UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH Dar. A± ^ ^j£ ^fC *jC *fC *f» *f* " At Fort A. Lincoln, where the government contracted for about 3,000 tons, at an average price of $9.75 per ton, the contractor has been able to furnish but 106 tons, and has abandoned his contract, and the government is purchasing from private individuals, in open market, in such quantities as can be picked up, at about $14, and it is thought that the quality required can not be had at a less price than $15 per ton. The chief part of the hay has been brought by steamer, a distance of about fifty-five miles by water and thirty-five by land. There has been perhaps about 2,000 tons of hay cut within a distance of fifteen miles from Fort Lincoln, in small lots, at points widely separated. It was cut by a great number of par- ties, who gleaned it out of ravines, cooleys, etc., and it will probably be all required to supply the wants of Bis- marck. ******* "At Heart river and Apple creek, there was considerable Gen. Custer's Poiver of Observation and Description. 27 hay cut ; but a large part of the hay gathered at the for- mer place has been condemned, on account of its being so mixed with weeds and sage as to be unfit for use, and at the latter, the hay obtained will share the fate of the Heart river hay, unless the necessities of the government compel its acceptance. " At Fort Stevenson, the government contracted for about 400 tons of hay, at an average price of about $8 per ton, which is not as yet supplied, and the hay which is now being furnished is badly injured by frost, and would not, I presume, be accepted, if good hay could be obtained any- where in the vicinity. A great part of the hay cut for that post, was cut by hand, in small lots, gleaned out of ravines. The contract will probably be filled. " At Fort Berthold, the contractor, after ' hard scratch- ing,' managed to complete his contract for 150 tons; but it had to be gathered principally about twenty-five miles from the agency, and had to be cut in small patches at increased cost, by the employment of extra labor and additional time. The price paid by the government was $15 per ton. ****** "Owing to the extreme dryness of this climate and the scanty rain-fall, the hay crop, like all other crops in the country, will be always precarious and uncertain. " Yours respectfully, GEN. CUSTER — HIS POWER OF OBSERVATION AND DESCRIPTION. In order that the reader of Gen. Custer's descriptions of this country may understand them, it is well to compare his statements by the side of other writers who were with him at the time. I will quote the following description given by him of a portion of the country toward the Black Hills. It is writ- ten of a place twelve miles before reaching the line of Montana : "After the second day from Lincoln, we marched over a beautiful country; the grazing was excellent and abundant 28 Our Barren Lands. for our wants, and water in great plenty every ten miles. When we struck the tributaries of Grand river, we entered a less desirable country, the streams being alkaline, but we found a plentiful supply of grass, wood, and water. Upon leaving the head waters of Grand river, we ascended a plateau separating the waters of the two Missonris, and found a country of surpassing beauty and richness of soil ; timber abundant, and water both good and plentiful." This is a fair example of all the Black Hills compositions of Gen. Custer, and gives to the uninformed reader the im- pression of at least a fair country. Eight miles farther along on the journey, the corre- spondent of the St. Paul Pioneer writes to his puper, of the same part of the route and country, as follows : " The country is sterile and drying up. We circled around knobs, marched and countermarched along ravines, halting in the burning sun, until glad to at least find shelter in our tents. >:< * * Sometimes, while delayed at cross- ing a treacherous alkaline flat, and while the sun smote us with its powerful heat, we have found a resting-place ' in the shadow of a rock in a weary land.' Such a rest, and such a shadow ! Oh, how grateful and thankfully en- joyed !" No one can properly appreciate the full meaning of these last sentences who has not had a similar experience on the furnace-like plains of Texas and New Mexico. " When the wind blows hard, the fine dust and alkali is lifted and mingled with the air ; is painfully irritating to the eyes, and chapping the skin. All the next day, we traveled over the poor cactusy alkaline flats, crossing a number of dry channels, finding no water, except in stagnant pools. Hills, from 150 to 200 feet high, are standing here and there, and their bald, weather-beaten sides only add to the dreariness of the scene. Traveling through such a country as this, with the thermometer at a 'hundred in the shade, takes the enthusiasm out of a neophyte. * * • * " The next day brought us across the territorial line into Montana. The first nine miles, the country grew no bet- Gen. Custer's Power of Observation and Description. 29 ter, but rather worse — the same barren flats and naked hills. Just before reaching our present station, we climbed a long hill, out of the bad land bottoms, and reached a beautiful plain. Except for lack of timber, it can hardly be excelled anywhere." From this point on to the Black Hills, the New York Tribune correspondent says : " The expedition moved in a southwest direction, until it reached the valley of the Little Missouri. * * This valley was almost destitute of grass, and we left it in search of a better camping-ground, marching over thirty miles, and found a dry camp. From the Little Missouri to the Belle Fourehe, the country was generally barren and uninviting." Here they met the rains of August, so copious in all the "West at that time, and found good grass and water, and it was here they commenced entering the Black Hills, where were found beautiful valleys, some good timber, flowing streams, and the enchanting scenery which forms such a striking feature of all that interior region vaguely known as the Kocky Mountains. With these most marked excep- tions, which may be found in all the Territories, the descrip- tions given by these two correspondents, here and previ- ously in this paper, will apply very accurately to this great interior region three seasons out of four, as the writer can affirm from personal experience. Arid and fruitless as it is, it does not approach the extreme barrenness of much of the country between the Rocky and Sierra Nevada Mountains. As we ascend to the high altitudes of these mountains, the rains increase proportionately. It is not uncommon, in these lower regions, to see aerial showers of rain, when not a drop reaches the earth, it