The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1888-03-01
PLANTING GIN THE MOON,
A Few Strange Stories Showing How i:
Results Up in Dakota.

In the east thousands of people
plant and sow ''in the moon" to insure
rapid growth. but in Dakota it is dan
gerous to plant in the prolific phase OF
the moon, so they are careful to plant
at such time that the moon will exert
its influence in holding the crop back.
| have known several disasters TO re-
suit from neglect of this precaution.
One day last January got lost out in
the country, and while was toiling
through the tall, new grass l saw
man with nothing on but his suspend
ers tearing along like mad. He stopped
just long enough to tell me what was
up, and off he went again for the Iowa
side of the Sioux river, which he cleared
at bound. and fell on all tours into
a snowdrift four feet deep. He said
he and his wife had looked up the
moon business, and had planted their
garden the evening before, but hap
pened to get hold of last years alma
nae, and missed it about four days.
The result was that when he woke up
that morning the beets that he planted
forty feet from the house had crushed
in his cellar walls, and a squash-vine
udu IdhCn llc QOOI III us llluScS, duu
was just hopping the floor with all
there was left of his hired man, whom
it had snatched out of bed in the attic.
He didn't know where his wife was,
but he saw some shreds of a night
gown and several agate buttons in the
front yard as he fed He said there
were pea-vines after him, with pods on
em large enough for phantom boats;
and one could see by the way he was
dressed that if he was a liar at all he
was not regular Dakota thorough
bred sample. If l really thought /
would ever become an average Dakota
liar | would want to die. This terri
tory must be divided some time before
the day of judgment, for how could
the Almighty ever audit its accounts
with only one set of clerical angels at
work at time?
About two weeks ago / saw farmer
out behind a straw-stack gathering
into heap lot of old bones and
pieces of hides and sprinkling salt on
them. Yesterday | saw this same man
selling fine pair of steers to butch
er up town. They were so fat and
filled up so fast that he had peced out
their hid with an old buffalo robe
This granger was q Sunday-school
superintendent before he came to Da-
kota, but he swore that these were the
same cattle had seen him kicking to-
gether behind the straw-stack. He
said all that they had eaten was some
wild grass that had sprung up in his
door yard, where the women had
thrown out a few tubs of warm soap
suds on wash days. He said that ne
had learned that the best way to Win
ter stock in Dakota was to knock them
all to pieces in the fall and set them
up again as wanted, otherwise, unless
we get blizzard every week, they
were liable to get too fat and round on
the native grass.
Last fall stopped at house to bor-
row match to light my pipe. The
man told me to 90 right out in the gar
den and pick all [ wanted. | did not
know what he meant at first, but he
went out with me, and-Im almost
afraid you'll think | am liar for tell
ing it-there was about half an acre
growing the finest parlor matches |
ever saw. Tlfey were as thick as hairs
on blind mole. He said he had a
poor crop the year before, because the
seed was too good for such soil. This
gear he had mixed his seed matches
with about one-fourth tooth-picks, and
got a splendid yield.
went out after breakfast and saw
the man blowing up hubbard squashes
with gunpowder. They were too
large to be moved, and the farmer
wanted the ground. | noticed that
one of his wife's legs was about eight
inches longer TRAN the other, and the
man explained 1t thus: He said when
they first came to Dakota they lived in
"dug-out," with nothing but the
ground for floor, from which they
had to NOW the grass once day to
find the baby. He said his wife had
habit of sitting with one leg over the
other knee, and the leg that remained
in contact with the soil got such
start that the other could never catch
up.
One day | was very thirsty. l asked
a man if the water in that neighbour
hood was good. He said: You see
that mule standing over there?" re-
plying in the affirmative, he said:
why, three months ago that mule
was jack-rabbit. | should say the
water was good"
He must also have taken a copious
supply of the alkali grass, which grows
in this country in Dakota
Cor. Modern Miller.