Cooperstown courier. (Cooperstown, Griggs Co., Dak. [N.D.]) 1883-1884, 1884-01-11
And what 1t is Not, as Told by G..
w. Everts in the Toledo
CO., Blade.


Ss Gea uSSS Do Sope the eastern na
press will continue in the good work
until this delusive bubble is thoroughly
pricked. For the life of me can't see
anything about this country to make
people 60 crazy over it, like they are
doing. The whole surface is covered
with sort of stunted grass, in some
places not over a foot high, and fit for
nothing under the sun but for stock to
eat. And the soil is nothing buta black
loan from four to eight feet deep and
underlaid with q porous sort Of subsOil,
strongly impregnated with lime, gypsum
and such stuff, that denote stertiIity.
AND THEN THE WIND!
While it is true We never have he'd any
OF your 'sly coons' Or Jimmie canes, "
actually known Of blizzard blowing
the hat off a mans head and carrying It
as much as five rods before he could re-
cover 1t. Also the savage beasts that
roam over the prairie, such as the badger,
the coyote, the gopher and the vicious
prairie dog make it very unsafe to be
caught out without being thoroughly
armed and equipped. There are q hum
dred and one other features connected
with this country that should warn the
weary pilgrim that this is not the haven,
of his desires, yet thousands still con-
tinue to come and persist in staying and
the longer they stay the crazier they
seem to become.
think the origin of this silly craze
can be traced to an eccentric fellow, ia
miliarly known as .'Uncle Sam,'' who
formerly owned all the real estate in this
and several adjoining Territories and
who, in order to unload offered to sell
any person $40 acres on from five to
take the principal out in work. This
was a most unfortunate proceeding and
thousands and tens of thousands of hon.
est. intelligent and industrious people
have been dellded to accept this most
ungenerOus offer. The
EXPERIENCE OF YOUR CORRESPONDENT
is similar to that of thousands of other
poor dupes. was doing asplended bus.
mess in Ohio, the best business in fact
in the town: At least that is what my
in to trade, and then they would say,
''just mark that down for y few days"
Now, might have remained in Ohio
and had hosts Of friends just as long as
I had q dollars worth Of goods to sell
ION tick" 1t was hard to sever those
ties of friendship. amounting as they
did in some cases from S. to SO each,
but braced myself for the effort, and
am now in Dakota. arrived early in
the season, but found very little accom-
mediation for gentlemen, and had to haul
lumber, ETC., for my house and other
buildings, nearly 70 miles, and it took
until the lst of June to get to house.
keeping, hence my experience Is some
what limited, but it is sufficient to dem
onstrate the utter uselessness Of this Is
an agricultural country. l planted q
few acres of sod corn which averaged
only about 10 bushels to the acre. Ny
potatoes were little scrawny things, the
pounds. raised about q wagon load Of
melons but they were little bits of things
only weighing from Is to 70 pounds each.
My cucumber crop was tOlerably fair,
but mistook them for squaslles and
did not discover the mistake until they
began t0 ripen and then they were unfit
| for use. My pumpkin crop was All Gil
tire failure, not that they would not
grow, but the 'tarllal fool cattle would
stick up their noses at them and scamp
er off and eat the prairie grass in pref
erence, which every eastern editor and
college professor knows is not tit to he
eaten by thoroughbred stock and should
he eaten only by the heather buffalo.
BUT THE MOST MISERABLE FAILURE
was in BEANS have often read in east
ern journals that Dakota wouldn't rails
beans, and | ought to have known better;
yet was fool enough to SOW four quarts
Of the white navy variety on fresh brok-
en- soil and harrow them over couple
Of times. and by actual measurement |
only got three bushels and q peek.
have Il lleighbor who used tO farm back
in Ohio on tile shares. lie told me l,Im-
self he worked a farm that was SO lIliy
.lle could crop loth sides, and SO rocky
that sometimes the plow would kick him
over the fence and then kick him two
or three times after he was over. Yet
he was doing well, and might have been
happy had lie only been contented, for
some years, after marketing his crop,
he would find he was not much over
SO behind. lie came with the crowd to
Dakota. and his condition is becoming
more miserable every day. In addition
to other things he sOWed several acres Of
sod wheat that only yielded SO bushels
to the acre. lie now says you don't
catch him being such q fool again. lie
has broke and backset. over lOO acres,
and will SOW it to wheat in the spring,
and really don't believe it will average
Oper 30 bushels to the acre. When !
told him 80, he replied that If 1t did not
It would be very discOuragng. for at
that rate it would take him four or five
years to get rich.