all being absorbed in the more dense atmosphere near the earth's surface. These cor- respondents also state that for 155 miles before reaching the Black Hills, there was no running water. There is really no discrepancy in these accounts, although conveying widely different impressions. Let us not do this enterprising officer injustice. Gen. Custer is full of en- 30 Our Barren Lands. thusiasm. At every ten miles lie finds wood, water, and grass in abundance. But abundance to bim is abundance for his military command two or three times a day. Ev- erything is beautiful to him so long as his command is well and prospering in the journey for which he is respon- sible, and which absorbs his thoughts. He knows that thousands of people in every part of the land are watch- ing with a kind and hearty interest the success of his ex- pedition, and he has succeeded in carrying into his reports his own wishes and feelings. On the whole, the newspaper correspondent describes things as he sees them. The cor- respondents on this expedition evidently had already lost whatever enthusiasm they may have set out with. Having no personal interest but to report correctly for their papers, they write with unbiased minds and report those more gen- eral characteristics of the country which first impress the civilian. They found a parched country, without running water, wood, or grass, excepting in very small quantities, with cactus, alkali, and stagnaut pools, all the way to the Black Hills and back. At the Black Hills they found the usual interesting features of all mountainous regions. Where Gen. Custer saw plenty of water, the corre- spondents noticed it was stagnant, and for 155 miles they saw not a drop of it running. Where the General saw grass in abundance for his stock, the citizens noticed the country was all dried up, and the good grass only in occa- sional patches ; and where the commander saw wood for fuel, the others noticed that it grew scraggily and sparsely, and only near the water. I have noticed this with no unkind intent to Gen. Custer, whom I genuinely admire, but merely to show how necessary it is to know men and understand their pe- culiar tendencies and their stand-point of observation in order to properly interpret their writings. Enthusiasm is a most admirable trait when properly directed, but it often deals with colors so bright that facts are transformed into fiction. To better illustrate the truth of this remark, on the Some other Letter-writers. 31 return of the Black Hills expedition Gen. Custer made a statement to a reporter about the gold discoveries. He said : " The reports are not exaggerated in the least, but prospects are even better than represented. * * The product of one pan of earth was laid on my table which was worth not less than two dollars. * * The scien- tific gentlemen are satisfied that far richer discoveries will be made/' And of the agricultural characteristics : " Too much can not be said in favor of the agricultural worth of the Black Hills." To all this, Prof. Winchell, the chief savant of the expe- dition, has already spoken, alleging that his conscience will not permit him to keep silent. He says that the country is not fruitful, and there is no evidence of rich mines. Col. Grant also says: "All the good land in the Black Hills will not make more than twelve good farms." No one believes that these gentlemen have uttered what they believed untrue. The expedition was understood and always mentioned out here as the " Custer gold-hunting expedition." The search for gold was believed by many persons to be its sole purpose. The belief that gold existed in the Black Hills was pretty general before the expedition started, so that the report of discoveries was fully anticipated before it was made, and, so far as I know, no one's opin- ion was influenced by that report. The miners of the expedition were shopkeepers of Bismarck, who expected to mine their gold, not in the Black Hills, but in their shops when miners came that way. It is evident from the diversity of opinion which has been quoted about the Black Hills aft'air, that there was no positive data which could justify the belief that these lands were ara- ble, or concealed the mines of Golconda. SOME OTHER LETTER- WRITERS. According to the report of his interviewer, Gen. Rosser states that I am discussing a subject I have not taken the 32 Our Barren Lands. pains to inform myself upon. He sharply attempts to re- fute my statements with regard to lack of rains. He says within a range of five miles of Lincoln 2,500 tons of hay were cut and cured at $4 a ton. Let the reader refer to the history of the hay-gathering at Lincoln this season, given in another place in this paper. He also refers to an interviewer who was at Minneapolis, and points to the fine .farms along the line of the road, as a refutation of what I had said of the country. Gen. Rosser could hardly help knowing when he uttered this, as does every person in this part of the country, that there was not then, as there is not now, a farm along the N. P. R. R. between the Red River valley and the Rocky Mountains, nor is there a farm at any place in this entire section of country, the few In- dian fields at Berthold being the nearest approach to it. Some farming was attempted at Bismarck this season, but it has failed, as may be seen by evidence given elsewhere in this paper. The letter of Major McGinnis, delegate from Montana, written in answer to my Tribune letter, does not appear to require notice. The very gentlemanly letter of my esteemed friend, J. Milner Roberts, has certainly impressed me kindly. I think, however, he should carefully review his estimates, if he expects to support a Pacific railroad upon the busi- ness of a sparsely settled pastoral community, the liquite of Dakota, or the timber of Washington. His esti- mates of the value of Dakota as an agricultural coun- try, that : "Not more than one-tenth or one-twelfth is unsuitable for farming," Is entirely erroneous. In this connection, I respect- fully refer to the letter of Gen. Sully, whose opportuni- ties for judging are very much superior to any Mr. Roberts could have had. Opportunities for Knowing the Country, etc. 33 OPPORTUNITIES FOR KNOWING THE COUNTRY. Mr. Roberts also claims that I am not familiar with this subject, and have never seen the country. I will state that I have served six years at different times, commencing in 1855, along and near the line of this road, in every State and Territory it touches. For eight years longer I have been on duty in other portions of this interior country having similar characteristics. In addition to this, I have observed it closely, its atmos- pheric changes, and have experimented with its soils. I