The St. Cloud journal. [volume] (St. Cloud, Minn.) 1866-1876, 1868-01-09

| A -" e.'o w cdu leHcH. mere IL IL
exposed for months to the wind and
weather till it dccomposes and becomes
lit for agricultural purposes Every
year vast tracts of prairie are thus turn
cd over, or "broken," !" and with tn e next
tne loam Is leveled and the seed is cast
IN; and thus large additions are annu-
any made to the aggregate amou. ut of
acres Of wheat.
| Wheat natures from about the be-
ginning to the middle of August. The
whole country then awakens from its
long sloshfulness. Business reyiyes
Interest: energy, and happiness every-
where appear. No one who has never
witnessed the dullness peryadlng all
departments of business during the
Winter and Spring can comprehend
the great and sudden Transformation
which the incoming crop produces.
Mechanics, tradesmen, wheat-buyers,
railroads, steamboats-all seem to be
imbued with new lite and vigor every
where lis activity, hustle and confusion.
| Wheat, owing to the prolonged rains,
was planted quite late this year, and
consequently was not SO soon in getting
to market as usual.
Dreams and Imagination cannot
last long in this Intensely practical
country: as it is to-day. You have
only to cast your eye across the prairie,
and you see Yarns yellow with the
golden grain which forms the wealth of
this rapidly-gro"ing young State. The
+ illusion fades away; civilized life, with
all its rush and hustle, come before you,
and you see the farmer guiding his
reaper through the standing wheat,
followed by his "hsnds," stopping over
and binding their bosomfulls OF swaths.
And who, although poetry suffers, can
regret the change?
Farms are generally 100 acres in ex-
tent-a "quarter section" being usually
the quantity bought and worked.
Under the Homestead Law lands are
constantly taken up, the cost being
mere triae for fees: etc. The settler is.
required to locate on it, put up small
house, dosome fencing and "breaking,'
and pass a night on it at least once
every six months.
The yield of wheat has varied con-
siderably. A week or two ago I visited
a farm Of seventy acres which averaged
~ bushels to the acre. Another one, Of
40 acres, is reported to have yielded
293 to the acre; few ''banner acres"
giving 33 to 81 bushels. Elsewhere
you hear likewise of from 20 to p to
the acre. In other places, however, it IS
very different, many firms averaging
only 10 to II bushels. This is where
the ground, as before remarked, was
low, and remained wet till late in the
season.
Farmers say that fair average yield,
at present prices for wheat and other
things, costs 65 to 10 cents to the
bushel to raise. Thus they make, at the
current price Of wheat (si.55), profit
Of S5 to so cents bushel. So farn.
9f 100 acres giving, at an average of
l6 bushels, 1000 bushels, will pay a
profit Of 81, 400. But it does not al
ways turn out so. The farmers are,
many of them, often in debt. They
Ire, many Of them, poor economizers.
The shiftlessness Of Western farmers Is
'roverbial. Honest, hard-working, they
re almost to man; but they lack
forecast, and thrift. Some
hing Of this: no doubt, is owing to the
7ast size of the farms they work and
he boundlessness Of the country.
Everything there is on an immense
Gale. Land is SO plenty and cheap that
mems ideas outgrow the restrictions of
sober economy, and the details of pvu-
lence seem to be contemptible Thus
'rrors are committed and waste engen-
Tered. It is s1ovenly habit farmers
lave got into to take 10 care Of their
Implements. A reaper or threshing ma
hine is left to lie uncovered just where
Was last used, exposed to all the in
lemencies of the weather for whole
ear. Of course when wanted again and
ragged forth, it is stiff and rheumatic
l its joints, it wheezes asthmatic c,ies
5 It is attempted to be put into service,
is half worn out with premature
ecay, and repairs become necessary;
nd after a repetition or two Of this
at last entirely succuubs, and has
} be replaced by another.
A reaper costs 5000, and a thresh-
,g machine from $500 to $500. With
roper care over winter they are cx-
ected to last number of years. This
one way profits vanish. A plow is
1T to lie in the last furrow it has made
IL another season demands its services.
md so it goes on. Five or ten dollars
'ould put up straw-thatched shed,
ght and waterproof, which, would
rotect all the machinery a farm needs;
ut then they won't do it, or don't
hink of it.
In the Fall thousands of straw
tacks are burnt up ruthlessly which
would furnish good feeding fer cattle
nd horses and yet all this is wasted
'lindly. Last Winter they would have
,iven anything to have had it
Oats had proved a failure, aud very
title had been saved. They were
carce. high, and the farmers out of
money. By February the cattle were
destitute of food. Numbers of them
tarved in the Southern counties of the
State. Ifa man had several COWS he
ook care of one or two-it was all he
ould feed-and left the rest to live on
7hat they could find. The poor crea-
ures nosed along in the snow, search
ug for food till they died. Even the
avored ones Jared badly and to this
lay, Notwithstanding our overabundant
,rass in the prairies, they have not re
severed fairly from the hard times OF
ast winter. A little forethought last
all would have prevented all this.
But there are many honorable ex
:eptions and with all their mistakes
he farmers, as a body, are steadily in
'reasing in wealth, and building up the
prosperity Of this young State. With
ler boundless resources and energetic
Minnesota has a glorious fu-
ure.