Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1912-09-14
The Marvellous West.
Fargo, N. Oak, Sept. 5, 1912.
Editor Alexandria Gazette:

| tafSO, IN. LAX, Sept. D, lS1E.
Editor Alexandria Gazette:
have just come in from wild ride
forty miles an hour, in a big touring
car, through wheatfeld more thar
ninety miles long! And to think thta
this should be true in country that
when the N. P. R. R., was building the
first trans-continental line less than
35 years ago, scientists and newspap-
er men who they brought out to boost
the proposition reported that it was
simply barren waste, in which moth
ing would ever grow.
Now indeed, it deserves its title OF
"thc granary of the world" But wheat
is not the only comprising product
of this wonderful country. visited
potato farm, $50 acres in Irish po-
tatoes, yielding $50 bushels to an acre
The yield this year is so enormous
that potatoes are now selling for II
cents bushel.
When one looks across this vast eX-
panse of prairie, already being pre-
pared for the next crop, the sod beng
turred in some places by steam
plow, which plows eight burrows at a
time, in the heavy black soil, to a
depth of IL or 14n inches, or on a
adjoining tract, where team OF eigh'
immense horses are doing the farm
work, our plan of farming IN Ole
VIRGINIA would seem to be simply TICK
ling the face of Mother Earth with a
feather. The use of machinery here
is brought to a heighth of perfection
that is wonderful. A steam potato
digger, leaves even the tiniest potato
on top of the soil ready to be put into
the bags.
A portable cannery, with which foul
women in the open field, can in day
prepare sufficient fruit and vegetables
for the winters supply, is another
wonderful invention for labor saving
as we'll as to preserve the wonderful
crop of vegetables and fruits, which
ripen in the short season.
Minneapolis, where | spent the last
week, bids fair to become the most
beau tiful city in America. Its location
at the conjunction of the Mississippi
and Minncsota rivers, at the foot o.
St. Anthony Fails, '2:th the Mime
haha adjo:l::;,:. il a little lower after
the waters save cast themselves doWr
in a million ;:ridescent waves, on tho
famous Min:i"na..a Fails, gives an op
port,:nity for variety and beauty OF
landscape seldom found. The rolling
prai lie unites the splendid system 0:
bouicvards, more than 80 miles in eN'
tent. which connects the chain OF lakes
lyin- a few miles distant, in one O.
the most superb park regions ever
dreamed Of.
EVERYWHERE one meets names thai
are familiar to him through HlaWatha
Not only are the streets, bouleVards
and lakes named from this poem, bu;
replica of Longfellow's house at
Cam bridge has been built near Mime
haha fails and the park named Long
fellcw park, The interesting thlns
about it is that Longfellow never WIS
tied Minneapolis and when he wrote
the poem his knowledge of the north
west was so limited, the Land OF the
Dakotas and Minnesota meant the
same to him.
Authorities these days tell Us his
Indian lore was most faulty and that
his native studies were far from beng
true. But who cares for such smai!
thing as geographical accuracy, when
they see a pair of lovers with heads
close together bending over to eaten
the touch of Minnehaha'S rainbow: