, and past settlement
Of Dukhobors, the peculiar fanatical
Russian religious sect, who. when
the spirit moves them, cast of their
clothing, leave their homes and
property. and tramp afoot across the
country stark naked in search OF
Christ, whom they believe to be COM
ing to meet them. Passing through
Canora we come TO country settled
by Austrians and Hungarians, with
their rough shanties, barns and houses
with thatched roofs, and on through
miles and miles of unbroken country.
here and there dotted with groves OF
small, stubby poplar. There are also
many lakes in this section, and they
were literally black in places with
hundreds of wild ducks; N fact
throughout the entire trip through
Saskatchewan and Alberta ducks were
seen in great numbers. Then we passed
a country settled by $500 Germans,
which shows decided improvement
in development. This is about the
town of Humboldt, where we were ten
dered splendid luncheon by the citi-
zens at the hotel. The town is only
four years old, and is growing rapid
ly. Leaving Humboldt we rode on for
several hours, gradually emerging in
to better farming country. where
the wheat fields were closer together
and showed a much better yield. A
pecliar sight to many of the party
were the big OK teams used by the
farmers in this section. Personally
we were interested to see posted IN
the towns along this line large litho.
graphs advertising the Norris d Rowe
circus, which made us feel that we
were not so far from home. after all