The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1888-02-02
PLANTING IN THE MOON.
4 Few Strange Stories Showing How
1t Results Up in Dakota.
Dakota Cor. Modern HITLER.

4 Few Strange STORIES showing dOW
1t Results Up in Dakota.
Dakota Cor. Modern Miller.
In the east thousands Of people
plant and SOW lin the NOON 10 in.
sure rapid growth, but in Dakota it
is dangerous to plant in the prolific
phase Of the moon, so they are care.
ful to plant at such time that the
moon will exert its influence in hold
Ing the crop back. have known
several disasters to result from neg
lect of this precautlon. One day last
January got lost out in the country,
and while | was toiling through the
tall new grass / saw a man with
nothing on but his suspenders 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 a bound, and fell on all
fours into a snow.drift four feet deep.
He said he and his wife had looked
up the moon business, and had
planted their garden tie evening be-
fore, but happend to get hold Of last
years almanac, and missed it about
four days. The result was that when
he woke up that morning, the beets
that be planted forty feet from the
house had crushed in his cellar walls,
and a squash vine had taken
the door off its hinges, and was
just mopping 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
nightgown and a several agate but.
tons 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 lie was not regu-
lar Dakota thoroughbred sample. If l
really thought 1 would ever become
an average Dakota liar, I would want
to die. This territory must be divided
sometime before the day OF judg'
ment, for how could the Almighty
ever audit its accounts with only one
set of clerical angels at work at
time?
About two weeks ago I saw far.
mer out behind straw stack gather.
ing into a heap a lot Of old bones
and pieces of hides and sprinkling
salt on them. Yesterday I saw this
same man selling fine pair Of steers
to butcher uptown. They were so
tat and had filed up so fast that he
had pieced out their hides with an old
buffalo robe. The granger was q
Sunday school superintendent before
be came to Dakota, but he swore that
these were the same cattle that | had
seen him kicking together 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
few tubs of warm soap-suds on wash
DAYS. He said that he had learned
that the best way to winter 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
are liable to get too fat and round oD
the native grass.
Last fall l stopped at house to
borrow match to light my pipe. The
man told me to 60 right in the gar
den and pick all I wanted. 1 did
not know what be meant at first, but
he went out with me, and-Im al
most afraid yoa'll think me a liar
for telling it-there was about half
an acre growing the finest parlor
matches l ever saw. They were as
thick as hairs on blind mole. He
said he had q poor crop the year be-
fore, because the seed was too good
for such soil. This year he had
mixed his seed matches with about
one-fourth toothpicks, and got
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 tie ground. / noticed
that one Of his wife's legs was about
eight inches longer than the other,
and the man explained it thus: He
said when tkey first came to Dakota
they lived in "dug.out, with nothing
but the ground for q floor, from
which they had to NOW the grass
once day to find the baby. He said
his wife had a 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 I was very thirsty. I
asked a man if the water in that
neighborhood was good. He said:
You see that mule standing over
there % 1 Ireplying in the affirmative.
he said: "Why, three months age
that mule was jack rabbit. |
should say the water was good
He must also have copious sup
ply Of the alkail grass, which grows
II, Ills cnnntrr in abundance