204 



DAKOTA. 



DAV1ES, HENRY E. 



runs along Heart River to the Little Missouri. 

 Sweetbrier Creek is an open, pretty valley. 

 The Badger Valley is rich and attractive, and, 

 on reaching the "summit," the highest point 

 att.iined by the railroad on this division, a 

 splendid stretch of fertile prairie appears. 



From the Little Missouri west to the Yellow- 

 stone, after crossing the narrow belt of bad 

 lamK the country is fertile and well watered 

 by miiny streams. Lignite coal abounds, and 

 mines are now in successful operation. The 

 b.-st buildiiu-stones ran be procured from the 

 blurt's, and the chiys afford excellent material 

 for making brick. The Government owns 

 every alternate section of these lands, and 

 they are open to settlement by pre-emption, 

 homestead, and tree claims. 



One of the best large farms in Dakota is Mr. 

 Dalrymple's. It consists of 75,000 acres, and 

 cost from 40 cents to $5 per acre five years 

 ago. The taxes are ten cents per acre per an- 

 num for school, road, and county purposes. 

 There is no government tax. The farm is laid 

 off into 5,000-acre tracts, with a superintendent 

 over each division. He has a foreman and a 

 jraii-T-foreman under him. The superintendent 

 subdivides his 5,000 acres into 250-acre lots, 

 and these also have foremen. All the business 

 is conducted on regular vouchers, and all sup- 

 plies are drawn on requisitions, the same as in 

 the army. The division foreman gives all or- 

 ders. Money is paid on time-checks, and each 

 workman receives his money whenever he 

 wants it. Mr. Dalrytnple is cultivating 25,000 

 acres, and 5,000 acres are being added each 

 year. The crops are sowed in April, and about 

 three weeks are taken for the planting season. 

 Wheat of the Scotch Fife variety is planted, 

 and one bushel and twenty quarts is sown per 

 acre. All the planting is done by machinery. 

 It takes 400 head of horses and mules to plant 

 the crop. One seed-sower plants about two 

 hundred acres, and each harrower drags about 

 one hundred. 



The new land is broken after the crop is in, 

 and the breaking is generally commenced early 

 in May. The land produces No. 1 hard Fife 

 wheat, and the yield is twenty to twenty-four 

 bushels per acre. 



The cutting of the crop commences August 

 1st, and 115 automatic binders and harvesters 

 are used. Of these, 100 are Wood's patent 

 and 15 McCormack's. The sheaves are bound 

 with wire. The thrashing-machines used are 

 twenty-one in number. The crop is cut in 

 twelve days, and about one thousand bushels 

 per day are thrashed on each thrasher. The 

 thrashers take a gang of twenty-five men and 

 twenty horses for each to haul wheat to the 

 machines and then haul it to the cars. No 

 stacking is done on the farm. As many as 

 fifty cars per day are loaded with wheat at this 

 farm, the average per car being 400 bushels. 

 An expert on horseback attends each two har- 

 vesters when they are at work. 



The seed-wheat is taken from the new land, 



and all the surplus grain is put into market 

 immediately after harvest. The first yield of 

 wheat from the land is usually the best ; the 

 average weight of wheat raised on this farm is 

 fifty-nine pounds. The workmen on the farms 

 are mostly Swedes, Danes, and Germans. In 

 the spring months they are paid $18 per month 

 and board, during the cutting season $2.25 per 

 day and board, during the thrashing season 

 $2 per day'and board, and in the fall $25 per 

 mouth and board. In winter only one man 

 for each forty head of horses is retained in ser- 

 vice, and he is paid $30 per month. 



The cost of living in the Northwest is not 

 much, if any, greater than in the East. The 

 following is the Fargo market on the line of 

 the Northern Pacific Railroad: 



Beef, 7J cents per pound ; mutton, 7 cents ; 

 pork, 6 cents ; milk, per quart, 5 cents ; hams, 

 10J cents per pound ; salt pork, 200 pounds 

 for $12.50; venison, 8 cents; turkeys and 

 chickens, 12 cents; fresh fish from Lake Supe- 

 rior, 6 cents ; lard, 8$ cents ; eggs, per dozen, 

 20 cents ; butter, per pound, 25 cents ; pota- 

 toes, per bushel, 60 cents ; onions, per bushel, 

 60 cents; beans, per bushel, $2.25; corn, per 

 bushel, 56 cents; oats, per bushel, 50 cents; 

 wheat, per bushel, $1 ; groceries, dry goods, 

 hardware, and lime, about the same as East- 

 ern prices; work -horses, per head, $150; driv- 

 ing-horses, $175; common "plugs," $50; mules, 

 $150 per head; bronchos, $60; ponies, $10 to 

 $30; oxen, per yoke, good, $125; common, 

 $80 ; milch-cows, $25 to $35 per head ; beef- 

 cattle, on the hoof, 2 to 3 cents per pound. 



DAVIES, HEXRY E., born at Black Lake, 

 near Ogdensburg, New York, Februarys, 1805; 

 died in New York city December 17, 1881. 

 Descended from a well-known and highly re- 

 spected family of Connecticut, he was bred on 

 his father's farm, and until his fourteenth year 

 attended a common school. Then, in con- 

 formity with a custom of those days, he went 

 to live in the family of a lawyer, under whose 

 direction he could pursue at the same time a 

 collegiate and a legal course of study. His 

 preceptorwas Alfred Conkling,afterward Judge 

 of the United States Court for the Northern 

 District of New York. Young Davies was ad- 

 mitted to the bar in 1826 at the general term 

 held in Utica, and began his practice in Buffalo, 

 where he soon became prominent in politics as 

 a Whig. In 1830 lie removed to New York, 

 and shortly afterward formed a partnership 

 with ex-Judge Samuel A. Foote, which lasted 

 for seventeen years. In 1848 this partnership 

 was dissolved, and Mr. Davies, who had accu- 

 mulated a large practice and high reputation, 

 entered into a partnership with ex-Judge Will- 

 iam Kent, a son of Chancellor Kent. In 1835 

 Mr. Davies married a daughter of John Tap- 

 pan, of Boston, whose brothers, Lewis and Ar- 

 thur, were famous abolitionists. About 1840 

 he served as alderman for the Fifteenth Ward, 

 in which he resided, and in 1850 was chosen 

 Corporation Counsel by the Common Council. 



