Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1881-07-23

of the disaster that had fallen on the
famers of the Arid Belt, flocked into the
country to buy the stock, that had to be
sold at any price. This disaster was fol-
lowed by consuming drought. The
grass dried, the cleek stood in stagnant
pools, green-coated and Shiny; the
ground was baked into brickIike hard
ness, and farm work impossible. The
garden, that Mrs. Tallant had taken
great pride in, contained few short
cracked cabbage stalks and a few dried
tomato vines.
Courageously the Tallants faced the
disaster. Eagerly they adopted the
absurd theory that the climate of the
high plains could be altered by the
works of man. Strenuously they in-
insisted, when talking to their neigh
bors, that Iowa and Illinois had been
subject to long continued droughts and
hot southwest winds !; but that the cul-
tlvatlon of few inches of the surface
soil of n limited area of their lands had
changed the climate of those States from
one of sharp extremes of heat and cold,
OF drought and excessive moisture, to
an equable one. Hundreds of poor
men, who had staked their little fortunes
IN the Arid Belt, and who with praise
worthy industry were striving to create
homes for themselves, greedily adopted
the unsound railroad theory of changes
to be wrought in climate that is mex
orable on account of the geographical
position of the country.
The next spring wheat was again
sowed and corn planted. This year the
crops were again good, and wheat
brought fair price. The corn crop
was en- excellent one, and, though the
price was low, the Tallants were not
obliged to sell. They wisely decided to
crib the corn and always to keep a years
crop of corn on hand. The building of
the corn cribs reduced the sum of money
they received for their wheat sharply.
The following spring the usual crops
were sown and planted. Encouraged by
the appearance of the growing corn, the
Tallants again purchased brood sows,
and soon had fair number of hogs on
hand. The locusts again swarmed in
from the Rocky Mountains, but they
had delayed their descent until after
wheat was harvested and corn so har-
dened that they could not iniure it. This
year the price of wheat was low; corn
was almost worthless. 1t was used for
fuel. Hogs were so cheap that it was
barely profitable to shovel the low
priced corn out of wagons for them to
eat.
School houses had been built and
teachers hired. In a community IF
hOmesteaders the burden of paying
school taxes falls on personal property.
The intention to tax John Tallant into
the poorhouse was developed in School
District No. 80. In vain did he argue
against the injustice. It took twenty
fat hogs to pay this outrageous tax.
The Woodworking couple were apnRr4
emily as far from acquiring competence
as they ever were. 1t seemed as though
it was impossible to accumulate any
money. Before the fall plowing was
finished they decided to devote 120
acres to wheat the next season, and to
buy on eleven years credit eighty acres
of railroad land adjoining their farm for
the purpose of raising corn.
In the sixth spring 100 acres of wheat
and five acres of flax were sown. Then
the breaking plow was started, and the
work of breaking prairie
sod and planting corn with an axe be-
gan.
The overproduction of wheat in the
United States had affected the price of
wheat in the markets of Europe, and
the tendency was toward lower price
for the staple that all countries can raise.
as harvest drew near, day after
day, the price of wheat declined at the
centres where it is gathered for export.
Before the sickle bars had ceased rafting |
in the fall-sown wheat fields of the |
the crop was known to be |
the best that had ever been secured. |
The telegraph carried the news to the
centres Of the wheat trade, and down |
went the price. The great operators
sent the information to their agents in |
Nebraska. Tallant, too economical to |
take a newspaper, knew nothing of the |
depreciation in the value Of breadstuffs.
Daily he worked in blind obedience to
the Divine command that men live by
the sweat of their brows, and daily the |
stern command of nature that disaster
overtakes al men who labor without in
telligence and in violation of her laws,
drew nearer to execution.
John Tallant's wheat crop was the
best one he had ever raised, some twen-
ty-two bushels per acre. The breadth
sown in his county was very large and
when the wheat was yellow and fit for
the sickle bar, the discovery was made
that there were not enough hands in the
county to promptly harvest the crop.
The poverty stricken farmers utterly
failing to understand the state of the crop
in the United States and in Europe, bid
against each other for harvest hands, and
the pay of these men rose from a dollar
and half to three dollars and half per
day. Resolved to save his crop in prime
so as to obtain the highest
prices paid, Tallant hired ten men and
bought another reaping machine and
another horse. The crop saved and the
paid, the money was borrowed
from the county bank at q per cent. per
month. Tallant thrashed. When the !
thrashing machines we're loudly hum
ming IN Nebraska the price declined |
to fifty cents bushel for sound No. 2 I
new wheat. The bottom being reached,
the land graf railroad increased the |
general distress by adding eight cents |
per one hundred pounds to their tariff |
ON wheat. Promptly wheat fell to forty |
four cents per bushel. This was below |
its cost of production. Notices to pay |
his notes, now due, were sent to Tai |
liant, and he was forced to sell his wheat |
to pay and having sold all excepting |
seed for the next year and enough to |