The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1865-05-23
Rrss tbs Nsrth Curioas Changes
Wrsaght BY tho War-Wemcn Piew-
ing In she Rieids-8carcisy Of Farm
Hands.
LA CROSSE. Wis. May IL.

II Business Is nOt ID uEioh tnlS oos.ooA
| the Northwest as usual The farmers
are holding their surplus wheat back
| waiting for higher prices. Till within a
week none has been coming in. People
| in the country are buying as carefully OF
merchandise as possible. Old clsthes are
being worn vet q few months longer, and
plain food takes the place of luxuries.-
| The effect of this necessary economy Is
| to make trade duller than usual.
WHEAT IN STORE AND GRANARY.
A careful and reliable estimate gives
the amount of wheat on hand waiting
eastern market in the country. north,
west. aud northwest Of La Crosse at four
million bushels of which at least one
million bushels is in the hands OF farm
ers. Some farmers up the Chippewa, st.
Croix, and Minnesota rivers have three
years crop still in store, waiting for high
ar prices. which will never come. But
little wheat is coming forward, held
back by the insufficient price and epor-
nous rates of freight. On the Minnes-
ota river, above st. Paul, wheat is a
drug at fifty cents bushel. In the store
houses thousands of bushels are waiting
transportation, and thousands upon
thousands of bushels have suffered from
dampness and heating. Some dealers
who bought year since at dollar, ana
even ten shillings bushel there, have
been ruined by the fall. The president
of one of the upper river packet compa,
MES loses at least one hundred thon,and
dollars by depreciation of price and dam
age to grain from unavoidable causes
Five wears since, wheat on the upper
Minnesota was worth from fifty cents TO
one dollar and thirteen cents bushei, IN
gold. At present rates Of grain and mer-
chandise the farmers are having severe
time.
TIE SCARCITY OF FARM HANDS
and high price for labor is another seri-
GUS draw back to profitable farming. Five
years since, good farm hands were plenty
at prices raging from nine to twelve dol
lars a month, and board. Now, poorer
hands are scarce at twenty-five dollars
per month The war has in this respect,
borne with crushing severity on the
Northwest. Promptly answering to all
calls for men, the hardy sons of the forest
and prairie have gone forth to fight and
to fall. The grass grows rich and high
around many alittle cabin--the two win
dows thereof are eyes of misfortune; t he
door sw ings idly on the hinges; the blue
smoke eurls not gracefully heavenwart
from the low chimney; the plow is not to
be seen in the furrow; the grain stock is
not there; the cattle and sheep are not
herding as once in the fields adjoining;
the sturdy yeoman lies beneath southern
sod, while his wife aud little ones have
gone home. In other fields women are
to be seen at heavy farm-work, following
the plow and harrow. hands calloused
and faces bronzed with exposure, unsex-
ing themsslf by extraordinary toll for
the pioneer, or keeping the farm in order
against the return of him who has by
tie draft been called from pleasure to
duty.
AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS
are more generally used in the North est
every year. The scarcity OF farm-help
has driven men to machinery. AS the
troops return to their homes new farms
will be opened still farther westward;
and from year to year the products OF
this vast producing section will be rapid
ly increased.
NEWCOMERS ERoM THE SOUTH.
Every boat from below brings new
faces, and strange men, women and chill
dren from southern states to the rich prai-
ries of the Northwest looking for homes
where land is rich, the crops certain, and
labor in demand. Hundreds of families
from the South have already this spring
come northwald, bringing what little
they have, Gin many cases little enough, },
broken down in health and spirits, but
with desire to make home somewhere
beyond the tramp of soldiers and the Ell,
riched soil of battle-6elds where lie the
remains of loved relatives AS general
thing, all such are kindly welcomed
The western people are hospitable; their
doors are opened aud hands outstretch,
ed, to the needy.