have seen every imaginable effort made to raise crops in its barren earth. I have availed myself of whatever sta- tistics there are bearing upon this subject that the facilities of the country afford, and they are very numerous ; and I claim that my knowledge of its value and general charac- ter is to be relied upon, even though my feet have not trod upon every acre of its wide extent. Since Mr. Roberts mentions the death of Gen. Stevens as having taken place on the line of the N. P. road, giving the impression that he was a martyr to its interests, I will simply make this correction. The gallant and lamented Major-Gen. Isaac I. Stevens, the pioneer explorer of the North Pacific Railroad route, was killed in the war while leading his command at Fort Wagner, Charleston Harbor. THE VERY LIMITED VOLUME OF RUNNING WATER. It is well established by tradition that ever since this country has been known, it has been dry and unfruitful. Prof. Blodgett says of it, page 747, U.S. Meteorological Reports : " There is known to be great deficiency of rain, and a large portion of that great area inclosed partially by the long curve of the Missouri river is set down as an arid and uncultivatable district by explorers. Its amount of drainage is too small to permit the supposition that it is otherwise, as all the tributaries of the Missouri below Powder river are small and comparatively unimportant streams, belong- 34 Our Barren Lands. ing to that class of shoal rivers of the plains, falling off to a very small volume in summer." Lewis and Clark, as well as later explorers, make partic- ular mention of these facts. So remarkably true is this, that in coming from James river to this post, in the month of August of this year, via Bismarck, a distance of 325 miles, I crossed but four run- ning streams, and each of these could be spanned by a single step dry shod. The Black Hills expedition at the same time saw no running water on the other side of the river for 155 miles. At least half of that was so alka- line as to render it unfit for irrigation, and if all the remain- der on the route I traveled had been gathered into one ditch and used for irrigation, it would not suffice for the cultivation of a space of ground to exceed one-half mile in breadth. As has been said, there was comparatively no running water found on the Black Hills expedition, while the offi- cers with the Northern Boundary Commission say there is comparatively no water in that country. The Milk river, the most considerable northern tributary of the Upper Missouri above the State of Iowa, has no water in its bed after ascending fifty miles from its mouth. The officers of the Boundary Commission expedition further report that for fourteen degrees of longitude along the interna- tional boundary there was no running water. Here wTe have distinct accounts of about a thousand miles of this country, in various directions from Bismarck, which report comparatively no water, while it is reported by Professor Blodgett, and is well known from other sources, that, excepting the Yellowstone, the Upper Mis- souri has no tributaries that yield more than a mere rivu- let of water in the summer season. Now, it is a well- recognized fact that, where the summer rains are so incon- siderable as to make no streams, there can be no general agriculture, and of course no water for irrigation. This example of a river without tributaries is only equaled by the Nile, which, for 1,500 miles, has no tributary at all. Extreme Drouth. 35 Compare these instances with the thousands of running streams one crosses in passing over the less distance from Boston to Omaha, and one can form a vague idea of the remarkable drouth of this country. The Missouri, un- like the Nile, from the great fluctuations of high and low water and high hillsides, is not available, even for its nar- row valley. EXTREME DROUTH. This fact of drouth is shown not only by the traditions of the country, but by exact measurements, which, although they extend back but eight years, are associated with other like measurements extending back fifty years, which prove that by taking the mean of eight consecutive years of rain- fall anywhere in these countries, we get a practically true expression of the rain-fall of that section. With all these facts, so potent and perfectly established, we still find many men preferring the evidence of the past two years to that of fifty, because it is what they wish to believe. Something can not come from nothing. The rains are not created to order in the midst of these plains, but are evaporation from the oceans. The Sierras shut oft' what would come from the Pacific, as the atmosphere that is rare enough to pass over them is not dense enough to carry much water, while that coming from the Atlantic is well- nigh precipitated before it reaches the 100th meridian. The rain-fall over this interior region has been measured, and it is insufficient for agriculture ; and, unless Heaven provides the rains in some other way than by nature's present laws, the American farmer will not take up his residence here for a long time to come. The readers of the New York Tribune can not have failed to notice the very interesting letters of its Greeley (Colorado) correspondent, Mr. Meeker. He describes how they have already reached the limit of water that can be used for irrigation, what a very insignificant portion of the land it irrigates, and how utterly impossible it is to raise trees, gardens, and grains without irrigation. Now, by referring to the rain-charts of this country, prepared by 36 Our Barren Lands. Prof. Blodgett, it will be seen that in this portion of Dakota we have five inches less annual rain-fall than in Colorado, agreeing with our recorded reports, while they have the advantage of the proximity of the mountain belts that always furnish limited but unfailing streams. We have seen by our tables, that in eight years there has been two, and perhaps three seasons, when farming might have been carried on in favorable locations, and five with a rain-fall like the present year, that will not permit of agriculture. And this, judging from the unchangeable- ness of natural laws, will be true in the future. In Mich- igan and Wisconsin, where the fire-scourge treats them so harshly, they have a rain-fall of thirty inches per an- num, and in Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and New York, thirty-five and forty inches ; while in the more southern States, fifty inches. (See U. S. Meteorological Rep.) Yet in these States it is seldom that there is too much rain. Notice the marked difference between these States and the desert, where, during five years out of the last eight, there has been but nine and one-half inches per annum. To describe the present year, is to describe them all, except the exception- ally wet ones. The diary of a single season, the impres- sions of a voyager who comes and is gone in a day, or the success of a single kitchen-garden, or the temporary growth of a few shade-trees — these incidents taken by themselves, and not in connection with like experiments in other sea- sons, can have but little real value in weighing this ques- tion. It is a problem that can not be demonstrated with mathematical completeness, and can be dealt with only by taking from the greatest number of examples the prevail- ing characteristics. In this manner we get probabilities amounting almost to certainties. The prairies of Illinois can not be compared with these of the far distant West, for they are visited with abundant rains, aud the trees are kept down by fires. But even the destitution of this neighborhood is made plenteous by com- parison, for we have reports come up to us from far-off" El Gen. Custer's Observations. 