Union County courier. [volume] (Elk Point, Union County, D.T. [S.D.]) 187?-1913, 1880-08-18
ouT UNiON COUNTY.


1ANNOiiOWilik lcStcE WIittcii ny MI
q. Erickson, formerly editor Oh
6caa Aavian paper at Sioux Fallss
but ~ correspondent for a paper
III Chicago, will be found interest-
ing riding:
En- PoINT, Union Co, pnk.
August 1st, 1880
Thu is from one of tho small
towlqRpn these western prairies from
~ present the economy Of the
Mdl< being revolutionized By, the
pre2 hon Of wheat, pork and beef.
ything looks here AZ favorable
a. IA ole. Most Of the grain is
cut IVA is a better crop than ever
kn01N1here before. OF wheat there
shipped from this place at
1GaGk 10000 bushels.
WksAt is paying, as everywhere
III tt1o west where the farmer ID do
ing i1Ii1 own work and not running
too much in debt for costly machin.
cry, pf paying too much for high
priced labor. But the very best
busin1es here is corn and cattle.
Here, Is in Illinois, q boy with a
team uAn make one hundred tons of
corn 81 one hundred days; but there
y thisfdifference that the land, even
here ID the first settled corner Of the
Territory, does not cost more than
So to 410 persacre; most of it can be
got $4sto IS. This year the crop Of
maize will be double that of any
previous year, partly because it will
average more per acre, partly be-
cause the number Of acres under
cultivation has been largely in
creased. With corn, hogs is q good
paying business. The first thing Of
all is, however, in these parts cattle.
To get an example, / asked Mr..
Geo. Stickney, the county treasurer
of Union county, about his stock
raising. Mr.. Stickney bought last
spring two years ago fifteen year
ling ste6rs at 50 per head, 500; two
years later they had advanced to
$28 per head, or 1870; it was $500
for the keeping. AT the same time
they have pretty nearly entirely TAX
en- care Of themselves; the grass
they have eaten has not cost any
thing at all,-they have not been fed
any corn, and the hay they have
eaten from stacks in the filds in
winter-time, has, at the highest,
cost 75cts per ton to cut and to
stack and not amounted to II tons
per head. Mr.. Stickney calculates
that to keep a head of cattle kept in
this manner will increase in value
from cd to 81 per annum, at a cost
not exceeding 81. This fall it seems
likely that young steers will be sold
for S35 to $45 or will net for the
over $50. At present all
farmers intend to keep and fatten
their steers; they expect to get for
them next spring from $50 to $50.
While this place is some distance
from Chicago the great cattle mar
ket of the northwest, the freight
of So from here to Chicago is much
more than repaid by the difference
in price Of hay and corn. Loss by
is by Mr.. Stickney calcu-
70 he, in this good climate, not
above 3 per cent. Down here the
cattle is given shelter in the few cold
days in winter. Further up at the
Missouri River the great cattle-men
let them go out the whole winter
and do not even furnish them any
hay; the only expenses are there
is the watching and supervision cal
culated to be between 81 and 81 per
head a year. In the cattle business
nearly everything is profit out here.
The thing is that the pasture has
not yet any value. Thousands Of
tons of splendid hay are, even in
this county, left uncut on the ground
to be burned by the prairie-tires in
fall and winter. There is no end Of
the willingness of the soil TO give the
richest grass; land has been cut for
fifte1n years and gives yet undi-
two tons Of hay per acre.
The grass not having any value, hay
mentioned, does MI more than!
at the highest, 75ctssperston stacked
in the field, and $50 delivered
here in town. There is already a
good deal Of blooded stock in this
county. Mr.. Stickney has taken
young Durham cattle from the mon
astery near Dubuque. The monks
there have, true to old monastic tra-
ditions, been benefactors to the econ
ony of the country and at the same
time to their own Institution. Mr..
Stickncy tells me that theys26 years
ago bou9ht pure-blooded ehorthorns
for 11.20O aad since that time have
sold 81 them $4,000. There is
now aleo III Union county horses 81
excellent Norman strains. On the
high prairie lands nothing can be
hotiarthan sheep-farming. Some oil
tbs ScAndinaSi1n farmers settled
11hAEp have assmnch as a hundred
sheep, but n0e let pure blooded and,
on the whole not yet any. very IA
tional productian. Good creamer,
ies will pay nearly everywhere cut
Ierey The faksneis do not live more
scattered t,an that the creameriea
could gather ne cream according 70
the new system used in Iowa, where
the farmers themselves set the milk
in coolere and only the cream u
taken TO the creamsries. The far
mers are at present willing TO sell
their cream very cheap.
TO show how the people them
selves have taken hold Of the cattle
business, can be mentioned that the
number Of cattle. IN Union county
now Is calculated 10 be three times
larger than t-hre1NxSeaxs ago. 4
3nG1nd head n1