St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1892-05-19
for ti1r Farm
THE KANSAS FARMER.
An Experience as Related by the Farm
er'S Wife.

HeOple Live Is forthcoming. lIilSI
they are to be sketched by the prac-
ticed pencils of journalists who will
make a pleasant outing of the duty
of "takin' notes. and touch off the
amusing bits of realism in
graphic way. Reasons why the
Western farmer does not make a liv-
ing would suppose, be too sordid
and stupid subject to suit your
readers. Nevertheless it is a ques-
ton of absorbing interest to thous-
sands: How to live when one is not
making a living"
used to think, with the zeal of
young crusader in the cause of
temperance, that the traffic in strong
drink was the most potent factor in
the manufacture of misery and ruined
homes To exclude it from a state
seemed to me equivalent to Danish
ing the primal principle of evil. The
commonwealth that should enact
and enforce prohibition would,
thought, carry an insurance policy
that it should be rich, prosperous,
happy, and free.
| have lived long enough in the
prohibition state of Kansas to learn
that sober, industrious, and pious
people go forth from homes they
value next to their own existence
go forth broken in spirit, in health,
and in fortune-because of the evil
spirit, greed of gain.
Successful men are prone to set
down all business failures to the prob
ability that the man is a failure
Either he was indolent, or too easily
imposed upon, or he lacked judg-
ment. l should be willing to allow
that our own sagacity had been
ruefully a t ault, were ours an isolated
case. But it is forcible fact that
hereabouts the men who toiled the
hardest to change raw prairie a So
an acre into fertile fields and orchards
and inclosed pastures at $40 to $50
per acre, devoting to the task a
priceless heritage of youth, health,
and strength, are no longer the own
ers of the homesteads which yet bear
the stamp of their individuality. To
give them up has been to part also
with a good deal of CHEEKY hopeful
ness, energy, ay, and courage alsol
l could take you for drive along
any section line, north, south, east,
or west, and point out farms that l
" nave OSCiI, ulIlll lCCCIl(-
ly, occupied by the men who home
steaded, or were al any rate the first
occupiers and cultivators, though
they bought railway land from the
the Union Pacific Such farms are
now, for the main part, the property
of nOn-reS1dentS or OF mortgage |
companies, and are rented from year
to year. The property would be less
liable to d1lapidatiOn if 1t were
leased for a term of years; but, as it |
is held for sale at any time whenever |
the purchaser appears, there are no
leases in vogue.
We live three miles from the post |
office. In going thither we pass
seven farms on the east side of the |
road (as we travel northwards) and |
five on the west side. Only two of |
the first owners remain Of the seven,
and of the five only one. Five of the
nine have gone within less than two
years. Some are working for wages
in cities, and some have lost all by
foreclosures and owe too much to
leave with their creditors permission
Now, they were not tickle nor easily |
discouraged they were strictly sober,
caring not for tobacco or the circus
or cards. They set great store by |
their homes, and liked their EMPLOY
ment but they could not keep up /
any longer against the nameless foe
which seemed to thwart their every
effort to succeed.
The late revered bishop of Kansas
was accustomed fully to indOrse the
dictum of the Episcopal clergyman
formerly resident in this parish. He
would affim that he had lived in sew
eral of the states before coming to
this part, but had never met with
parish where the people. as whole,
were such uniformly good citizens
and neighbors. These removals
have occasioned district loss to
this community. They are missed
in church work, as teachers and
pupils in the schools, and in social
life Those who rent the farms, hav-
ing no settled anchorage, take but
languid interest III any such things.
For ourselves, we can truly declare
we value our prairie home chiefly for
our children's sake. We were cheer
fully willing to use the most stringent
economy and to dispense with many
necessaries in order to retain our
farm. but II mas not DeeH possible.
In the first place, we sunk our capital
in opening up high prairie farm of
$50 acres. We had very plain little
four-roOmed house, large barn, and
expected to get our returns by wheat
growing. The crop has many insect
pests, and involves serious expenses
for labor. machinery, and threshing.
These expenses seemed to drive the
profits to vanishing point, so we
tried the experiment of one hundred
acres. To avoid the local buyers
commission we shipped a carload to
Kansas City direct, where it brought
only sixty-six cents per bushel, and,