VOL. XXX.
INDIANAPOLIS, IND., JUNE 29, 1895.
NO. 26.
THBOUGH   MINNESOTA    AND   THE
DAKOTAS.
Great  Prospects   for a Big Orop in the
Spring Wheat Regions.
Speciat Oorres pondence.
I have recently bad a week's trip of ob-
ssrvation through Minnesota and the Da-
kotas, and opportunity to see the changed
phases of agriculture in the past dozen
years. When I first visi'cd these sections,
twelve j <*»rs ago, ttc industry was nearly
exclusively wheat growing. Now there
is greatly diversified farming. Cattle and
sheep are seen on every hand,to consume
the grasses of the wide range still found
in many parts, and hoga are grown to a
very *• .Dsiderab'e extent, for they have so
acclimalel c.rn as to grow very good
orops from the _ead made by process of
acclimation. The dairy Industry has als*.
sprung up on every hand, especially in
the park regions of Minnesota, where
tli re are ao many lakes, pure water, and
the successful growth of the cultivated
grasses, clovers, etc.
In conversation with farmers they tell
me that the low prioes of wheat in the
past lew years have contributed largely to
bringing about this diversity. Furthermore, during the long period of low
prioes they had broken away from the
traditional single use of wheat, as human
food, and tried feeding it to all kinds of
live stock, and had found lt muoh more
valuable for meat and milk production
than 35 and 40 cents a bushel to the millers and shippers. And so low priced
wheat has had its compensations in finding a wlilsr range of farm industry.
There ls perhaps no less acreage to wheat,
but larger to oats, barley, etc., and greater
attention has been given to live stcck and
the dairy industries. A very muoh wider
field of farm husbandry prevails. Formerly great wheat farmers spent five or six
months here in single efforts at producing
big wheat crops, selling it to the elevators
from the threshing machines, and spending the other six months, and the profits
on their crops east and sonth at their old
homes. This kind of farming had to have
an end, and it oame when the price of
wheat compelled this class to spend the
principal as well as the profits while at
their old homes. This brought about
great changes. Great farms were divided
into many smaller ones and sold to farmers who live here, and this class has grad
ually brought about the diversified farming I have referred to. The change has
been an excellent one for these sections of
the northwest in many ways. The profits
are now kept and spent here, building np
schools, milling Interests, and other enterprises needed in new countries, and the
oountry has a more permanent and substantial growth, and a far better citizenship.
The fine water power at Fergus Falls,on
the Red river, has been highly developed,
and flour mills and other manufacturing
industries are growing, whioh in .turn is
building np a good trade center for the
convenience and benefit of all classes of
people. Similar conditions of growth prevail at Fargo, Crookston, Grand Forks,
Grafton, Oakes, Jamestown and other
points, all of which are beginning to feel
the stlmulu. of diversified farming and
the better conditions brought about by it.
The great Red river valley, sixty miles
in width and over 200 in length, ls wonderfully interesting in many ways. It
rarely falls in the production of good
orops for North Dakota and Minnesota,
the river being the boundary line a long
distance. Here are great fields of wheat,
oats, barley, timothy meadow, clover, flax,
and other crops, with a good variety of
livestock. Fargo and Grand Forks are
the chief business oentersof North Dakota,
both of whioh are growing, prosperous
cities. The state has been lavish in
the endowment of its public institutions,
as will be seen in the following munificent
donations of publio lands:
Acres-
State University       96.000
Agricultural College- _. _       80,000
Betorm School _..      W <»
School of Mines      <0,i>00
State Normal schools       80,CCO
Public buildings at the capital       fin, <>'
Deat and Dumb School        "10,003
Institution for feeble Minded      SO 000
Asylum f.r the Blind       30,000
Manual Training School      S0,(00
Soldiers' Home      40.0M
School of Forestry      40,(00
Scientific School „      40,000
Public schools   2,<0«,|"00
Total    -3,COO,0'0
The Experiment Farm and College of
Agriculture are looated at Fargo, while
Grand Forks has the State University.
When it is understood that the provisions
of the land donations are, that none of it
shall be sold for less than ten dollars per
acre, the reader can see how well the pub-
derstand the f un,and the only thing to be
done is to let them run, and while
guiding them over the prairie,
hold to the buggy and go along.
Thus trained for the chase, the
horses enable all in the party to keep ln
sight to see tbe fun. There is one judge
of the race, on horse, who keeps well np
with the dogs, and marks the pointa of
advantage and quality of each dog for the
raoe. In this judging of the value of the
dog Borne thirty points are reckoned,
and to the owner of the dog that gains
most of them is given prizes. The
dodges and turns, beck action movement,
etc., made necessary by the movements of
the rabbit, are among ths many points
ocunted. In the last of these races, oover-
i ng some four hours, the horse and buggy
driven by a citizen, which the writer also
occupied, scared up a big rabbit and, with
ths hounds a mile distant in another
chase,our horse turned hound in the race,
running at full speed a mile or more before he ciuld be checked.   The f'c1; is the
and prospect for more; wheat ready  in  a
day or two, may bother us, suoh is farming or anything else.   Thankful of course.
Ripley Co. J. B.
A glorious rain. Two inches plum water. All nature rejoices. If the rest of
the season is favorable there will be the
best oorn ever raised anywhere. Just in
the midst of wheat harvest, wheat ls far
better than was expected by anybody.
Greene Co , Jnne 21. H. B.