37 Paso, the other end of this same barren, rainless region, that they have not had a drop of rain for 365 days. GEN. CUSTER'S OBSERVATIONS. The " personal observations " of this country by Gen. Custer, at the time he wrote his letter, were confined to a single season, the summer of 1873, which had the greatest rain-fall ever recorded in the country, and about two and a half times as much as the average of 1867-1871 and 1874. Much of the soil being good, only lacking moisture, the rains -of 1873 produced the same results they would any- where else. Gen. Custer saw this, as did many others, and accurately described it. He could have seen one or, at the most, two other like seasons in "Western Dakota in eight years. In Ohio, once in six or seven years, we have a drouth so great that the grasses die, and the meadows have to be newly seeded. To judge by one such example would be as good evidence that Ohio is a worthless coun- try, as the experience of one year is that this is a good one. I will now take extracts from my own journal, for the same period this season, while coming from Fargo to Fort Buford, D. T., a distance of 425 miles — about as great a tract of land as the route observed by Gen. Custer last year : " August 3. Left Fargo to-day at 8 a. m., traveling over two hundred miles. At Fargo, meridian 96° 20', the vege- tation is rank, crops abundant and good, about one-tenth injured by grasshoppers. The whole Eed River valley is a dense meadow, with grass waist high. The people claim to have had showers every second day all the season, and vegetation justifies the statement. After coming westward sixty miles the grasses were shorter, and less rains for the summer were apparent. Continuing on to the James river, one hundred miles, about meridian 98J°, we found that stream a mere rivulet, the grass crisp and short, the coun- try dried, and the people complained of no rains. The gardens about the station and military post were badly parched and pronouuced failures. Passing on to Crystal 38 Our Barren Lands. Springs, some thirty miles, the country continued parched, the grasses not more than one and a half inches high, and burned brown by the sun. Here was a small patch of about two acres plowed and planted, partly in a little valley, and the remainder on a low bluff. After passing half-way up the bluff, there was no longer any green thing visible. In the valley, the land gave promise to yield very little except potatoes. From this on to Bismarck, me- ridian 101°, it continues crisp and brown, without any running water, Apple creek, even, standing in stagnant pools. The patches about this place, where cultivation has been attempted, present a sickly, parched appearance, as if they would produce about a tenth of a crop, the people claiming it to be the work of grasshoppers ; but they only preceded the drouth by a week. Looking through the town, I find but one shop where vegetables can be had, and these, poor and sickly, have been brought from the Red river, more than two hundred miles." Proceeding by land to this post — Fort Buford — 225 miles, there was one uninterrupted succession of brown, and some- times yellow, earthern-colored hills. When approaching Bismarck, and some twelve miles from it, we saw haying- parties in the narrow ravines. But there was no hay that could be cut in the valley of Apple creek, and I was told there was none on Hart river. The grass was, in fact, as short in these narrow valleys as on the hills. After leaving the town, there were seen, at intervals of five or six miles, parties gathering hay for many miles up and down ravines so narrow, that often one and two swaths with the scythe would cut it all. There was no more bottom land where hay could be cut for twenty-five miles. At this distance, near the Missouri river, there were about a thousand acres It was in a basin, where the spring rains gather and keep the soil wet a long time. Here a large party were cutting hay. They will gather about four hundred tons, and hold it at starvation prices. There was no more grass that would do for cutting until we arrived within six miles of Fort Stevenson, where, by meandering up the narrow valleys Gen. Caster's Statement upon the Hay Supjrty. 39 of Snake creek, from three to twenty yards wide, and some twelve miles long, hay is found. Some three hundred tons only were cut there. No other hay-grounds of importance were found for a hundred and thirty miles, until we reached the Buford hay-party, twenty miles from the post. During this entire distance of 325 miles, after crossing the 100° meridian, I only crossed four running streams, and they were so small that a single step would span them. The difference of the two seasons, '73 and '74, was most plainly shown by the growth of the grass. The grass of last season had been burned off', leaving only the stalks, too green to be consumed. These scattering stalks were standing two feet high all over the country, while the present year's growth was but from one to two inches, and both equally dry and crisp. Like this has been five of the last eight years, as may be seen by ex- tracts from meteorological reports. From the 15th of May to the 1st of August there were no rains in useful quantities in this section of the country. This has prevented the growth of grass for hay, except in a few very low places, and has made the raising of all small grains and early vegetables an entire failure. The grasshoppers about Bismarck consumed the early vegeta- tion ; but they only destroyed what the drouth would have done a few weeks later, and what it did do where the grasshoppers did not appear. GEN. CUSTER'S STATEMENT UPON THE HAY SUPPLY. My statement, that, in 1872, the small amount of hay required at