Hot Springs weekly star. (Hot Springs, S.D.) 1892-1917, 1917-07-13
JUCKFTT WRITES
OF HIS TRIP
TELLS OF CROP CONDITIONS IN
NORTH AND SOUTH DAKOTA
ROADS THRU STATE GOOD
MAKES TRIP FROM DEVILS LAKE
IN TWO DAYS AND ONE.
HALF IN FORD

HALF IN FORD
Editor Hot Springs STAR:
Dear Sir:-Thinking perhaps your
readers might be interested in know
ing about the corn crop conditions
and the roads as found by me on my
recent trip to North Dakota l take
the liberty of writing you a short
sketch regarding them.
My daughter. Marie, and myself
left for DEVILS Lake, North Dakota
on the 18th day of June, travelling
with autojby the way of Rapid City
Pierre, Miller, Redfield, Aberdeen
South Dakota, Glendale, Jamestown
and Darlington to DEVILS Lake
North Dakota. We found the condi-
tion of the country generally pros
porous altho backward. In North
Dakota everything is spring wheat
They sow a very little flax and oats
but no corn is planted. While at
DEVILS Lake we made trip to the
Canadian border and found the out
look for spring wheat good with the
exception of about ten miles where it
was burned up. North Dakota has
had very little rain this spring but
the weather has been cool which is
excellent for the stooling of spring
wheat. On July 9Th North Dakota
was visited by soaking rain over
the entire state, two inches falling
in Grand Forks in the eastern part
of the state. and about one inch in
the western part. This rain ought
to insure them good wheat crop.
The wheat outlook in eastern
South Dakota is very fine and from
present indication l should say that
South Dakota will have the greatest
wheat crop this year of any in her
history. The wheat is all headed
out, stands about two and one-half
feet high and apparently is as level
as a placid lake. 1t is a beautiful
sight in travelling over the country
to see the prosperous condition
of the wheat fields in South Dakota
to-day.
In the eastern spart of South Dak-
ota in the country that 1 travelled
thru Nom Aberdeen to Miller about
two-thirds of the crop is spring wheat
and one-third corn. Corn is late this
year but is of good color and indi-
cations are good for crop. Be-
tween Blunt, South Dakota and
Pierre, there is little or no farming,
but vast tracts of smooth, level
prairie are being used for stock rails
ing purposes only. One criticism re-
garding South Dakota is that each
farmer is trying to do more work
than he can do we'll. South Dakota
does not compare favorably with
North Dakota as to cultivation. The
North Dakota farmers are much bet
ter farmers from outside indications,
but the South Dakota farmer does
not pin his faith to one crop only,
like North Dakota, and in addition
South Dakota farmers nearly all
keep bunch of COWS, also,, there are
quite few silos, which indicate that
the South Dakota farmer is learning
and will soon pass his North Dakota
brother in the art of farming.
One thing that surprised me very
much in North Dakota was the pre-
sence of alkali almost everywhere.
The wells are generally deep but
very strong of alkali. The DEVILS
Lake. with shore line of about
three hundred miles, is so strong of
alkai that the water is salty and
the fish have all died. The state of
North Dakota has established a fish
hatchery at DEVILS Lake where they
are trying to get fresh water fish
accustomed to the alkali by putting
IN small quantity of alkali in one
tank and then running the fish into
another tank with more alkali until
the last tank has the same amount
OF alkali as the lake, and in that way
they are endeavoring to again re-
stock the lake with fish.
Tradition tells us that this lake
was originally much larger and was
fed from the overflow cf the lakes
further to the Northeast. But farm
ers have drained the intersectine
country and have planted it to crops
so that the lake does not receive the
amount of water it formerly did
from the lakes farther north, and it
has receded more than a mile from
its original shore line.
One of the reasons they have given
for the lake being so strong of alkali
is that it receives no more surface
water. DEVILS Lake is quite a sum-
mer resort. 1t has the second larg-
est Chautauqua in the United States.
Regarding the good roads PROPOSE
tion North Dakota has us outdone on
dirt on side Of the road and dumps
graded in every direction. and gem
orally graded fifty feet wide. To do
this grading they use immense trac-
tors and a machine that digs up the
dirt on the side Ct tie oad ard dumpj
it into the middle. After the road
is graded in this manner then they
go over 1t with the ordinary grader
to smooth It over. The one great
thing they lack however Is a road