The long desired rain has oome; been
raining 12 hours and the ground ls thoroughly wet; are in the middle of wheat
harvest. While we have some good
fields of wheat we have many that are not
so. The average will be one-third less
than in former years. Corn is very small,
bnt looks healthy, and growing fast. But
little olover hay to make on account of
worms; timothy light; early potatoes look
well.   This rain insures.us a fair orop.
Harrison Co., June 20. J. S. B.
^itll^^^ll^'^^fff^''
lie Institutions are endowed. At the minimum price, here is an assured fund of
130,000,000, but it will be much more than
that.
The present outlook for wheat has rarely been so good at this date. There has
been plenty of rainfall to make the crops,
and if there is a slight rednotion ln acreage the prospect is that it will more than
be made np in extra yield. I have seen
this oountry several times at this time of
the year, but never saw quite so promising an outlook for large yields of all kinds
of crops. The people here say that with
60 to 70 oents for wheat, as is now promised, they will be pnt in most excellent
condition.
There were ten persons In our party of
observation, and when we arrived at
Oakes, a flourishing town in the James
river valley, of North Dakota, the people
had heard of our coming, and arranged
for some rare sport.
The illustration gives an instantanions
snap shot picture of onr jack rabbit ohase.
A doz9n horses and buggies and ten grey
hounds trained to the sport were in readiness on our arrival, and the cltizsns and
party took the buggies to a large wide open prairie. Here the loaded bnggles were
deployed thirty to forty paces apart, and
with the hounds in the center of the line,
the column marched abreast till the big
jack was scared np, and then the ohaae te
gan. These jack rabbits run very rapidly,
and the equally rapid prey hounds rarely
oatch more than one in ten. The first
chase ended in a two mile raoe and failure to oatch. In the second one the
hounds picked up the game. The real
fun comes in when ths horses attached to
the light buggies start off with the dogs,
on a full run, with the bits in the teeth,
and with as muoh instinct for the chase
as the hounds have.   They  seem  to  nn-
horses are more fond of the fun than the
rabbits.
Oakes and Jamestown are in the James
River valley, and here, as elsewhere, is the
promise of large crops, the rains having
been abundant to make them. It is here
that the Russian thistle is so bad. Many
ways are being adopted to stamp it out,
but it is growing very prolific It is
easily killed by turning it under like sod,
for it grows as thick as bluegrass. The
trouble is that it seeds itself along the
roadside and everwhere the winds blow
it. It is an annual, coming always from
the seed and the root dies. It grows so
rapid and so rank sometimes as to choke
out the wheat and other grain crops,
Secretary Morton, of the Department of
Agrioulture made sport of the demands
for help to stamp ont this pest, yet bad
only in limited sections, but he would
think differently if he could see what our
party did of this pest.
There are great beds of marl in this
James river valley, which has been found
a great fertilizer and stimulent to wheat
and other grain growing. It nnderlies
large sections of the coantry and will be
found valuable some day. J. B. C.
In the Northwest.
Notes of Rejoicing.
Clover a failure, timothy and oats very
short; wheat fair, oorn looking well for
time planted. One of the finest rains for
months is falling to day. W. B. S.
Harrison Co.
Wheat harvested and about; meadows
very light; oata will be a fair orop; having
plenty of rain; frnit of all kinds very
plenty; apples very fine. J. A. K.
Greene Co, Mo.
©eticral Utoxrs.
We had all the rain we want and more
too; ground soaked through; cloudy, foggy
Belgium recently wiped out 38,000 saloons.
Several Nebraska irrigating plants have
been much damaged by floods recently.
An Ashtabula county, Ohio, man has
had an order from Korea for maple sirup.
In the State of Missouri there are 7.50
colored teachers and 51,000 colored pupils
Horses have sold on the public streets in
Atchinson, Kas , at 75 cents and fl a'piece.
The eighteen-months-old daughter of a
New York man died from a mocquito bite.
A Cass oonnty, Missouri, dealer expects
to strip the seed from a thousand acres of
blue grass.
Mrs. J. W. GUI, of Danville, Ky., has
made a f 10,000 gift to the College of the
Bible, at Lexington, Ky.
A mountain lion, measuring nine feet
from the tip of its tail to its nose, was
killed near Hope, B. C , recently.
California's peach crop, in the central
and northern parts of the State, promises
tbis year to be the largest ever raised.
G. Brooks, a ball player with the Page
fence giants,dropped down with heart disease at Hastings, Mich., last week and
died two hours later.
The mortality among oattle at sea, resulting from oruelty, want of water, etc.
was formerly stated at 16 per cent, while
at the present time it is 1 per cent.
California raises some big and notable
crops other than peaches and pears. A
hnndred car-loads of red onions, eaoh car
containing 24,000 pounds, have lately been
shipped from Stockton alone at the rate of
ten or a dozen oar-loads a day.
A muskallonge measuring i8]4 inohes in
length and 21 inches around, and weighing 37 pounds, was landed by Govenor
Grant, of Wisconsin, at Three Lakes, Wis.,
last week, with a seven-ounce trout rod.
It took him an honr and 56 minutes to land
the big fish.
Grasshoppers have appeared in such
quantities between Eokley and Otis, Nebraska, a distance of 25 miles, as to oover
the Burlington railroad track and cause
muoh trouble. The engines have been
provided with steel brushes with whioh to
clear the tracks.
The growth of the corn and oats orop In
southwest Kansas since the rainy season
oommenoed is phenomenal, and altogether
unprecedented. The hot but very wet
weather of the past month has caused suoh
a rank growth of oorn that in some fields
stalks are 10 feet high, with no signs of
tassels or ears yet.