this post compelled the contractor to search over an area of country embracing twelve hundred square miles, met with general contradictions. From Gen. Custer came the courteous and confident criticism, that he had : " Made careful inquiries of parties acquainted with the re- sources in this respect, and am convinced that hay in suf- ficient quantities to satisfy all probable demands (about 5,000 tons), of excellent quality, can be contracted for in the stack at a price not exceeding four dollars a ton." 40 Our Barren Lands. The reader may judge as to the facts about hay by refer- ence to the statement and letters bearing upon this sub- ject for the present year, already given in these pages. Let me record the results of the united efforts of men and nature in this vicinity in the way of vegetable growth. The grasses commenced growing about the 25th of April ; but by May 15th, when about two inches high, it had already been checked by the drouth, nor did it grow more until the 1st of August, during which period there were, practically, no rains. At this time, and during the whole month of Au- gust, rains were ample, and the grass started up anew, giving the whole country the appearance of spring. But the cereals and many of the vegetables had perished. The experiments at farming had failed. Potatoes, however, and turnips, beets, cabbage, tomatoes, carrots — the root crop generally — and native Indian corn, came on finely, until, on the night of September 13th, a severe frost cut everything down. These late vegetables, here men- tioned, with a few tomatoes which had commenced to turn, will be about a fourth of a crop. This is the third year we have tried to raise garden-truck, and this is our greatest success. In these notes of garden cultivation it may be said that melons have never ripened, though grow- ing well. Occasionally there is found a hill of potatoes or a head of cabbage of remarkable growth and perfection; and these are the examples it has been the habit to exhibit at agricultural fairs in different parts of the country. gen. ouster's experiences. Among " Gen. Custer's Experiences " is recorded one of a nap in the open air. This incident, common in a tropical climate, is mentioned by this officer to show that this really is a " banana region," as has been claimed. There is nothing at all improbable in that narration. And in the possibility of this nap out of doors, we have the very worst feature of the country — that is, its great and speedy changes of temperature ; for the guide and interpreter of Fort Lin- coln, who was with the General when he took that ground- Unfounded Rumors. 41 nap, says: "If he had tried it next day, he would have told a different story." The thermometer in this section is known to have varied seventy degrees in twelve hours. During the year it varies 150°; and from thirty to fifty days of the winter, it is below zero, reaching as low as 45°. Gen. Custer says the troops who were frozen were not properly clad. It might as well be said that all the people who lost their lives in the storm in Minnesota, in the win- ter of 1872, were carelessly or imperfectly clad. The troops are better and more warmly clad than citizens gen- erally ; but no people in ordinary life are prepared for such serious and sudden changes. For a complete confirmation of all I have said about the extreme cold of winter in this country, read Lewis and Clarke's narrative of the winter of 1804-5, which they passed at Fort Mandau,a station about fifty miles above Fort Lincoln. The mercury that winter was as low as 45 degrees. The winter of 1873-4 was the mildest known here for many years. UNFOUNDED RUMOKS. By "unfounded rumors," it is presumed, is meant my own sources of knowledge of the country. As I have said elsewhere, I have passed six years of military service along this proposed line of road, in every State and Terri- tory it touches. I have drawn my facts largely from the archives of the government, from the official reports of its officers, from its recorded tables of the rain-fall extending over a period of fifty years, from the reports of explorers from Lewis and Clarke down, and last of all, the report already given of the veteran General Sully, and many other well-known officers of the army, and citizens of known reliability. Such testimony is not usually classed as " unfounded rumor." Every intelligent man in the country knows that there is not a farm between the valley of the Red river and the Rocky Mountains. The little patches about Bismarck, which have failed so signally this season, can not be counted as farms. With the exception of an occasional wet season, 42 Our Barren Lands. like that of 1873, there has never been raised in this coun- try either wheat, American corn, oats, or vegetables, except a few kinds. Some potatoes, other roots, and a little na- tive Indian corn will be raised this year, as they proba- bly can be in favorable spots every year; but no small grains, to any extent, of any kind. The growth of fruit has never been tried. VIEWS OF OTHER PERSONS. Gen. Custer, in a vague way, says that the officers who were with him on the Yellowstone expedition, were prepared to substantiate his expressed views of that coun- try. The voluntary statements of very many of them, whom I have met incidentally since that time, fail to con- firm his views, but quite to the contrary, oppose them. Gen, Custer can have no doubt of the opposite opinions of the Tribune correspondent, who was with him, for that clear-sighted gentleman expressed himself unequivocally. Capt. Charles E. Clarke, of the 17th Infantry, a brother of Grace Greenwood, and a most estimable man, who has been stationed in this country, near Fort Lincoln, several years longer than either Gen. Custer or myself, informs me that although the military posts in this vicinity have tried to make gardens each year in the country, yet they have never succeeded, except in the two years of 1872 and 1873. Grains, vegetables, and, I have no doubt, fruits grow luxuriantly in the narrow valleys of Montana, west of the mountains. No one has tried them east of the mountains in that Territory. MILITARY MEANING OF TERMS. As has been before remarked, the reader should not mis- understand what a military man means by plenty of grass, wood, and water. In 1866 I went across the country with my own teams, with a guard of twenty-live men, leaving Omaha in July, and arriving at Sacramento, California, in November, traveling by the way of Wyoming, Montana, Report Crossing the Country. Idaho, Utah, and Nevada. In all that time I passed but one night without an " abundance of wood, grass, and water" — that is, for my military needs ; yet I reported to the government, on my return, as follows : REPORT CROSSING THE COUNTRY. " For about two hundred miles after leaving Omaha, the soil of the Platte valley is highly productive. At about that point, the soil begius to become weak and thin. The atmosphere is dry, and continues so all the way to the divide of the Rocky Mountains, and to the west of them in Mon- tana, Idaho, and Utah. Of this entire country, one-half may be considered of no value. Of the other half, about one-tenth has as much value for pastoral purposes as good grazing land in the Northern States, and of this last half, one acre in a thousand can be made abundantly productive by irrigation, and in no other way. These last points are to be found near springs under mountains, or on the immediate borders of Sun, Jefferson, Madison, Gallatin, and a few other streams, and at the western foot of the Wasatch mountains, now occupied by the Mormons. Three-fourths of the country passed over is mountain, the sides of a- small proportion being covered with pine, and the streams bor- dered with cottonwood. "Whatever mineral wealth the country contains, can only be known when developed. The precious metals, as now produced, are damaging to the country at large, as they divert much more capital and labor than finds profitable employment. The country has little value, and can only be sold by the government at nominal rates, and insufficient to pay the cost of surveying. It will in time be settled by a thinly scattered pastoral population. No amount of railroads, schemes of coloniza- tion, or government encouragement, can make more of it. " As to the troops on the Upper Missouri, I am of the opinion the posts should all be broken up. They are very remote, and supplied at great expense. They give little protection to the navigation of the river, and can never form nuclei of colonization, because of the utter poverty 44 Our Barren Lands. of the country. Then, if detachments of a few compa- nies were sent up the river with the earliest naviga- tion, to return with the latest, I would consider the river much more advantageously occupied than at present, be- sides releasing large numbers of troops for more active operations. " By reason of the great number of small posts, more than half the military force is exhausted in taking care of them." Ex. Doc. No. 45, 39th Congress, 2d Session. In the journey above referred to, my route was across the country and water-courses, not threading up the course of the stream, thus making my facilities the best possible for becoming familiar with the character of the land. In crossing the region of country from the Big Horn river to Fort Benton, it carried me over the proposed route of the Northern Pacific R. B., about ten miles below the mouth of Bion's Fork. " I found the right valley of the Yellow- stone about two miles broad, the mile farthest from the river being rather high and covered with sage. Then came a strip of good grass, and near the water a fine growth of cottonwood, the best I ever saw. Sometimes the grass and then the wood strip would occupy the greater part of the lower bank near the river. On the left bank we came at once to a clayey side hill with no vegetation of any kind. The different character of the banks, as above given, often shifted from side to side in passing along the river. We reached the Muscleshell, a distance of forty-five miles in a day and a half, finding water in but one place on our route, and that was strongly impregnated with the urine of the buffalo. The country was dried up, and the Muscleshell, as well as the Yellowwater, one of its main branches, were stationary bodies of water, about knee deep. The waters were of a whitish, stagnant appearance, bordered by an extremely meager soil, with quite a breadth of a poor sort of second-growth cottonwood. We had no grain at all for our animals, yet we found grass to take us through to Benton." I have spent nearly all the eight intervening years in Lewis and Clarke's Narrative. 45 this interior country, and it has all tended to strengthen my opinion then formed, and I believe my report not exagger- ated. lewis and clarke's narrative. Lewis and Clarke, in their narrative, vol. 1, p. 253, writing from the Falls of the Missouri, say: " The country exhibits its usual appearances, the timber being confined to the river ; while back from it, on both sides, as far as the eye can reach, it is entirely destitute of trees and bushes." Excepting some mountainous tracts, this remark can, in general terms, be applied to all this great interior country. And on page 316, it again says, at the head waters of the Jefferson : " From the top of this eminence I could discover but three trees in this whole country." They con- firm, so far as their observations gave them the oppor- tunity, all I have said about the cold of winter, the char- acter and narrow dimensions of the Missouri valley, and also of the rain-fall. On pages 171 and 207, it will be seen that they only had one shower of rain from October 15, 1804, until May 28, 1805. Their narrative states particularly the almost total absence of timber, except on the mountains, until they reached the Sierra Nevada or Cascade range. In passing on from the Missouri to the Sierras, they repeat the same story, of alternating heat, — cold, mount- ainous, timberless country, with wild sage, cactus, briars, drouth, alkali, and utter barrenness. To this are made a few notable exceptions, the principal being the valley of the Koos-koos-kie. All persons having an interest in this region, should read the record of this remarkable expedition. It was written with no other intent than to convey exact information, fifty years before any other interest was dreamed of, and, with some few inaccuracies, is the most complete and truthful account of the general features and character of this region in print. 