:26 INFORMATION FOR EMIGRANTS. 



up in solution to the soit above as much essential mineral plant food as 

 may be removed from it by a judicious system of culture. 



The great wheat-growing region of the Northwest, known as the Red 

 "River Valley, is unmodified glacial drift, * and the exhaustion by the 

 present system of culture may be confidently predicted. 



Scarcity of Water. 



A serious drawback to much of the prairie region of Kansas and the 

 Northwest is the scarcity and inferior quality of the water. Many 

 records to prove this can be had, but I will only give one relative to the 

 -Red River Valley. 



The following extracts are from the Geological Survey of Minnesota 

 for the year 1877. Of the unwholesomeness of the water it says: 



It was found that this difficulty is by no means confined lo the Valley 

 •of the Red River of the North, It is encountered with equal frequency 

 throughout the entire western half of the State, from the Iowa line 

 northward to Manitoba 



The flat prairie country generally through the western portion of the 



State has been much troubled by bad well-water, attributed 



to a so-called "peculiar clay," a "blue clay," a "black clay," or to 

 some other deposit in the drift which had been met with in the wells. 

 Similar reports had come from the country further north, and latterly 



from the Red River Valley especially The waters from the 



wells dug, whether deep or shallow, have been found to become foul or 



stagnant sooner or later These waters had a very deleterious 



effect upon the health of the people ; produced diarrhoea of 



a persistent nature, and finally typhoid fever. Some cases have termi- 

 nated fatally. These facts were of occurrence on the line of the St. 

 Paul and Pacific Railroad at nearly all the stations west of the Big 

 Woods, even outside the valley of the Red river; on the- Northern 

 Pacific Railroad west of Detroit ; along the line of the same railroad in 

 Dakota, and down the valley to Winnipeg. These effects were known 



■also south of the Minnesota river The effect of the water is 



not always an immc:diate typhoid fever, but an aggravated diarrhoea, and 

 then dysentery, which lead finally to typhoid fever Some- 

 times the fever assumes a local name. At Bismark it is known as 

 "Montana Fever." In Morehead it is known as the "Red River 

 Fever." 



The advantages possessed over Kansas and the Northwest are best 

 shown by comparison of the history of the early settlers of the two 

 States. The pioneers of Kentucky came over the mountains before 

 Toads were constructed, contended with hostile Indians, were remote 

 iirom markets of any kind, yet no instance of suffering or want is recorded. 



*See Minnesota Geological Report, 1879, page 96, 



