The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1870-02-04
THE PRINCE OF FARMERS.
AN EVENING WITH DALRYMPLE, THE GREAT
WHEAT-FARMER OF THE WEST.

AN EVENING WITH DALRYMPLE, THE GREAT
WHEAT-FARMER OF THE WEST.
Being in the northern region of Mime.
sofa, we thought to visit Mr.. Dalrymple
and his wheat-farm. We wished to see
the man who had turned over twenty hun
dred acres OF prairie sod, and brought forth
torty-tive thousand bushels of Minnesota
wheat. We took the afternoon train from
the little inland village OF Pennington to
Hastings, twenty miles below St. Paul, on
the west bank of the Mississippi. A ten
cent ferry-ride took us over the great river
thence we cross the narrow timber bottom
thence up a winding ravine, and we
emerge upon the broad prairie that forms
the delta between the St. Croix and the
Mississippi. Half mile onward and we
bring up before neat story and a-half cot
tage, with wings and porticoes extending
from the side and end. A few acres of
smooth and prairielawn, set out with trees,
are enclosed with the house, and forty acres
with the stable to the right. On all sides
beyond are seen wide pillows of dark, fresh
turned soil. This, we thought, must be
the great Dalrymple farm; but first we
must see the Colossus himself A knock
at little side-door was answered by tall
slight, youngish looking man in slippers.
rs Mr.. Dalrymple at home 2"
THAT is my name, sir"
MIR. Oticer Dalrymple?"
Exactly So
Our Colossus was diminished Our i'm
aginary stiff-backed, strong armed giant
was reduced to a courteous young gentle
man, gentle as woman"
We were made at bop,o IL, a ,,,o;>,o,+
and before the cold had passed from our
fingers, we were well under way with the
story OF his teamwork and wheat-raising.
He had finished his fall-ploughing, he said,
OF two thousand acres the day before (No-
vember 12th), and his work for the wear
was over. His thirty fat horses could now
have rest until spring, and he himself
would soon be on his yearly round among
his friends and the cultivated cities of the
East
MR.. DALRYMPLE.
Mr.. Dalrymple yet bachelor ofthirty-
eight summers, of frank, intelligent face
and Southern type of manners He be-
longs to that rare and fortunate class in
whom the ideal and the practical blend
who radiantly adapt means to the ends (;
who easily accomplish great results; who
seem in a remarkable degree, to be possess
ed OF the genius ofsuccess. He is tran
scendentalist by nature, living his own
lite and carrying out his own IDEAS He
affects no style sets up no pretentons, is
the least assuming of all about his farm.
His cottage is plain without, but richly
ordered within. Books, papers, pictures
comfortable lounges, and easy-chairs meet
children from the South have charge OF
his housekeeping. "Aunt Minnie" A
most wise, obliging, and cheerful Alabama
girl otfitty, looks after the kitchen, while
the comedy Amanda greets all visitors with
face bubbling over with kindness and
pleasantly.
EARLY HISTORY
Mr.. Dalrymple talks freely ofhis farming
achievements, but rarely alludcs to his
personal history. He is of Scotch parents
born and raised farm boy till seventeen,
in Warren county, Pa. He was three years
at Yale, taking practical course ofstudies
and attending law and scientific lectures
Finishing his studies near at home in 1856,
he decided to try his fortunes beyond the
Mississippi, whittier the great current OF
fresh American life was then flowing. He
reached the border settlements of Minnesota
in early spring. He didn't wait for clients
or business to find him, but at once threw
himself into the spirit of Western life. and
sought him ont a farm
FIRST WORK IN MINNESOTA.
His first work, after Il weeks travel
about, was planting corn for neighbor to
get money to buy beetle and wedges
thence he set to splitting rails, and putting
up log shanty on his presumption claim
eight miles from the infant village of Ro-
chester. He got forty acres ploughed
hiring the money at three per cent. month
! In the fall he made for Chatfield, the hub OF
Minnesota land excitement, and opened
law and land office with ten cents
capital. Other capital soon came to him
for investment, and he loaned money and
located land-warrants at five per cent
commission, clearing often over a hundred
dollars week.
In 1853, he opened his office at st. Paul
In five years he held cash. balance OF
100000. He had enough, he said, of pet
tifogging and claim collections, and he now
resolved to CRAFTY his taste and inclina-
lions out of doors. He wished also, to de-
monstrate two things:
LIST. That capital and labor could be APP
piled successfully to wheat raising on
large scale.
end That man could be farmer and
not be slave
With these two distinct ideas before him
he set to work them out, mindless of old
rules and precedents. Within a year he
bought two thousand acres of the best
wheat land, opposite Hastings, and near
Point Douglas, paying from $3.50 to SIS an
acre. 1t was smooth, high, undulating
prairie, without bush or tree, that had
borne only wild grass and flowers, and fed
deer and cartridges for thousands ofsucces-
sive years. The surface soil is dark,
warm, vegetable loan, two feet deep, and
mixed with clay, lime and sand. 1t has a
deep clay subsoil, resting on lime rock
strata. The location is slightly and access
ible, and is admirably described by the
rapturous Gail Hamilton" in her Wool
Gathering adventures of three years ago.
Calls little sheep family, by the way, has
long since been dismembered, and the To-
cation Of her sheep farm, mile out of
Hastings, become mostly unknown To the
people there.
ON HIS FARM.
June, 1866, Mr.. Dalrympleput in fifteen
breaking teams with six heavy horses each.
They turned mle-lopg burrows, sixteen
inches wide, and TWO and a-half deep. In
forty-two days he had seventeen hundred