The anti-monopolist. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1874-1878, 1875-12-16
OUR HOMESTEADS.

noble desire for independence faces the
wild stubborn forest-his capital brave
heart, sinewy arm and sharp axe,-to
carve out for himself and family, an
honest. independent home.
Itrequires a brave independent spirit
to even attempt the task and almost q
life labor to succeed But with this spir-
it, under God, success is certain, slowly
and with labor, that tells as years ad-
vance, it comes.
We have in Minnesota many such men
and such homes.
Most OF our early settlers settled in the
timber imagining that people could not
live on the prairies during the winter,
and, as general thing, one of their re-
grets (for as we look back on LIES road
we find it lined with regrets) is that they
made this mistake.
We believe that there was no class Of
emigrants, who, at first, had such dread
of the bleak treeless prairie, as the Irish,
consequently we find many Irish settle
ments in the woods, and thank God, pros
porous ones now.
or course, they not come near the Irish
farmers, in breadth of land under cutiva-
ton; nevertheless. they are not so far
behind their prairie brothers, in solid
prosperity, as one might suppose.
AS Il general thing they are less in
debt for machinery and land. In fact
out of debt is the usual position Of the
farmer in the timber, while the great
majority Of farmers on the prairie lands
are more or less in debt
While making this statement we must
not be understood as putting forward
any doubt OF the solid prosperity of the
latter; their debts have been mostly in
cured in necessary expenses and in the
enlargement of their valuable farms
The exceptions indeed are very few
wherein there is any probability Of the
farmer being unable to ultimately pay
off every dollar he owes, nevertheless
debt is debt, and Il man in debt is a man
in trouble
While the crop of the IA mer in the
timber is small, he has the satisfaction
of knowing that it is all his own, and
his privileges for raising hogs and young
cattle, his abundance of fuel and sale of
wood, keep him closer up to the farmer
on the prairie, than one would suspect
who saw the big wheat fields on the prai-
ries and the small patches in the woods.
But the labor, in opening a farm in the
woods and in grubbing and clearing
through many II long year, is far more
severe than any labor on the prairie and
consequently we deem the prairie farmer
deserves more credit for judicious selec
ton in regard to location the farmer in
the timber deserves more tor his pluck.
for nothing could avail in his case, with
out pure, undaunted grit
And very pleasant is it to sit by the
honest mans fire and listen to his little
history, from the time he first cut out his
road, TO this his claim in the Wild forest,
to just now when he showed you his new
barn, his co $. sheep. etc. and promised
to hitch up his team to leave YOU at The
railroad depot in the morning. Above
all pleasant is it to listen to the recital
of early trials, hravely conquered when
one sees around the narrator. loyal, low
ing, good children, boys and girls, grow
ing up to assist. father and mother now,
who SO long. SO lovingly and so we'll, la
bored for them.
a few weeks ago we spent an evening
at such a home in the Credit River set
Element. Scott county. the home of Mr.
james Farrasy. He has eleven children,
lido YOU know we have an idea that
people raise larger families in the woods
than on the prairie. and in Irish families
they never begin to count until they
have half dozen,-nothing under six
counts in the woods) .-..Eleven chill
dren," we repeated, as he mentioned the
number to us.
'Yes" he answered, land not one of
them ever lived day from homs.n
In the afternoon. when arrived at Mr..
Farrisay's. l found the ''gued woman.
busy with household affairs while two
grown up daughters were sewing, BY
and by bevy of younger children, rosy
and ioyous with health and SHIRTS 70
turned from school. then as the shades
of evening fell, the man of the house with
his grown up son, returned from work.
And fine young fellow. was this son.
Robert. A brave help to his father; re-
ligious, .obedient, cheerful and men,
Der of the temperance society of Credit
River. All this his parents told US. with
loving pride.