The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1913-09-06
SATURDAY, SEPT. 6, 1918.
NORTH DAKOTA.

There are few people. eve among
it's own citizens, who realize the ad-
vance that has been made In farm life
in this state, in one generation. North
Dakota is a big state, and it is as yet
sparsely settled. For this reason, in
travelling through the state on either
of the big transContinental lines, the
conception that is received does not do
the state justice.
To the person who makes an extern
sive trip through the state by automo-
bile, there comes an entirely different
conception. This is especially true Of
a trip through the older settled parts,
in the eastern and southern slopes of
the state.
Thirty-five years ago these parts Of
North Dakota were bleak n empty,
and for the most part treeless. Today
they are fast becoming beautiful gar
den spots, we'll titled, with fine roads,
fine homes, and magnificent groves.
The last named feature is the most
striking to the person who expects to
find an open prairie.
A trip by auto through North Da-
kota would be an eye-opener to the
majority Of North Dakotans. To an
easterner, with his crude, miscon-
ceived ideas Of western life. it would
be a marvellous revelation.
There are sections Of North Dakota,
where the prairie has absolutely and
entirely disappeared. The far horizon
is gone. In every direction there are
trees, long rows of trees, great groves
of trees, small clumps of trees, but
everywhere. trees.
But the greatest surprise which
comes to the person who thinks of
North Dakota life as one of dreary
hardship, its homes as Cheaply con-
structed shacks and it's citizens de-
prived of all the pleasures of modern
civilization, comes on a closer exam
ination of the home life on the farm.
There are any number Of farm
homes in North Dakota which would
be a credit to the most exclusive resi-
dence streets in the cities. Fine struc-
lures, equipped with every modern
convenience. Homes with running
water, with hardwood floors, with
electric lights. Well appointed homes
furnished in luxury.
And in practically every instance,
the wealth that made these beautiful
country homes possible came entirely
from the soil. The people who are
now enjoying life. in ease and luxury,
in nine cases out of ten started with
practically nothing, winning wealth
and independence, from their bare
hands and the soil.
This did not come about without
hard work. Nothing that is worth
while comes easily. There were
pioneer days, when there was a strug-
gle, when the markets were not SD
near as they are now, when the towns
and the n%eighbors were farther apart
when there were hardships to suffer.
But in those sections Of the state to
which reference is here made, the
pioneer days are past and the men and
women who live there are ENJOYING
the fruits of their labor.
There are other sections of the state
where the pioneer days are not yet
over. But in every section of North
Dakota, there is opportunity, for the
man who knows how to farm and who
is not afraid to work. And thirty
i've years from now, when another
generation has passed, the whole
state of North Dakota will have mass
ed out OF the pioneer stage, and will
have been transformed into. one of the
finest garden spots on the North Am
ertcan continent.