FLYING RECORDS ARE Being Broken Every Few Days, but When
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FLYING RECORDS ARE Being broken every few days, but when we think a temperature record has been broken someone digs up a high or low figure that has, not been surpassed. According to Professor Simpson, who keeps the records at the University of North Dakota, minus 44 degrees is the lowest temperature ever officially recorded at Grand Forks, and he suggests that that low temperature may have been equaled at Grand Forks on an earlier occasion 'before a station was established here, but when records were kept at various army posts in other parts of the state. The New York Times tells us that on January 10, 1875, the thermometer in Manhattan registered 6 degrees below zero. That record stood until December 30, 1917, when a mark of 13 below was reached. That is the low record for New York so far as known. The abnormally high records of this summer were about the same as those of 1872, 1896 and 1898. If one only had the records there is an all-time high and an all-time low for every locality. Those extremes are approached occasionally, and once in a long time one of them is passed. But in spite of all that we may think about weather extremes and changes in climatic conditions, it has at some time been just about as hot and just about as cold at some other time as now, and the temperatures of the present are just as extreme as those of former years. A COPY OF THE BOSTON Transcript just received contains an article by E. A. Winship giving the following record of a farm experience: "Mr. McNary says it has been a joy to see that man stay on that farm, mind his own business, enjoy his home and command the respect and admiration of everybody, Mr. McNary is as proud as he is happy that he has demonstrated that a man can own a big farm well stocked in seven years if anyone will stand behind him for a s few years. He says there is no risk in financing such a man with such a home. "There is not a weed on the Russian's 320 acres, nor on the 3200 acres that Mr. McNary is responsible for. Every acre has a three-year rotation, each requiring a different depth of furrow in planting, and Mr. McNary says weeds cannot grow when they never have more than one year to get set. "THE RUSSIAN HAS RAISED no wheat and not a sheaf of wheat I has been raised in thirteen years on the 3200 acres for which Mr. McNary is responsible. He says there is no profit in wheat raising there. He gives several reasons why there is no profit in wheat raising. "Among other things Mr. McNary has created many labor-saving devices; the one that interested me most was his rolling scheme , of unloading hay at the barn. One man can unload the largest load of hay in four minutes without an assistant. "There is an adequate net in the hay wagon and when the load reaches the barn the man hooks the rope into the ring on the net, pushes a button and that load rolls I into the loft and it goes where it is arranged to have it go. "There was more education and enjoyment in riding with Mr. McNary for two hours around and over the best stock farms I ever saw, going- into the best cattle barns, among the best swine and sheep I ever saw, than in any museum of antiques I ever visited. "Dirt farmers are agriculturists where McNary's word is law." "This is a wonderful country and one who is privileged to know every part of it intimately is likely to discover interesting people. Strange as it may seem to stay- at-homes, to those who are mere sightseers, North Dakota is the most interesting of the- forty-eight states, and a recent discovery is one of the most interesting I have come across in my forty-three years acquaintance with the state. "J. W. McNary is the scientific farm manager of a group of farms totaling thirty-two hundred acres. Two brothers inherited this track of land and have made it a profitable property by putting the management in the hands of Mr. Mc-I Nary who has it in farms of various sizes, mostly in quarter-square mile and half-square mile farms, "I recently rode for two hours I around and through all of these, thrifty farms. It was on this trip that Mr. McNary made- me acquainted with the experience of an interesting- Russian. An American farmer had half-a-square mile farm, but he failed utterly, and the mortgagee sold it at auction. "Mr. McNary and his backers bid it in and established a young Russian, with wife and baby boy, thereon. The object of Mr. McNary was to see if it were possible for a man who was willing, to own a farm by his own exertions, and how long it would take a man to become the owner of a good farm in North Dakota. "This Russian was a farm hand and Mr. McNary financed him as he took charge of this half-acre-farm. The man had no capital, but Mr. McNary helped him to get farm machines and tool equipment. He also helped him to get a few Holstein and Shorthorn cattle. Shropshire and Cotswold sheep Hampshire hogs, turkeys, geese and other poultry. "THE RUSSIAN WORKED hard, hired little help and handled his help tactfully and 'built up his livestock rapidly. Four years have passed and that Russian has as much of each variety of livestock as the half-a-square-mile farm can have profitably. He has paid Mr. McNary every dollar advanced, owns all livestock, owes no man a dollar except for the 320 acres of farm land, which is worth twice as much as he will pay for it and in three years easily the cost price will be paid and that young Russian will be the proud possessor of a farm that will yield a comfortable fortune every year as long as he lives. DR. E. A. WINSHIP IS WELL, known to many North Dakota people is a resident of Boston, where during the greater part of his life he was engaged in educational work and where he has edited an educational magazine. One of his early visits to North Dakota was something like twenty-five years ago, when he was the principal speaker at a meeting of the state Education association. Since then he has lectured in various cities of the state, and I believe gave an address at the Mayville normal during the past summer. IT WAS ON. THE OCCASION OF his Grand Forks visit many years ago that Dr. Winship first met George B. Winship, then of this city. The identity of surnames indicated the probability of relationship. Dr. Winship is a native of Massachusetts, and George B. Winship of Maine, and the comparison of such family data as were available strengthened the probability of at least a distant connection. Upon his return east Dr. Winship dug into the archives, and according to my recollection he traced the two branches of the family 'back to a common source away back in the early history of New England. That Reminds Me—W.P.D. MANY OF THOSE WHO VISIT Central park do not know, and others have forgotten, that on a part of the park property there once stood a brewery of considerable size which did a large business. The brewery was built in territorial days, when the manufacture and sale of beer in Dakota Territory was perfectly legal. East Grand Forks did not then exist except that there was a little cluster of buildings in the vicinity of the , Great Northern station. On what is now the principal business street, DeMers avenue, there stood one saloon, with a sign reading "Last Chance," or "First Chance," depending from the direction from which it was viewed. Those chances related to the crossing of the river I and state line, however, and not to the opportunity to get a drink, for the saloon district was then on the Dakota side. The brewery at the south end of Third street supplied most of the beer that was dispensed over the Grand Forks bars. WHEN NORTH DAKOTA achieved the dignity of statehood it included a prohibition clause in its constitution, and the saloons promptly moved across the river, for Minnesota had a license system. The brewery, however, did not move, but continued to do business at the old stand for several years. It was finally closed by court procedure, however, and the buildings were demolished. The excavation under the building was gradually filled in, and for some time it was one of the most productive mushroom beds in the vicinity. Several years ago a workman employed in leveling the ground in the vicinity reported that he had found buried there a bottle of beer in an excellent state of preservation, and he declared that it was perfectly good beer. THAT PART OF CENTRAL park which lies east of Third street was bought by the park commission from the E. P. Gates estate. It had lain idle and unimproved for years, and I was told recently of how it came that the fine trees on the property had so long escaped destruction. It was on account of the tail of a dog. E. P. GATES, A REAL ESTATE dealer and investment banker, lived in the house on Fourth street diagonally across from the Deaconess hospital.