Delaware tribune. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1867-1877, 1875-01-28
Life on the Prairie.
ITS PROSE Vs. Irs PoETRY-THoUsANDs LuRKD 10
sTARyATIoN.

ITS PROSE vs.. Irs UNDERGRADUATES LURKD TO
STARVATION.
Tho following plain talk 10 from one of our
leading exchanges in the far west. or course it
Ii only applicable to ceIt..-n sections
The ease OF securing land, It's fertility and the
light cost OF tillng, were the only items that en-
tered into the calculations Of the thousands who
sought homes beyond the Mississippi and have
found starvation aud despa' Experience wa.
successful agriculture d the possibilities OF
comfortable living Al greater than even the
extraordinary advah ages Of the country.
settlers In this vegon have found that tho
country teemed with various species OF gophers
and held nice that do great injury to the crops
of wheat. oats, corn and potatoes, Blsckbirds
III most localities, are numerous enough to re-
sularly destroy at least one-qusrter of any grain
crop.
The spring and summer seasons are inyaria.
Diy extremes OF wet or dry weather. II dry a
remarkable drought would result and il wet
Tie loan Of the prairie become an untIllsble and
impassable sea Of mud
Grain usually grows luxuriantly too near the
Time or harvest. when it is almost sure to be
hattened to the eai,h by wind, and rendered al
most yaneless on account of the difiiculties Of
harvesting. II one class OF conditions proves
favorable, others p we Jsoutely fatal to the
successful growing q ,ps. The average yield
OF all kinds Of produce is always low. Where
beasts and climate. ten Of Ills neighbors are
ruined. ~
1t Is by this time demonstrated that the win
tiers OF this whole region are absolutely terrible.
lhere are single storms III which the loss of
human life is equal t. that of = year of frontier
warfare. The person who has not endured a
winter on the Western Plains can have no con-
ceptioh OF the terrible fore gathered by the wind
and snow rs it is hurled down in uni1terrunted
gales from the frozen north, thousands of miles
away. 'N'
Grasshoppers are plague upou the countrv
put they are not near so bad M the combinsi
evils OF tempest, drought, bird and beast. The
unfortunate people vino are now asking Aid
Know full well that their present poverty Is NOT
une IN any large degree to the vsitations of
srasshoppers. The grasshoppers have deyasta-
ted whole townships, and then again townshins
nave been free from their work. The drought
,hls year ruined the crops loug before the trou
piesohe Insects came to devour the psrched
remnants. The blackbrds and gopher com
early spring. 'Ao
me grasshopper is bad, but he ia not 10 HARM |
iui us the other combined observation-disclosures of the |
great prairie country. The macs of settlers who
are now hving III the socalled ''grasshopper dis
,,, are poor IN ratio Just about correspond
ing with the number of years they have lived on
their homesteads or railroad lands Men who |
went ihto North Western Iowa and Western Min |
ngso'a Ten years ago, are worth less money than |
wn ,n they hrst settled in the now country.
The truth is that the fertile prairier have lrrad
thousands OF farmers to poverty and actual star
Vation. The arguments Of newspapers and rail.
road companies have peoped the country, which
~ from year to year been obliged to ask aid
from more favored localities,
This cry for aid il no new thing Year after |
year the citizens Of western Minnesota have an |
pealed to the world for assistance. More than
once the people of northwestern Iowa baye been
famine stricken. Nearly every county has suf-
,ered tle raids OF county land swindlers who
have made the taxes 30 onerous that nobody INIT
themselves can afford to live there.