Rensselaer Republican, Volume 24, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 September 1891 — RED RIVER VALLEY WHEAT. [ARTICLE]

RED RIVER VALLEY WHEAT.

Hoosier’s Observations of the Great Crop—Prohibition and Weather. ■Minneapolis Cor. ofthe Indianapolis News. Having just arrived at this place from a. sojourn in North Dakota, I will endeavor to give the readers of The News Some information in regard to the wheat crop of the northwest. The red-river valley of the North is the territory from which we get our best grade of wheat. The estimate on this year’s crop is that 80 percent, of the wheat in the valley will grade No. 1 hard. The valley is from thirty to a hundred miles wide, and the soil is of the very best, being of a rich black loam. One peculiarity of the soil in the. valley is that it never forms into clouds, or bakes, as is very frequently the case ij. most O'! our slates. Thq. crop of the valley this year will be the banner crop. Qn the beautiful prairie lands one can look - as far as eye can reach, and the oply thing to meet nis gaze is the teething fields of golden grain and the blue horizon, wljich far in distance seems to kiss the grain of mother earth, Thisd>eautrful and broad expafise is occasionally dotted with the farm-houses and surrounding buildings. At pfefient lhe ihimense wheat crop is just being harvested. In many instances the harvesting machines are running both day and night—to do this the moon must shine in all its splendor. North Dakota is known for its large farms, of which it has several comprising from five thousand to fifteen thousand acres. On the Elk river valley farm of 10,000 acres, which is all in wheat, fortytwo harvesting machines were in operation on last Saturday. In cutting a large laud is surveyed or laid off, and the forty-two machines follow in It is a scene worth witnessing by the Hoosier. In shocking the wheat no cap sheaves are used. The estimated yield is placed at twenty-five bushels per acre. Smudging has been resorted to occasionally to keep the frost from the wheat, but now all danger is over, as the wheat will all be cut by the last of this week. To take care of the crop, harvest hands are being brought in from Chicago, St. Paul and Minneapolis, who receive from $2 to $3 per day. The threshing crews furnish all the necessary help, do their own cooking, and sack the wheat for 11 cents a bushel, thereby relieving the good farmers’ wives of a heavy burden. There is also a large oats crop in the State, and your correspondent has been in fields that stood over five feet high. There is a large potato crop in nesota and the Dakotas, and potatoes are selling at 25 cents a bushel. The potatoes are of a very large kind, and in quality they are excellent. “Prohibition is doing much good in North Dakota,” says Mr. C. Hunter, of the Grand Forks Daily Herald. We were informed, however, that liquor was shipped into the State in sugar barrels, crockery crates, etc., marked “original packages.” Grand Forks is a city of 7,000 inhabitants, but if the imbibers want a drink all they [have to do is to cross the river to East Grand Forks, Minn., a town of about four hundred inhabitants, which has thirteen saloons. In North Dakota and Minnesota the young lady in a fur outfit, and the young gentleman in a summer suit and white vest ride side by side. The real estate men of this country will stand with icicles dangling from their whiskers and swear that the winters, when the thermometer registers 60 degrees below, are mild and that the weather is pleasant. ’Tis true that their summer weather is delight ful, but their winters are rath -

er too much so.

W. L. BURNS.

A man who walked home without his baggage says that the skin-skilled New Jersey mosquitoes are probably the first transmigration of the spirits of dead seaside hotel keepers.