The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1870-02-18

Icorrespondence Of Hearth and Home.l


A Kvenang Win DalrynpIe. the
Great Wheas-FArnser 81 the west
lcorrespondence of Hearth and Home.]
Being in the northern region of
Minnesota, we thought to visit Mr..
Dalrymple and his wheat farm. We
wished to see the man who had
turned over twenty hundred acres of
prairie sod, and brought forth forty
five thousand bushels of Minnesota
wheat. We took the afternoon train
from the little inland village of Farm
ington 10 Hastings, twenty miles be-
low st. Paul, on the west bank of the
Mississippi. A ten cent ferry-ride
took us over the great river; thence
VIC cross the narrow timber bottom ;
thence up a winding ravine, and we
emerge upon the broad prairie that
forms the high delta between the ST.
Croix and the Mississippi. Half a
mile onward and we bring up before
neat story and half cottage, with
wings and porticoes extending from
the side and end. A few acres of
smooth prairie lawn, 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 CoIossus himself. A
knock at little side door was an
swered by tall, slight, youngisl-
looking man in slippers.
is Mr.. Dalrymple at lIome!"
THAT is my name, sir"
a' "Mr. Olirer Dalrymple? 2" ,-
Exactly so.' ra1.-- sore
Our Colossus was diminished. Our
imaginary stiff-backed, strong-armed
giant was reduced to a courteous
young gentleman, "gentle as wo-
man." J~lf...
We were made at home i'm a mo-
ment, and before the cold had passed
from our fingers we were well under
way with the story of his farm work
and wheat raising. He lad half fin
ished his fall blowing, he said of two
thousand acres the day before, (Nov.
I'D and his work for the year was
Oyer, His thirty athors IS couldnow
have arrest uEtii spring, and he him.
self would soon be Oh his yearly
round among his friends and the cul-
tivated cities of the East.
MR.. DAIRY -E.
Mr.. Dalrymple is We, bachelor of
thirty-eight summers, of frank, intel
ligent face and Southern type of
8 manners. He belongs to that rare
and fortunate class in whom the ideal
and the practical blend; who readily
adapt means to ends; who easily &C
complish great results; who seem, in
a remarkable degree, to be possessed
of the genius of success. lie is a
transcendentalist by nature, living
his own life, and carrying out his own
ideas. He affects no style; sets up
no pretensions; 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 the eye in every corner. Two
ebony children from the South have
charge Of his housekeeping. "Aunt
Minnie" a most wise, obliging and
cheerful young Alabama girl of fifty,
looks after the kitchen, while the
comely Amanda greets all friends
and visitors with a face bubbling
over with kindness end pleasantly.
EiRLY HISTORY. .'-f.i
Mr.. Dalrymple talks freely of his
farming achievements, but rarely al
ludes to his personal history. He is
of Scotch parents: born and raised a
-,
county, Pa. He was three years at
Yale, taking a practical course of
studies, and attending law and scien-
tific lectures. Finishing his studies
near at homo in 1856, he decided to
try his fortunes beyond the Missis-
sippi, whittier the great current of
fresh American life was then flow
ing. He reached the border settle
meBts of Minnesota in early spring.
lie dien't wait for clients or business
to find HIM, but at once threw him
self into the spirit of Western life,
and sought him out a farm.
FIRST WORK IN MINNESOTA.
His first work, after a weeks travel
about, was planting corn for a neigh
Dor to get money to buy beetle and
wedges: thence he set to splitting
rails and putting up a log shanty on
his pre-emption claim, eight miles
from the infant village Of Rochester.
He got forty acres plowed, bring the
money at three per cent. month. In
the fall, he made for Chatfield, the
hub of Minnesota lana excitement,
and opened a land office with ten
cents capital. Other capital soon
came to him for investment, and he
loaned money and located land war
rants at five per cent. commission,
clearing often over a hundred dollars
aweek.
In 1889, he opened his Office at St
Paul. In five years he held cash
. balance of thirty thousand dollars.
He had had enough, he said, of petit.
Jogging and claim collections, and he
now resolved to CRAFTY his taste and
inclinations out of doors. He wished,
also, TO demonstrate two things:
LIST. That capital and labor could
be applied successfully to wheat
raising OH large scale.
3D. That man could be a farmer
and not be slave. ....-. ....t .
With these Two distinct ideas be-
fore him, he set about 10 work
them ont, mindless OF old rules and
precedents. Within year he bought
two thousand acres of the best wheat
land, opposite Hastings, and near
Point Douglas, paying from So so 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 par
tridges for thousands of successive
years, The surface soil is dark,
warm, vegetable loan, two feet deep.
and mixed with clay, lime and sand.
1t has deep cl1y subsoil, resting on
lime rock strata. The location is
slightly and accessible, and is admira-
bly, described by the rapturous Gail
Hamilton" i'm her U'Ool- Gathering
adventures of three years ago. Calls
little sheep family, by the way, has
long since been dismembered, and the
location of her sheep farm, a mile out
of Hastings, become mostly unknown
to the people there.