1350 
The  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
October  27,  1923 
Over  the  Great  Divide 
A  Long  Pull. — We  are  now  off 
toward  the  big  hill  where  we  will  cross 
the  State  line.  We  finally  reached  the 
top.  Six  miles  of  continuous  uphill  drag. 
The  two  faithful  oxen  shook  their  heads 
several  times  as  we  swung  around  a  bend 
and  they  espied  another  steep  incline  and 
still  another,  but  they  never  faltered. 
We  are  making  four  to  six  miles  per  day. 
Most  of  this  six  miles  we  trebled.  We 
unhitch  the  trailer  and  pull  the  wagon 
up  a  mile  or  so,  then  take  the  oxen  back 
and  bring  the  trailer  on  past  for  a  mile 
or  so,  then  return  for  the  wagon  and  so 
forth  until  we  reached  the  peak.  In 
reaching  this  high  altitude,  from  5,000  ft. 
to  about  8,000  ft.,  Jack  showed  signs  of 
nosebleed  ;  he  shed  only  a  few  drops  how¬ 
ever. 
Entering  Wyoming. — Now  we  enter 
Wyoming.  At  this  point  the  land  is 
.somew’hat  rolling  country,  a  little  more 
down  than  up,  so  we  drop  to  7,148  ft. 
elevation  at  Laramie.  This  is  a  college 
town  of  6,310  population,  a  sort  of  rail¬ 
road  center  on  the  U.  P.  Here  they 
unhook  the  big  locomatives  and  send 
them  back  again  to  pull  the  trains  up 
the  big  divide.  As  we  go  West  from 
Laramie  we  get  into  the  desert  land. 
If  it  were  not  that  there  has  been  con¬ 
siderable  rain  this  Summer  for  this  sec¬ 
tion,  which  is  very  unusual,  the  picking 
for  the  cattle  would  be  mighty  slim.  As 
it  is  they  must  rustle  some  to  get  enough. 
We  are  obliged  to  carry  grain  to  help 
out.  Sometimes  they  must  make  a  meal 
on  Russian  thistle  and  salt  sage. 
The  Water  Problem.  —  The  water 
needs  for  the  oxen  have  not  yet  been  a 
serious  problem,  although  we  must  go 
a  mile  or  two  to  get  it,  so  far  we  have 
not  found  it  necessary  to  flag  a  train  to 
get  water,  but  we  do  go  to  the  section 
houses  on  the  railroad  for  it.  The  sec¬ 
tion  stations  are  eight  to  10  miles  apart, 
and  there  they  have  large  cisterns  which 
the  roads  keep  supplied  by  hauling  it  in 
by  water  tanks  for  their  employes.  This 
works  fine  where  the  highway  parallels 
the  railroad,  but  where  there  is  a  big 
mountain  or  two  between,  it  is  not  so 
handy.  Then  we  must  resort  to  the  water 
holes,  and  in  these  there  is  considerable 
alkali.  I  believe  these  deserts  could  be 
made  habitable  by  conserving  the  snow 
water  instead  of  letting  it  run  to  waste 
and  flood  the  Missouri  River  in  Spring, 
but  it  must  be  done  on  a  large  scale, 
either  by  the  State  or  the  federal  gov¬ 
ernment,  but  to  do  so  there  may  be  a 
snag,  as  I  am  informed  the  railroad  com¬ 
pany  owns  or  controls  every  alternate 
section  of  land  on  each  side  of  the  rails, 
and  as  a  section  is  640  acres  I  don’t  know 
how  the  railroad  would  view  the  situa¬ 
tion  if  the  State  should  build  dams  and 
hold  the  water  back.  It  might  put  some 
of  the  railroad  company’s  sections  under 
water,  but  this  could  be  done  and  there 
would  be  plenty  of  water  for  irrigation 
and  other  purposes.  But  we  all  know, 
the  railroad  company  are  a  law  within 
themselves.  Are  they  not  pretty  much 
the  government? 
The  Roads.  — •  The  Wyoming  State 
Highway  Department  is  building  roads. 
We  are  on  the  Lincoln  Highway.  They 
have  within  the  past  few  years  and  at 
the  present  time  worked  sections  to  widen 
to  >0  ft.  from  gutter  to  gutter.  Allow¬ 
ing  3  ft.  on  each  side  for  gutter  makes  a 
24  ft.  highway.  Most  of  the  surface  is 
of  a  clay  composition.  Some  places  near 
gravel  beds  they  put  on  a  top-dressing 
of  gravel.  If  they  would  use  a  heavy 
roller  and  press  the  gravel  into  the  clay 
this  would  make  a  good  surface,  but  here 
is  where  they  “fall  down”  on  the  job. 
At  intervals  a  scraper  will  come  along 
and  by  the  angle  the  grader  is  set  they 
move  this  loose  gravel  to  the  center  of  the 
road.  This  makes  an  iron-tired  vehicle 
drag  hard  after  the  scraping  is  done,  but 
soon  after,  say  a  couple  of  days  or  weeks 
of  high-speed  motor  traffic,  the  gravel  is 
pushed  again  to  the  sides,  and  the  road 
lias  a  crown  from  one  to  two  inches  per 
foot  from  the  center.  The  result  is  it’s  a 
one-way  street,  as  all  the  traffic  is  in  the 
center  of  the  road,  and  woe  to  the  fellow 
who  must  turn  out  for  another  vehicle  to 
pass  after  a  rain.  If  the  car  gets  beyond 
the  center  line  then  the  ditch  for  him.  I 
have  asked  several  of  these  road  draggers 
why  they  put  such  a  high  crown  in  the 
center.  The  answer  is  to  shed  the  water, 
and  for  that  one  argument  I  have  a  dozen 
reasons  why  a  concave  road  is  no  good. 
