Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1911-07-18
LETTER FROM THE WEST.
How the Country end Crops Look 70
Citizen of Wausau.
GREYBULL, WYo. July l.

The monotOny of journey OF near
" fourteen hundred miles between
! Wausau and this place was broken
)y visit of several days at Amery,
I! Polk Co., Wis, and Minneapolis.
| Amery is a lively village located on
Apple river and was formerly 'saW
mill town" but the mill, its work
being completed several years ago,
migrated to fresher fields and its
place is now taken by a canning
factory, a pickle factory, a creamery
and several other smaller manufac-
turing plants. The half dozen mer-
camille establishments, two banks,
and a 'printeEy'' from which the
Amery Free Press is issued, all are
prosperous, getting their support
from the surrounding county farmers
who are mostly of Scandinavian
descent and true to their generation
are active, industrious and success
fui.
From Minneapolis to Billings, Mont,
is tWenty-three hours ride through
the states of Minnesota, North Dakota
and a few hours into Montana. An
afternoon and nights rest at Billings
put us in good shape for a five and a
half hours ride south over the @. B.
& Q. Ry. to this place, the trip
from Minneapolis to Billings being
over the Northern Pacific Ry. Be
ing an eX-farmer, nothing is more
natural than that as close ObServa-
tiOn should be had of crops, soil, ap-
parent prosperity of the people and
adaptability Of the country for agri-
cultural or grazing purposes as an
average speed of forty miles per hour
would permit. Crop prospects in
Wisconsin are excellent except in
very few instances, but the nearer
the approach to ST. Paul and Mime
apolis the better the crops. Haying
and early harvesting were being done
and the same is true of Minnesota
east of the central part. Nearly
every farm house and yard along the
line of road in Minnesota and eastern
North Dakota are protected by groves
of cottonwood trees and banks Of
streams are skirted by the same
kind of trees. Passing through Moor
head, Mimi, and Fargo, N. Dakota,
situated on opposite banks of the
Red river Of the north, at $50 p. m.
there is not much change in the ap-
pearance Of the country except that
improved farms are farther apart and
farm houses are but one story in
height. The morning light gave a
view so different from the previous
day that the contrast must be seen
to be appreciated and even then can
hardly be realized. From a broad ex-
panse of level prairie to a compara-
lively narrow gorge with high precip-
itous bluffs, barren of vegetation on
each side, the bluffs cut up by mar
row and precipitous ravines. We al
most wonder and are inclined to
think that when God created the
earth and pronounced it good, that
the Devil in his efforts to mar or de-
StrOy the work of the Creator con-
centrated all his strength and the
Bad Lands of the west and northwest
is the result.
A walk down Lake St. the next day
after the fire of 1871 or the appear
ance OF San Francisco after the earth
quake and fire, many times enlarged
and intensified, would give but a
faint com mpariSOn to the bluffs and
ravines of the Bad Lands. The Vel
lOwstone river, whose waters are the
color of old gold, rushes down the
valley on its way to the Missouri and
the Gulf of Mexico. Its banks are
skirted by a growth Of willows and
an occasional cottonwood grove but
the narrow valley which occasionally
widens is barren except for sage
brush. There are o few gullieS or
wide ravineS coming down through
the bluffs and occasionally a small
bunch of cattle may be seen grazing
or grubbing around its mouth, also
few small patches of alfalfa meadow,
watered by irrigation. Nearer Bill
ingS there are more settlers, some
farms appear and doubtless are pro-
ductive but tits irrigation that makes
them so by renovating the soil, and
the work of settlers.
Billings, the metropolis of southern
Mont, claims to have population of
ten thousand, is a ribbon like city,
three or four streets wide and what
itlacks in width is made up in length.
The main street is paved with brick
as are several of the cross streets and
patterns after Wausau in having the
same style of ornamental street lights.
All branches of business are carried
on there, moral and immoral. and
the city seems prosperous, contented
and happy. The city is connected
with the outer world by the Great
Northern, Northern Pacific, C. & G.
W. and G. B. & @. Rys.
Leaving Billings at a. M, travel
ing south through much the same
sort ofcountry as that through which
Billings is reached from the east, we
pass, before reaching the entrance, to
Big Horn basin. several large fields
of sugar beets. For some distance
the country has the same general ap-
pearance, the bluffs are barren ex-
cept for sage brush which has more
thrifty appearance than farther east
and grease wood which is similar to