Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1881-07-23
HILL NOkCEo1Ek COIIY, MARYLAND, SATURDAY,

them he mentioned to his wife as bit
OF farm news. In August the outer
rows of corn adjoining the wheat stubble
changed color. The leaves near the
| ground became dry and had the appear
ance of having been "tired by stand
ing In water. This whitening of the
leaves rose rapidly on the stalks until
the outer rows of corn were dead. John
Tallant, busy plowing his wheat stub
bic, preparatory for the next springs
sowing, noticed the whitening of the
corn, but thought it was owing to the
hot winds that always damage the outer
rows of cornfield ON the plains. One
Sunday, in early August, a neighbor,
who had lived in Illinois, walked slowly
toward the Tsllant homestead. He was
bowed with sorrow. His gait plainly
expressed wee. Tallant hastened to
meet hin and anxiously inquired his
trouble. With dreadful oath prefxed,
his neighbor replied Chinch bugs -
"Chinch bugs What kind of bugs are
they ?" Tallant asked. Surprised at the
ignorance of the farmer from the fianks
of Kearsarge, the Illinois farmer took
John Tallant by the arm and led him to
the cornfeld. There he showed him
millions of tiny flies, with white dia-
monds on their backs, and millions of
millions of reddish insects, all busy
sucking the life out Of the corn.
Throughout the field was the smell of
ancient and unclean bedsteads, charac-
teristic of chinch bugs. Tallant listened
to the assurances of the Illinois farmer
that the insignificant insects would de-
stloy the corn, and smiled incredulously
Boldly his neighbor prophesied that the
chinch bugs would totally destroy the
crop, and unless the season was wet
would destroy the next wheat crop, and
every and all crops until season of ex-
cessive rains came.
In reply to the bantering inquiry,
"What are You going to do about it ?"
the Illinois farmer terselv said. 81 am
going to mortgage and skip" The dis
asters predicted occurred. The chinch
bugs destroyed the corn. The next
inches high, the ground was covered
with the full grown, diamond-marked
flies. The Illinois farmer mortgaged
and skipped" The wheat turned out
five bushels per acre.
The next fall Tallant was out of
money. He had made no corn. He
had to sell his hogs, as he had no feed
for them. His debts pressed him. The
dugout was no longer fit to live in. He
proved upon his homestead. After con-
sultation the couple, aged with hard
work and poor living, decided to
mortgage their farm, and with the
money obtained to build a little house,
pay their debts, and buy some groceries
they were sorely in need of. They
hoped to be able to pay off the mortgage
in one or two years if they made good
crops. 1t would have been n legitimate
transaction in an agricultural country;
but in the Arid Belt it was the begin
ming of the end.
The years 1879 and 1880 were dry.
The chinch bugs and the drought
destroyed all crops. The Tallants
courageously fought against the
inevitable. Teams, tools, stock, house
hold furniture, all were covered with
chattel mortgages, placed to raise the
money to pay the interest on the land
mortgage and their taxes, and to buy
food. All was in vain. Nature had
forbidden the agriculturists to enter into
the Arid Belt, and the penalty for dis
obedience was enforced. Last winter,
unable to pay the interest, long overdue,
and threatened with foreclosure of
chattel mortgages, the unhappy couple,
happily childless, concluded that the
fight was unequal; that they were the
dupes of the railroad company, and that
they would abandon the land. One
team Of borSao ao1 n Uooon x-ara ,,,,
mortgaged. The bows were put on and
the canvas cover tightly drawn. Bags
of meal and flour were packed into the
wagon, and their blankets. When the
grass began to shoot through the sun
warmed soil in the spring the Tallants
drove up the Platte trail, leaving their
farm and eight years of wasted life
behind them.