46 Our Barren Lands. NEED FOR CORRECT INFORMATION OF THIS COUNTRY. It is of vast importance that the true character of this country be made known. Every wet season, like the last, brings great numbers of immigrants west of the productive line, who finally have to return with great loss and dis- couragemeut, as has been seen in Kansas during the present season. It is not strange that the steadily moving wave of immigration, which has gone westward uninterruptedly for a hundred years, should have gathered an impetus that is now carrying it beyond the line of productiveness ; but it has reached its outposts, and should be warned to halt, and not encouraged to go farther. BAD LANDS. During this discussion I have made no reference to what is technically called "bad lands," which comprise a large extent of the Upper Missouri country. This region is deeply cut by the rains, forming a continuation of clayey hills and ravines. It is merely a sloping cross section of the drift of this region, worn by the winds and rains into barren mounds of all shapes, along these cuts made by the water. By going up the ravines a mile or two, you invariably gain the bad table-lands. By substituting rocks for clay, we find large stretches of this kind of country in every Ter- ritory of the West. It has nothing whatever to do with the rain-fall, however, which controls this question of agricul- ture. ISOTHERMAL LINES. The isothermal lines upon the maps of Prof. Blodgett and Capt. Maury are correctly placed. I was led to pro- nounce them wrong, by supposing the Northern Pacific had used them. But a closer examination of the large map, compiled by the N. P. R. R. Co. in 1871, reveals the fact that they have placed their lines of the same temper- ature three degrees farther north than Blodgett. By sup- pressing the annual winter, spring, and autumn isothermals, using only the isothermal of the three summer months, Wintering American Stock. 47 they show a summer isothermal of 70° at the intersection of the 104° meridian west longitude, with the 51° north latitude, while Blodgett puts the same line at 104° and 48°. By using only the summer isothermals, they show at this point a reading of 70° Fahr., while the annual isothermal of this point is 35° only. Upon scanning this map, unless one is especially familiar with these lines, he at once takes them for annual lines, such being the lines expected to be found, but called summer from their summer temperature. Whether so intended, they are well calculated to mislead. On their large map, veiy conspicuously placed, will also be noticed the latitude of Paris, Londou, Hamburg, and Stockholm, as if to say, " See in what latitudes these great and wealthy people live." By examining the iso- thermals of Baron Von Humboldt and Prof. Dove, it will be seen that the annual isothermals of Northern Europe, from 14° to 50° Fahr., are all of them, in their range across North America, deflected southward from 13° to 18° of latitude. This is true, notwithstanding the line of exces- sive summer heat extending north and south, between 95° and 115° of west longitude, in our western country. For the past three years, and in every month of each year except those of June, July, and August, the number of days the thermometer has fallen below 32° has been re- spectively 208, 208, 206. WINTERING AMERICAN STOCK. The statement that American stock does well in winter without other food than what nature provides, unaided by the care of man, so prominently noticed by Gen. Custer as one of' the valuable features of the country, is a decep- tion, as has always been such a report. I have sought for this locality so often told about, during these nineteen years, and although I have been at all the places mentioned, at none of them can stock be safely wintered out of doors. American stock will live under favorable circumstances, and in exceptionally mild winters, in this and in nearly all the Territories ; but what wintering ! Every few years a 48 Our Barren Lands. storm will come that kills the greater part of the stock, while its quality constantly deteriorates, as is seen in Texas, which may be considered partially exceptional to this statement. TREE CULTURE. Gen. Custer has given an account of his success in tree culture during the past season, at Lincoln. Six hundred and twenty- seven cotton wood trees have been transplanted there, away from the river. Of these, it is true only eighty have died ; but except in the very rainy summer of 1873, water has been constantly hauled from the Missouri river to irrigate them, and so long as this is done, the example is of no value, while the fact that this is necessary fully contradicts the theory that trees will grow on these plains. Across the Missouri at Bismarck, nine-tenths of the trans- planted trees are dead. In the yard of Mr. Jno. Mason, who kindly invited me to inspect for myself, were forty- eight cottonwood trees. But one had green leaves, al- though he claimed vitality in five. Of twenty evergreens, all were dead. Of a dozen apple-trees, nearly all had green leaves, but showed no signs of growth ; and of a pro- miscuous lot of other natives trees, all. were dead. The fact has been published that the St. Paul and Pacific Railroad Company have succeeded well in tree culture along their road. This entire road, however, is several hundred miles to the east of the hundredth meridian, where the rain-fall is ample. PUBLICATION OF GEN. CUSTER'S LETTER, AND REFERENCE TO ITS STATEMENTS. The time and place of publication of Gen. Custer s let- ter led many to believe it was written in the immediate interests of the Northern Pacific Railroad. In order that this whole question should be clearly understood, let me re- capitulate. Gen. Custer indulges in a vein of personality, not called for by my letter, nor by ingenuous argument. Its statements, based upon the agricultural growth of last year, although true of that year, are none of them, except Publication of Gen. Custer's Letter, etc. 49 with late garden vegetables, true of tins year, and were not true of but two of the last eight years. It gave the world the example of the most anomalously wet season we have any accurate record of, as an average season by which the country could be judged. It told what hay could be bought for at Lincoln — the fallacy of its intended argument being shown by their, ex- perience at that post the present year. It gave examples of gardens last year, where they have failed this year. It gave the success in tree^raising at Lincoln last year, when they are kept alive this year only by constantly hauling water to them. He says " the best lands of the Northern Pacific are east of the Missouri river." Gen. Sully answers his statement with regard to these lands. He speaks of my want of ingenuousness in writing from a point away from the line of the railroad. He means it to be understood by the reader that I was writing from some point on the road itself. Had he looked upon the rain-charts, he would have seen that the rain-fall of the two places is identical, and would also have seen that the isothermal lines passing near Buford, pass southeast- wardly from here, .crossing the Northern Pacific near Lincoln, and turning eastward, keep to the south of that road, until they pass beyond its eastern terminus ; and practically what is true here, is also true of all the section of country lying along the line of the road in Dakota. (See New York Tribune correspondent's letter.) He has rawn from Prof. Hayden's Reports of Montana, but fails to find anything in it contradictory to my own statement. The pasture-lands there described are not agri- cultural lands, and Prof. Hayden always associates irriga- tion with agriculture. In all this it is difficult to see where Gen. Custer's op- portunities for knowing this country, as claimed by a por- tion of the Western press, were better than my own, or wherein he has refuted what so many others beside myself have asserted. He has said much in contradiction, and nothing in disproof. 