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Prairie Quotes
Originally the Red River Valley was a "true prairie" of tall and medium grasses in which tall grasses, growing from four to six feet in height, were dominant. By far the most outstanding type was big bluestem, a tall grass from which the bluestem sod,
the grass community of the valley, takes its name. But there were also a number
of medium (one and one-half to three feet) and short (one-half to one and one-half feet) grasses. Some of the important medium grasses were feather bunch grass, slender wheat grass, and western wheat grass; prairie June grass was a short grass. Together they formed the black Chernozem soils of the Red River Valley.
Elwyn B. Robinson,
History of North Dakota (1966)
_________________________________________________________________
In sum, the grasses are, next to the soil, the great natural resource of the state.
Elwyn B. Robinson,
History of North Dakota (1966)
_________________________________________________________________
In its original state, the tallgrass prairie - also known as the true prairie - was probably the most dramatic of all American grasslands, [yet] the designation "true prairie" is ironic, because the tallgrass prairie has a tenuous hold on being prairie at all.
Lauren Brown,
Grasslands (1985)
_________________________________________________________________
As to scenery (giving my own thought and feeling), while I know the standard claim is that Yosemite, Niagara Falls, the Upper Yellowstone, and the like afford the greatest natural shows, I am not so sure but the prairies and plains, while less stunning at first sight, last longer, fill the esthetic sense fuller, precede all the rest, and make North America's characteristic landscape. Even [the prairie's] simplest statistics are sublime.
Walt Whitman,
"Specimen Days" (1879)
_________________________________________________________________
The Kiowas reckoned their stature by the distance they could see.
N. Scott Momaday,
The Way to Rainy Mountain (1969)
_________________________________________________________________
Lying nearly parallel to the Red River between ten and fifteen miles west of the river are the alkali flats. Strewn with rocks, much of the land is useless for crops...Water is alkaline and unpleasant to the taste.
Kempton Homemakers Club,
History of Grand Forks County (1964)
_________________________________________________________________
A single, severe thunderstorm supercell can hold more energy than a hydrogen bomb.
John G. Fuller,
Tornado Watch #211 (1987)
_________________________________________________________________
Once in his life a man ought to concentrate his mind upon the remembered earth, I believe. He ought to give himself up to a particular landscape in his experience, to look at it from as many angles as he can, to wonder about it, to dwell upon it. He ought to imagine that he touches it with his hands at every season and listens to the
sounds that are made upon it. He ought to imagine the creatures there and all the faintest motions of the wind. He ought to recollect the glare of noon and all the colors of the dawn and dusk.
N. Scott Momaday,
The Way to Rainy Mountain (1969)
_________________________________________________________________
It is the nature of the soil to be highly complex and variable, to conform very inexactly to human conclusions and rules. It is itself easily damaged by the imposition of alien patterns. Out of the random grammar and lexicon of possibilities - geological, topographical, climatological, biological - the soil of any one place makes its own peculiar and inevitable sense.
Wendell Berry,
The Unsettling of America (1977)
the grass community of the valley, takes its name. But there were also a number
of medium (one and one-half to three feet) and short (one-half to one and one-half feet) grasses. Some of the important medium grasses were feather bunch grass, slender wheat grass, and western wheat grass; prairie June grass was a short grass. Together they formed the black Chernozem soils of the Red River Valley.
Elwyn B. Robinson,
History of North Dakota (1966)
_________________________________________________________________
In sum, the grasses are, next to the soil, the great natural resource of the state.
Elwyn B. Robinson,
History of North Dakota (1966)
_________________________________________________________________
In its original state, the tallgrass prairie - also known as the true prairie - was probably the most dramatic of all American grasslands, [yet] the designation "true prairie" is ironic, because the tallgrass prairie has a tenuous hold on being prairie at all.
Lauren Brown,
Grasslands (1985)
_________________________________________________________________
As to scenery (giving my own thought and feeling), while I know the standard claim is that Yosemite, Niagara Falls, the Upper Yellowstone, and the like afford the greatest natural shows, I am not so sure but the prairies and plains, while less stunning at first sight, last longer, fill the esthetic sense fuller, precede all the rest, and make North America's characteristic landscape. Even [the prairie's] simplest statistics are sublime.
Walt Whitman,
"Specimen Days" (1879)
_________________________________________________________________
The Kiowas reckoned their stature by the distance they could see.
N. Scott Momaday,
The Way to Rainy Mountain (1969)
_________________________________________________________________
Lying nearly parallel to the Red River between ten and fifteen miles west of the river are the alkali flats. Strewn with rocks, much of the land is useless for crops...Water is alkaline and unpleasant to the taste.
Kempton Homemakers Club,
History of Grand Forks County (1964)
_________________________________________________________________
A single, severe thunderstorm supercell can hold more energy than a hydrogen bomb.
John G. Fuller,
Tornado Watch #211 (1987)
_________________________________________________________________
Once in his life a man ought to concentrate his mind upon the remembered earth, I believe. He ought to give himself up to a particular landscape in his experience, to look at it from as many angles as he can, to wonder about it, to dwell upon it. He ought to imagine that he touches it with his hands at every season and listens to the
sounds that are made upon it. He ought to imagine the creatures there and all the faintest motions of the wind. He ought to recollect the glare of noon and all the colors of the dawn and dusk.
N. Scott Momaday,
The Way to Rainy Mountain (1969)
_________________________________________________________________
It is the nature of the soil to be highly complex and variable, to conform very inexactly to human conclusions and rules. It is itself easily damaged by the imposition of alien patterns. Out of the random grammar and lexicon of possibilities - geological, topographical, climatological, biological - the soil of any one place makes its own peculiar and inevitable sense.
Wendell Berry,
The Unsettling of America (1977)
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