The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1879-03-27
NO. 2 SPRING.

IN Stage COACH
NO. 2 SPRING.
The terminating Propriettes Of THIS Grade
Of Wheat as Demonstrated by fnvesti0a-
ttoss IN MttscauEee-Veru Satisfactory
Erperin.ents-Ltftle EMcosarage,,.es.t tor
the Bulls.
Milwaukee Special to Chicago Tribune,
The Tribune correspondent, having been
informed that experiments were being quiet
y made in Milwaukee, with the view of de-
determining the terminating proprieties of
No. spring wheat of the crop of 1878,
spent portion of the forenoon in. search
after facts bearing upon this important
qu~~ III. Believing that what our railway
people do not know about wheat is not worth
knowing, the general offices of the Chicago
Milwaukee q St. Paul railway company were
first visited, with the most satisfactory re-
suits. Superintendent II. G. Atkins gave
the purport of recent conversation
with Mr.. Bassett, of the firm of
Bassett, Hunting & Co., commission
merchants, in which that gentleman claimed
that even the light wheat will terminate as
readily as the better qualities. Mr.. Bassett
stated that experiments had been made with
the lightest of the spring wheat now mar
keted, and every kernel germinated, showing
above ground quite as well as the sprouts Of
the plump berries. This, to his mind, proved
conclusiveiy that the shrunken wheat retains
its life-giving properties. Besides, the wheat
being light, and the kernel so small, farmers
will not require as many bushels to the acre
for seeding purposes. There is in Minnesota
at present large amount of Northern Pa
clfic railroad wheat, as it is called, but farm
ers do not buy it for seeding purposes to the
extent that holders anticipated, as they are
satisfied with the terminating qualities of
the light wheat in their own hands, and pre-
fer putting it to thor
ough test. According to Mr.. Bassett,
the best crop ever grown in Minnesota was
the product of shrunken wheat. Mr.. Atkins
added: ''1n my opinion there is no occasion
for alarm concerning the coming crop p1os-
pect, in consequence of the average quality
of the spring wheat of last year. If the con-
ditions otherwise are favorable, there is not
the slightest doubt in my mind that the
wheat crop of 1879 in Wisconsin,, Minnesota
and other Northwestern States, where the
kernel suffered shrinkage to such an alarm
ing extent last year, will be fully equal to
the best ever grown, both in quantity and
quality. I have information that the in
crease in acreage over former years will be
large, particularly in Iowa and Minnesota.
In Wisconsin the average of winter wheat
this season is much greater than has been
known before in many years. The condi-
tions thus far have been most favorable, and
of Dryades street. The neighborhood is
comparatively thickly settled, especially on
the northern and western sides of the ceme-
teries.
The residents complain of the cemeteries
because there constantly arises therefrom an
abominablc stencil which prevades the at
mosphere, forces itself into the dwellings
near at hand, and, in addition, attracts
swarms of flies, which insects, after feasting
in the graveyard, comes into tho sleeping aud
dining rooms of the houses of the neighbor-
hood.
This stencil is caused by the decomposit>o
Of dead bodies, which lie but partly buried
all over the two cemeteries The reasons
why these bodies are so poorly put under the
ground are these: In the first place, these
cemeteries are the burial ground of several
distinct classes of people; the dead from the
parish prison are buried there, the dead from
the boys house of refuge, from the city in
sane asylum, from the home for the aged
aud infrm, from the small-p pox hospital and
from two or three institutions for the colored
people, all the pauper dead of the city, oil
the dead buried by the two coroners, all the
coroners' cases and INDECENT dead from
Algiers, and all poor non Catholic white and
colored people, whose friends cannot pay for
better place, are there ram,ned and jammed
up together until not an inch of the ground
unoccupied.
Thus, it is seen, these two small grave
yards are the only places of interment open
to the dead of several classes of our popnla-
tion-numbering about sixty thousand per
sons, among which, for several causes, the
mortality is very great.
Yet, although the two yards are filled to
the very gates, the interments continue as
rapidly as ever. 70 make room for the new
corpses the Oldest denizens of this city of
the dead must be dug up and used to assist
in covering others in turn. It is calculated
that in eight or nine months, at the farthest,
both cemeteries are completely renewed;
accordingly, now the time has come for the
resurrection of the victims of the late epi-
demic.
II is this constant disinterment which causes
the abominable stench-a stencil so horrible
and arising from scene SO wretched that
the very ground itself seems crying to
heaven against this outrage upon not only
the dead but the living.
No one individual is responsible or to
blame for this sickening condition of things.
The city has made no provision for burying
the dead elsewhere, neither has it taken care
to provide sufficient labor to properly ''make
room" for the newly dead. There is no
sexton in charge of the tive cemeteries, and
the assistant sexton of Lafayette cemetery
No. 2, on Washington street, six squares
distant, has to attend also to the two Locust
Grove cemeteries. This assistant sexton
does his best to bury all the dead sent to
him, but it is easy to be understood that
under the circumstances his efforts are rem
dered futile.
The remedy for this disgraceful condition
of affairs is new cemeteries, and the closing
up for at least year or so of these pest
breeding spots on Sixth street. Three new
cemeteries would hardly be sufficient to &C.
commodate the bodies now being sent to the
already overfowing cemeteries, but let those
new ones be established and as many more
as may be necessary, provided the hot-beds
of disease are rendered innoxious. Ono
cemetery might be located in the rear of
the Sixth district, to accommodate the dead
from the quarter above Louisiana avenue;
one large cemetery might be placed ON Met
arie ridge. There is plenty of land suitable
for this purpose now for sale on the ridge,
say quarter of mile back of the Halfway
house. This cemetery would furnish room
for the dead from that portion of the city
between Delord and Esplanade streets. The
third cemetery might be situated in the rear