LARGE AREAS ADAPTED FOR AGRICULTURE. 591 



They have a large iugredieiit of hmestone gravel, sand, and fine detritus, 

 so that their soil is usually fertile, while the very porous subsoil permits 

 early sowing and is favorable for the rapid growth and early maturing of 

 crops. 



The unique tracts of dunes, however, consisting of bare sand drifted 

 by the winds, or partly or wholly covered with grasses and other herbage, 

 bushes, and small trees, which occupy extensive portions of the Sand Hill, 

 Sheyenne, and Assiniboine deltas, are themselves worthless for agricultural 

 uses, and even afford only scanty pasturage. But many well-grassed 

 patches of ground lie in the hollows among the dunes, where herds find 

 good forage. 



Probably the parts of this district that are worthless to the farmer, 

 comprising the sand hills, the alkaline undrained depressions, permanently 

 wet sloughs, the steep bluffs or banks of the watercourses, and very stony 

 morainic tracts, amount together to no more than a fiftieth of the whole 

 country. Elsewhere all this vast area is fertile and easily cultivated, with 

 considerable diversity in the soils of its different portions, dependent on 

 the natiu-e of the drift, lacustrine, and alluvial formations, and on their 

 conditions of drainage. The black soil has usually a thickness of 1 to 2 

 feet, this color being due to enrichment by the decajdng vegetation of all 

 the years and centuries since these deposits were formed during the Ice 

 age and at its close. 



Looking forward to no very distant time, it may be foreseen that nearly 

 all the land here will be brought under successful cultivation, and that a 

 farming jwpulatiou of probably a million people, perliaps even twice or 

 tlu'ice this number, will live on the prairie area of Lake Agassiz. Many of 

 them will come as immigrants, and in their selection of this rich farming 

 region for their future homes the most important inquiries next after those 

 concerning the native quality of the land will relate to climate. The rain- 

 fall and the temperature not only affect very closely the health and comfort 

 of the people, but the}^ also determine whether the crops sown or planted in 

 a naturally productive soil and tended with patient and faithful care shall 

 bring forth an abundant or a scanty harvest. 