If  a  road  is  graded  nearly  flat,  the  traffic 
is  divided  the  full  width  of  the  road ;  in 
consequence,  less  wear,  less  scraping, 
fewer  accidents  and  less  repairs  to  ve¬ 
hicles,  be  it  car  or  wagon.  Ask  any 
motor  tourists  who  has  made  the  trip 
from  coast  to  coast  and  he  will  admit 
the  springs  on  right  side  of  the  car  are 
worn  most. 
The  Red  Desert. — Now  we  are  in  the 
Red  Desert  section,  elevation  7,000  ft. 
Going  down  the  Western  slope  a  few  days 
ago,  we  passed  over  the  line  of  the 
Continental  Divide.  It  is  queer  how  many 
pessimistic  people  there  are  in  this  world, 
always  anticipating  a  calamity.  While 
in  the  eastern  part  of  the  State  many 
asked  :  “How  are  you  going  to  cross  the 
Red  Desert?  No  feed,  no  water,  and  75 
to  100  miles  between  towns.”  Well,  here 
we  are  in  that  desert,  but  we  find  it  not 
so  bad.  More  feed  here  for  the  cattle 
than  the  eastern  part  of  the  State.  Water 
is  not  so  plentiful,  but  grass  is  plenty 
between  the  sagebrush,  and  with  all  this 
seemingly  waste  land  nature  has  made  a 
picture  no  artist  can  paint.  There  the 
large  sagebush  grows  four  and  five  feet 
high,  the  wood  as  tough  as  iron.  The 
snow  in  Winter  bends  these  over,  and  one 
entwines  with  his  neighbor,  and  they 
make  natural  rabbit  hutches.  Just  now 
as  one  looks  across  this  vast  expanse 
the  various  colored  plants  that  grow  are 
very  circumscribed.  Occasionally  we  see 
a  lonesome  brown-eyed  Susan.  In  spots 
the  Russian  thistles  have  turned  red. 
Then  there  is  a  species  of  sage ;  leaves 
and’  stem  are  green  and  a  tiny  little  yel¬ 
low  blossom,  then  we  see  a  small  plant 
about  a  foot  high  with  a  very  rich  purple 
flower  with  a  yellow  eye  in  center,  this 
seems  to  be  happy  in  its  isolation.  We 
see  it  in  the  gutters  cropping  out  of  the 
sandy  spots  with  no  other  vegetation 
about.  Altogether  the  color  scheme  is 
most  beautiful,  even  though  a  desert. 
Traffic  is  plentiful ;  cars  pass  us  about 
every  five  to  10  minutes.  There  seem  to 
be  as  many  coming  from  California  as 
there  are  going.  There  are  cars  with 
licenses  from  every  State.  Unless  our 
binoculars  lie  to  us  the  railroads  will 
soon  have  to  employ  artists  to  paint  faces 
on  the  windows  of  their,  trains.  We  see 
them  going  both  ways,  generally  10-car 
trains,  one  a  mail  car  and  another  ex¬ 
press  car,  but  we  cannot  see  any  pas¬ 
sengers.  We  can  see  some  people;  well 
these  are  the  train  crews,  porters,  waiters, 
etc.  Perhaps  the  passengers  sit  on  the 
floor.  J.  c.  BERRANG. 
would  do  well  in  silage,  but  I  have  not 
tried  it  in  that  way.  I  find  it  rather 
hard  to  cure  for  hay.  On  good  soil,  heav¬ 
ily  manured,  it  is  capable  of  making  a 
great  growth  even  in  a  dry  season  like 
this.  This  year  I  planted  the  seed  with 
a  garden  drill  late  in  May.  When  about 
4  ft.  high  and  the  heads  beginning  to 
show  I  cut  it  for  hay.  In  a  very  few 
weeks  it  was  ready  to  cut  again,  and 
thicker  than  the  first  crop.  Now  the 
third  crop  is  1%  to  2  ft.  high,  and  bright 
and  green  when  the  green  color  is  all 
faded  out  of  other  grasses.  I  am  cutting 
it  and  feeding  it  green  to  dairy  cows. 
We  had  a  very  light  frost  Sept.  17,  which 
killed  just  a  little  of  the  tops  of  the  grass, 
but  the  Sudan  grass  has  not  known  that 
we  are  having  a  drought. 
Long  Island.  B.  F.  hallock. 
Sudan  Grass  on  Long  Island 
I  would  like  to  speak  a  good  word  for 
Sudan  grass.  This  is  the  second  year  I 
have  been  raising  this  new  variety  of 
grass,  and  I  am  pleased  with  it.  It  is 
great  for  soiling  dairy  cows.  I  judge  it 
Efficiency  Expert  :  “You  are  wasting 
too  much  time  on  your  personal  appear¬ 
ance.”  Stenographer:  “It’s  not  wasted. 
I’ve  only  been  here  six  months  and  I’m 
engaged  to  the  junior  partner.” — The 
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I 