50 Our Barren Lands. CONCLUSION. No country is known to be valuable, agriculturally, until it has proven itself to be so. This region in dispute has not given such evidence, for there is not, nor has there been, a farm, in the proper sense of the word, between the Red River valley and the Rocky Mountains. This country has only one-third the rain-fall that, on an average, falls upon the productive portions of the United States. Five out of the eight last year's, the gardens, and the small agriculture at the Indian agencies and military posts in this country, have failed. Farming this year, the only one that has ever been tried, has failed. The last year, the one upon which Gen. Custer's argu- ments are founded' was the most productive year in this sec- tion of which we have any accurate knowledge. This season, while in the growing months of May, June, July, and Au- gust, there fell in the Red River valley, meridian 96° and 97°, twelve inches of rain, there fell in Fort Lincoln, near the meridian 101°, but two and ninety-seven hundredths (2T«fo) inches. Prof. Blodgett says, as does all tradition, that this Upper Missouri country is too dry for agriculture. Experience, in the majority of cases, still confirms it ; meteorological meas- urements confirm it ; the correspondents with the Black Hills expedition confirm it ; and the boundary commission confirms it. Excepting the Yellowstone, which rises in the great cen- tral snow mountains, where do the Missouri, Columbia, Colorado, and Platte rivers find tributaries ? The Missouri has no feeders from the mouth of the Niobrara to the junc- tion of the Gallatin, Jefferson, and Madison, a distance of more than two thousand miles. In the drouth of summer it became a valley of standing pools, or the merest rivulets. This of itself establishes the impossibility of general agri- culture, for in this parched land there can be no irri- gation. Conclusion. 51 The stories of the " Tropical Belt," the " Continental Wheat Garden," the "Attractive Country," and a " climate and soil that will produce in abundance all the cereals and fruits of the Atlantic States," are puerile inventions of the late witness, literary stockholder, and literary agent of the Northern Pacific, aided by other writers of the country, employed and volunteer. If this scheme is knocked as high as he found his literary venture would be, a great good will have been accomplished. These writings have been repeated as lectures, and, by the extravagant use of money, have been published as advertisements, as editorial matter, as pamphlets, charts, maps, and books. They have been distributed by the car-load to every portion of the country. The sympathy and good- will of persons in high places have been sought and won in favor of this scheme. A key to it all is given in this quotation, which most readers will remember : " I come to you with a letter just mailed to Jay Cooke, advising him to secure your services as a platfrom speaker, to turn ~New England, Old England, or the great "West upside down about our Northern Pacific. (Signed,) " Samuel Wilkinson." All this has been continued and animated through the instrumentality of that great moral power, the " Inde- pendent" for which services that leading Christian news- paper of the world was given a previously unheard-of com- pensation. The wonder is that, in the presence of so great a failure, that there should still be found those to give further aid to this scheme. Its originators made a most melancholy mistake in their estimate of this country. In the presence of all the facts, their scheme has been wicked beyond the power of words to express, for it successfully appealed to the poor, the lowly, the widow, and the orphan, to loan their little hard-earned savings. This fraud was enacted with impressible artfulness, with high sounding promises, supported by the name of the national government. It was 52 Our Barren Lands. proclaimed with pious pretenses of greater gains and surer pay than could be obtained from any other source. ]STot the least of all these offenses was that of shameful waste, for of the vast sum of money which was spent, that part which went to build a railroad across an arid desert was as if thrown into the sea. The Northern Pacific Railroad has taken up considerable space in these pages, because its partisans have continued to assert the value of these barren lands. But the truth, which can no longer be denied, is of far greater importance than the profit or loss from many railroads, serious as these interests may be. There is a long line of territory, extending from the tropical heat of the Gulf of Mexico, in the south, to the regions of eternal ice in the north, where the tide of emi- gration must halt, or, passing over the barren lands, find homes on the shores of the Pacific. Within the limits of that vast area of barren lands na- ture refuses to assist man in the cultivation of the ground. Year after year, with wonderful patience, industry, and endurance, the emigrant has struggled; and as one winter has followed another, cries of distress have gone forth to their brethren of the East and the West : " Give us bread, give us clothing, or we shall die." In this region there are many years of famine, and none of plenty, so that provision for the future can never be made. Among the evils which visit it, is that of the plague of insects. Even to-day, as these words are written, there are many thousands of men, women, and children suffer- ing from drouth and the devouring locusts. In their great poverty they ask the people of the productive States to send them help. Their petition will not be made in vain ; but it is time that one and all clearly understood the truth, that animal and vegetable life can not be sustained on these barren lands. Hereafter, let emigration to these places known not to be arable, be emphatically discouraged. Happily, there is no Conclusion. 53 need to go so far to find so little. All over the United States, from the Atlantic ocean to the 100th meridian, and on the shores of the Pacific, there is arable land sufficient to supply all the wants of our people for a long while to come. W. B. HAZEN. r Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide Treatment Date: Dec. 2004 PreservationTechnologies A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive Cranberry Township, PA 16066 (724)779-2111