The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1909-08-04
Livingston, Mont. 7-29-O9.

Inc natural man wants TO De up
in the world, and here we are, near
ly 5000 feet above sea level. So far
we like it. The progress from lower
to higher levels, in our case, has not
been a painful one. We were lucky
at the start in several ways. Lucky
in cloudy Monday morning at the
Minneapolis end Of the trip, with a
cool atmosphere that continued
most Of the day. Lucky in having
reservations in tourist sleeper that
!. was not at all crowded until some
time after we crossed the state line
into Fargo. And last of all. lucky
in being booked over a line that so
far has justified Billy Brammer's
judgment as the best equipped road
across the continent.
Things began to look different be-
fore we were twenty miles out OF
the city. Up the Mississippi to St.
Cloud we ran into some sandy Sec
tons where vegetation is not so
rank as at home, but where farm
steads show signs of good living
on the part of their tenants in spite
of their grain being shorter and the
weeds less luxuriant. We were glad
tina we had daylight ride through
that section, for Minnesota certainly
looks good this month, with its
wealth of green goods and promise
of abundant harvests already under
way.
1t was different again as we came
into that part of the state called the
park region. Not such wide expanseS
of grain yellowing for the harvester,
but glimpses of lakes and swamps,
with the more homely farmhouses
spaced between with wide spaces Of
green, too much submerged with
water or lean of soil to be desecrat-
ed by the sordid producers of bread
and butter. But Minnesota is rich
enough to afford a park system, and
it is something to boast of that we
will always have breathing space
and recreation ground in the neigh
borhood of the headwaters of the
Mississippi, where the toilers of the
agricultural sections can go fishing
and forget the anxieties and disap-
pointments incident to the chase of
the almighty dollar.
Was it state pride prejudice that
made US feel almost lonesome, once
arrived in North Dakota and sur
rounded with the endless, almost
changeless, stretches of grain fields
We missed the corn fields here, hard
ly seeing any really promising corn
after leaving our state, though | am
not doubling that there may be
some good corn in North Dakota.
The fact is apparent, however, that
North Dakota farmers have not vet
got the corn habit, and | can't help
but think that Redwood farmers are
better off in social advantages and
home comforts, if not in dollars,
than their Dakota neighbors. | am
reminded of the saying | heard
years ago, that man is long way
from home when he goes where
they can't raise corn, though |
know such statement is little short
of treason out here near the spinal
column of the western country.
Tuesday morning we opened our
eyes and peeped out from under the
curtains at Miles City. O, what
difference in the morning. No more
tiresome wheat fields, but more tire
some sage brush now for several
hundreds of miles. Night had kind
ly shut out for US nearly 400 miles
of western Dakota and the bad
lands, and now we were following
up the muddy Yellowstone for 800
miles or more to this point, near its
sources, in the National Park.
1t is best not to be hasty in judy
ing Montana agricultural conditions
from a mere car window inspection.
1t is so entirely different from Min
nesota conditions that it cannot be
sized up by Minnesota standards.