The St. Cloud journal. [volume] (St. Cloud, Minn.) 1866-1876, 1876-04-27
MINNESOTIAN IN NEBRASKA.
The Old, Old Story-A Bad Move.
GrasshOppsrs-Short Crops-Low
ices-Sickness-Poor stock.
MINNEsOTIANs, "STAY WHERE YOU
ARE"

-, NEBRASKA, April 2, 1876.
EDITOR JoURNAL.-Many friends in
Stearns county have asked me for informa-
ton concerning Kansas and Nebraska, and
would like to have the privilege of writ
ing to them through your paper. lived
in Minnesota nearly eight years, and then,
becoming dissatisfied with the country, just
about gave away what little 1 had and
started for Nebraska or Kansas. wanted
to get to q warmer climate" where I
could raise stock and lots Of grain and "get
rich" i travelled good deal through Ne.
braska and some in Kansas, finally settling
in Nebraska. These two States are simply
great plains; very high and dry +; with no
timber except little, and that Of inferior
quality, along the streams. The man who
settles on these wide-stretching prairies
without plenty Of money is almost sure to
suffer. He has everything to buy, and lum-
Der costs double what it does in St. Cloud,
and grain is very low. Since have been
here wheat has averaged not over so cents
per bushel; corn 10000; oats, 15c; bar
ley, 90; rye, s0c; potatoes, 90. There is
very little demand for.labor. The coun-
try is subject to drouth and grasshoppers.
The heat was 80 intense during June and
July, 1874, that the prairies burned as
readily as in the fall. saw fields of grain
that never were cut but burned like the
wild prairies, and fields of corn that were
as dead in July As in midwinter. Some
fields Of grain in the eastern part of the
State yielded about half crop. On the
26th of July the grasshoppers lit and took
what little corn there might have been.
Then the cry was ''the destruction of the
crops by the grasshoppers," when the
truth is that there would not have been a
quarter of a crop of corn if the grasshop-
pers had not come at all. Last summer, in
the western part of the State, the early
part of the season was very dry; small
grain was lights corn about half crop
all over the State. The graashoppers
Matched in this part, and took all the
grain on some farms. had 81 acres of
wheat, and threshed 200 bushels, selling it
for so centsper bushel.
have also found this to be poor stock
country. The grass cannot be depended
on, on account of the frequent drouths.
Water is very scarce, and wells are from
80 to $50 feet deep. 1 draw water for my
stock 104 feet. The season is not one
week longer here than in Minnesota. We
arenow in the beginning of April, and the
snow is IL inches deep on the level, with
more coming, and We have Lad storms al
most every day since the last of February.
Grass sufficient for grazing is not to be
had before May Goth and often it is the
first of June. The weather here is harder
on stock than in Minnesota, one day being
very warm and the next everything is
frozen solid. The corn crop is so uncer-
tain that not much can be done in the way
of raising pork. The truth is that this is
no place for apoor man, and if a man has
money he can do much better with it else
where.
There has been more sickness in this
neighborhood this winter than I saw in
Minnesota in over seven years. There
have been scarcely we'll people enough to
take care of the sick.
There are no manufactures Of any kind
here except few grist mills, which in the
dry season can run only two-thirds Of the
time. Everything has to be shipped out of
the country and then shipped back again,
at a heavy expense to the consumer. There
are very many people here who are living
in sod houses and "dug outs,"-hard-work-
ing men who have been here for from six
to ten years, but they have not been able to
accumulate enough money to put up frame
houses, lumber being 80 high, and there is
no timber for log houses. Nearly every
farm in this part of the country is for sale
and at very low prices. Ny advice to all
Minnesotians is: Stay where you are let
sueu enough alone; and Be contented.
E. L. MORGAN,