The Devils Lake world., 1922-06-28
UuIulV, nIVULllVVlv
TELLS OF COND|-
TONS in West

ton of what he saw for the benefit OF
the many readers of The World who
are interested in that country, and
will want first hand information about
it, Mr.. Anderson drove out there
with his car and only staid in each
place as long as he felt so disposed
and moved on from place to place
until it came time to start for home
He had ample time to study conditions
as they really exist, and by talking
with people who came from all parts
of the United States, he learned just
what each thought Of the west. The
letter follows:
Have you seen God in His splendors,
Heard the text that Nature renders
you'll never hear it in the FAM
lily pew
The simple things, the true things,
The silent men who do things
Then listen to the Wild-it's cal
ling you.
Robert w. Service.
Ever since Captain John Smith
poured cold water down the sleeves OF
lazy Englishmen to make them work,
the west has held magic mysticism
that has caught and held the magma
tions of men. Since the perfection of
the auto car many are want to pra-
phrase Hannibal and say: "There is
no West" for they can scale the Rock
les with even greater ease than Han
nibal leveled the Alps. But our own
West the Pacific West, has ap at
traction, at this time all its own. With
the habitable public Domain gone and
the ever increasing numbers that must
be fed we turn instinctively to this
vast expense of waste. And when I
say mean Disagreement fthis reg
ion. But for a thousand mile from
North to South and more than that
from East to West with only here
and there a little oasis watered by the
streams that traverse it, such a thing
as grass is not known, except as a
cultivated crop like our small grains.
The rest is desert and about the only
thing you find is sagebrush, cactus
and greasewood.
How often do we not hear one our
farmers say that his native pasture
has "run out" after stock of every
kind has stamped over it every day
of every growing season. Take a
square foot Of virgin sod almost any,
where in North Dakota and we find
from ten to twenty different varities
Of grass growing wild there. This
after centuries of adaptation and the
fittest has survived. How prepos-
ferrous for man in his near sighted wis
dom to destroy such an accumulation
of welth and think that he is going
to reduce it with single plant may
be entirely foreign to it's soil in a
single season.
This region is sometimes called the
Asia Minor of the United States or the
Great American Desert. Its soil is
very light some places pure white sand
that drifts like frozen snow. Evapora-
tion is very greatly due to the in
tense heat and the loose soil. In many
places the rainfall is greater than in
North Dakota but still does not grow
anything owing to the above causes.
Parts of Los Angeles Country for in
stance had over twenty-five inches of
rainfall in the month of January this
year, while the average yearly pre-
cipitation for the past forty was less
than nine inches. In Ramsey county
it has averaged about eighteen inches
for thirty eight years, running from
fifteen to twenty three inches with the
exception of the year Of 1889 when it
was less than eleven inches.
When think Of the utter lack
Of vegetation Of this vast region 1 am
reminded of the eloquent tribute that
John J. Ingalls,, that master orator OF
the middle west paid to Grass:
Lying in the sunshine among the
buttrecups and dandelions of May
scarcely higher in intellengence thar
the minute tenants of that mimic
wilderness, our earliest recollection.
are Of grass; and when the fitful fever
is ended and the foolish wrangle o1
the market and the forum is closed
grass heals over the scar which oul
descent into the bosom of earth ha.
made and the carpet of the infan
become the blanket of the dead. Gras
is the forgiveness of nature-he
constant benediction. Fields trample,
with battle, saturated with blood, tori
with the ruts Of cannon, grow greel
again with grass, and carnage is for
gotten. Streets abandoned by traffi
become grassgrown like rural lane
and are obliterated. Forests decay
harvests perish, flowers vanish, bu
the sullen hosts Of winter, it withdraw
grass is immortal. Beleaguered b
into the impregnable fortress of it
subterranean vitality and emerges up
on the first solicitation of spring
Sown by the winds, by the wanderin
birds propagated by the subtle ag
riculture Of the elements which ar
its ministers and servants, it soften
kho VIDA o,,%1;vo o$ &bo .,,>~lJ r.