The Warner weekly sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1885, 1884-07-04
Farming in the New xorthwsss.


Mr.. J. w. BoxeII. Of Valley Greek,
Washington county. Minnesota. who is
an experienced and successful farmer,
writes to the New York Tribune: The
other day an honest Swede woman said
to me: "This is a happy country;
everybody has enough to eat" 1t is a
happy country. This is the oldest and
most thickly settled part Of Minnesota.
Society is mixed; there are several nat
ionalities. Many have small farms not
all are rich; but poverty is unknown.
All have warm houses, warm clothing,
and enough to eat. The climate com
pels thrift. Meat is eaten every meal as
a rule. Potatoes are on the table at
breakfast, dinner and supper and wheat
bread always, and coffee or tea. l speak
especially, of the least rich. The child
rem go to school warmly and decently
dressed without exception.
/ have been thirty years, engaged in
farming, gardening and fruit-growing
/ came from latitude 40 this is near the
45th parallel. Everybody knows we
! raise wheat, and have cold winters.
| Some other things are not so well
known, perhaps / know men north of
Minneapolis, each of whom plants from
ten to fifteen acres of watermelons
every year. / could give quite a list Of
men near st. Paul, every one of whom
raises and markets tons of grapes every
year-Concords, Delawares and many
other varieties. have sold over 81, 900
worth of raspberries in a single season.
My crop of this fruit has never failed
but once; then the winter was too open.
/ have sold apples every year for ten
years. Our large apples are the "iron-
clad" varieties, Duchess of Oldenburg
and Wealthy ranking first.
Corn is On important crop here, and
we raise dent exclusively for a Geld
crop. The past season, owing to the
cool summer and early frost, the corn
crop was a failure. The man who
broke the first prairie in Minnesota
never knew anything like it. He is my
neighbor, and lives. The average tenn
perature for the summe months, for
the past thirty five years was 70.6 de-
grees. / have raised and marketed
sweet potatoes of fair quality, and in
considerable quantities. | have raised
well-ripened peanuts several bushels,
/ did not raise them for profit. Toma-
toes were not at all killed by the frost
of last September. They sold at TWEEN
ty-fve cents a bushel, retail, in the st.
Paul market till the first of October. i
generally have tomatoes in abundance
till the middle of October, or later.
/ nearly always plant my first sweet
corn the last week in April. ] have
planted it earlier; and / never had good
seed to rot in the ground, and never
had it seriously injured by frost but
once, and then it came on and made a
moderate crop. / have sold sweet corn
by the wagon load from the 9th to the
middle of July; and in October. Ihave
had green corr for the table July A, and
summer squashes, also, from seed plant
ed in the open ground. Last year.
luckily, 7 had no sorghum. | raised it
five years In succession, on the same
ground, without manure, and never had
it injured by frost. The blades were
killed once or twice before / cut it, but
no harm was done. The syrup and
seed always paid me. Ny best crop
was 216 gallons of good syrup from ex-
actly one acre. i have mentioned q
few of the products Of more southern
regions that do well here.
Dakota is our younger sister and lies
right by the side of Minnesota and ex-
tends some further south, but no further
north. The great farming regions Of
Minnesota ard IKE greater part of the
vast territory of Dakota are just as
near alike as possible, in climate, soil
and productions. There are churches
in the villages, and there are school
houses in the country in which the peo-
pie have preaching at present, but the
maa who has the idea Of God in his
brain will find affairs for worship all
ovefsthe prairie. TO melt seems liter
ally q Garden of the Lord" Icann OF
describe the feeling Of exhilaration and
elevation / felt while driving rapidly
over the long, rolling swells Of bound
less prairie. 1t is not all level, but 1T
is level enough. There are some beau
tiful streams, and the natural roads are
the finest / ever saw
Donot take a family to Dakota unless
you nave some money ; and do net take
a homestead to far from neighbors.
Close settlements are best, for society,
for schools, and for help in time Of sick
ness and trouble. Don't let winter
catch you u~nprepared for til it may set
in earlier than you expect. The fact
that q poor family can get along fora
while in q sod house, and with hay for
fuel, is q great thing, Many good wom-
en- have cooked and baked all winter
with hay. A large box, full Of the rolls,
or twists, stands neal the stoye, and
neat people do not have much litter.