River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1913-04-24
THE EAST AND WEST IN
CONTRAST
BY z. s. Reed

people and the general aspects of
the country in the East will find
that the West displays many fea-
lures in strong contrast as he COM
pares conditions in these extremes.
As to the landscape; New England
and York State present great
variety of scenery in limited space
with frequent changes from one
aspect to another, but these changes
are seldom abrupt or startling. In
the West changes of natural fea-
lures are not so frequent but where
they occur they comprise a more
elaborate area-are on a more ex-
.ensive scale-and are more star
thing in character In the east are
found no extensive plains, hills of
slight elevation are general and
small streams are numerous. For
ests of no great extent are always
in view, nearly every farm having
its woodlands. In most localities
brushlands are a marked feature,
many farms having more brushland
than cultivated fields. This brush
huckleberry, hazel, bayberry and
other species-is persistent in pas
lures, grows thick but only few
feet in height. The woods in the
East are mostly of the deciduous
species-trees that shed their foli-
age in the fall.
In the Middle West; here are
found vast tracts of level land
"prairies "-great plains, highly
productive. In the region of the
plains there is but little of wood
land. The north one-half of the
states of Michigan, Wisconsin and
Minnesota, forty years ago, was
covered with dense forest. Pine
timber comprised large tracts of
these forest areas. The pine has
been nearly all cut for lumber and
considerable areas of this land as
we'll as that covered with hard
wood has been cleared and put
under cultivation. In the high re-
gions of the Rocky mountains rise
the great rivers, which, after tum-
bling down the declivities pursue
their meandering way quietly for
thousands of miles to the ocean.
Beyond the great plains of the
Middle West the Rocky mountains
occupy the country over vast re-
gion, a region difficult of descrip-
ton, a wild, crazy region. The
mountain sides are heavily wooded,
except the higher attitudes of the
Hottest peaks. The timber of the
mountains, as we'll as of that be-
You'd, is almost all of the coniferous
species-evergreen. In this noun
tain region are many valleys of
considerable extent that are being
occupied and cultivated, and here
cities are being built and even
along the high attitudes in the min
ing territory great cities have risen.
Between h e Rocky mountain
chains and the Cascades are valleys
of great extent, elevated three and
four thousand feet above sealevel.
The first impression that the
West makes upon one gives him an
idea of vastness, a sense of spa
ciousness, whether he is travelling
across the limitless plains, among
the lofty mountains where on the
skyline peaks on peaks arise,
down in the great valleys where the
unfenced fields of wheat extend
farther than he can see, among
mile-square farm ranches or in the
cities or villages, and this sense OF
spaciousness remains, becomes g
permanent idea of the mind. In
eastern cities the streets are mar
row and crooked. In most of these
streets the century-old wooden
buildings are crowded together, the
buildings presenting a monotonous
sameness of architecture. Cities
villages and factories are never out
of sight wherever one goes. Farms
are small, consequently houses ars
never far apart, the country roads
are narrow and fenced with stone
walls along which grows so mucf
brush ard over which crawls 81
many vines and oriers as TO make