Union County courier. [volume] (Elk Point, Union County, D.T. [S.D.]) 187?-1913, 1880-08-25
AHoUT UNION NJ
observations by u Prominent
scandinavian.

The following letter written by NJ.
G. Frederiekson, formerly editor of a
Scandinavian paper al Sioux Falls,
bat now correspondent for a paper
III Chicago, viii be found interest
ing reading:
Elk POINT, Union Co, OAK,
August LIST, 1880.
This is from one of the small
towns on these western prairies from
where at present the economy Of the
world is being r%evolutionized by the
production of wheat, pork and beet.
Everything looks here as favorable
as possible. Most of the grain is
cut and is a better crop than ever
known here before. Of wheat there
viii be shipped from this place at
least 100000 bushels.
Wheat is paying, as everywhere
in the west where The farmer is do
ing his own work aud not running
too much i'll debt for costly machin-
cry, or paying too much for high
priced labor. But the very best
business here is corn and cattle.
Here, as in Illinois, q boy with a
team can make one hundred tons of
corn in one hundred days; but there
is this difference that the land, even
here in the first settled corner of the
territory, does not cost more than
So to SO per acre; most of it can be
got 81 to 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 a good
paying business. The first thing Of
all is, however, III 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 steers at So per head, S120; two
years later they had advanced to
s2S per head, or S420; 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 tilds in
winter-time, has, at the highest,
cost 75cts per ton to cut and to
stack and not amounted to Ii tons
per head. MIR. Stickney calculates
that to keep a head of cattle kept III
this manner viii increase in value
from 50 to 81 per annum, at a cost
not exceeding 81. This fall it seems
likely that young steers will be sold
for $50 to S45 or viii net for the
summer over SIS. At present all
farmers intend to keep and tatten
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
accident is by Mr.. Stickney caleu-
lated to be, 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 60 out the whole winter
and do not even furnish them any
hay; tie 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
fifteen years and gives yet undi-
unfinished two tons of hay per acre.
The grass not having any value, hay
as mentioned, does not more than
at the highest, T5cts per ton stacked
in the field, aud $1.50 delivered
here in town. There is already a
good deal of blooded stock in this
county. Mr.. Stickney hes taken
young Durham cattle from the mon
astery near Dubuque. The monks
there have, true to old monastic ira
ditions, been bcnefactors to the
omy of the country and mt the same
time to their W institution. Mr..
Stickney tells me that they 26 years
ago bought purc-blooded shorthorns
for 1900 and since that time have
sold of them $4,000. There is
now also in Union county horses Of
excellent Norman strains. On the
high prairie lands nothing can be
better than sheep-farlning. Some of
the Scandinavian farmers settled
there have as much as a hundred
sheep, but not yet pure blooded and,
on the whole not yet any very RAJ
tional production. Good creamer-
les will pay nearly everywhere out
here. The farmers do not live more
| scattered than that the creameries
could gather the cream according to
| the new system used in Iowa, where
| the farmers themselves set the milk
in coolers and only the cream is
| taken to tiae creameries.. 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 oe mentioned that the
number Of cattle iii Union county
now is calculated to be three times
larger than three years ago. A
thousand head have been brought
q Als.. .l... NH D~..& 1,,.,,. tGx