St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-09-07

| ptOpiC do lti1O anu lC6ldiitl6FS dt1OtlS
the, settlers. and the Americans come
from many different states. 1t is hard
to establish any social bond in such a
mixed population, yet one and all need
social intercourse, as the thing most es-
sential TO pleasant living, after food,
fuel. shelter and clothing.
| INSANITY. 4
An alarming amount of insanity pc-
| ours IN the new prairie states AMONG
farmers and their wives. In proportion
to their numbers, the Scandinavian set
| tiers furnish the largest contingent 10
the asylums. The reason is not faete
seek. These people came from CHEEKY
| little farm villages. Life in the father
land was hard and toiIsome, but it was
not lonesome. Think for moment how
great the change must be from the
| white-walled, red-roofed village on~a
| Norway ford, with its church aud
SchoOl house, its fishing boats On the
blue inlet, and IFS green mountain walls
| towering aloft to snow fields, to an $50
lated cabin OH Dakota prairie, and say
If it is any wonder that so many Scandi-
naylans lose their mental balance.
REMEDY PROPOSED.
There is but one remedy for the
| dreariness of farm life on the prairies ::
| the isolated farm house must be aban7
doned, and the people must draw to-
| gether In villages. The peasants OF the
Russian steppes did this centuries ago,
and so did the jewellers on the great
Danu6ian plain. In the older parts OF
our prairie states, in Western Mime
sofa, Eastern Nebraska and Kansas, and
| the eastern parts of North and South
| Dakota, titles TO homestead claims are
now nearly all perfected by the required
| five years occupancy of the land.
thus, there is no longer a
necessity that the farmers should
| they cultivate. They might go out
with their teams to till the fields. and
return at evening to village homes. 1t
would be entirely feasible to redivide
the land III regions where it is ali of
| nearly uniform fertility and value. Let
us suppose that the owners of sixteen
| quarter-Section farms, lying IN a body
| and forming four full sections. shoald
agree to remove their homes to the cen
ter of the tract, and run new dividing
| lines radiating to the outer boundaries.
| Each settler would still have 100 acres,
| and no one would live more than mile
| from the remotest limit of his farm.
| The nearer fields could be used for
| stock, and the distant ones for grain.
The homes of the sixteen families would
! surround a village green, where the
| schOOlhOuSe would stand. This could
| be used for church services on
| Sunday, and for various So
| cial purposes OH weekday even
ingS. Such nucleus of population
| would. however, soon possess church
III common with other farmers in the
neIgllborhood who might cling to the
old mode of Isolated living, and there
would probably he store and post
oil Il 70 a
| be developed in such community. The
school would go on winters as we'll as
summers. Friendly attachments would
be formed, and mutual helpfulneSS in
farm and household work would soon
| develop into habit. There would be
nursing i'll illness, and consolation for
those mourning for their dead If the
| plains people were thus brought to-
| gether into hamlets, some home indus
tries might be added that would add to
family incomes, or at least save outlay
The economic weakness of farming in
| the North is the enforced idleneSS of
the farmer and his work animals during
! the long winter.
After threshing and fall blowing are
finished there is nothing to do but to
feed the stock. Four or five months
are unpr0ductive, aud all this time the
| people and the animals are consuming
the fruits Of the working season. Even
the women are not fully occupied in the
care of their little houses and the cook
ing of the simple meals: for the stock
IDgS are no longer knit at home, there is
no hum of the spinning wheel. and the
clothing is bought ready-made at the
stores. If it were possible to restore to
the farm some of the handicraftS that
were carried on in the country thirty or
forty years ago, there would be great
gain in comfort, intelligence and coiI-
| tentment. .,...l 10y. '-,7a.'. s.-st
Now and then. while travelling over
the Dakota pralries, | hear of family
| that sends to market some kind of deli
cate cheese, or makes sauSages of SUI
perior quality that find ready sale IN
the neighboring towns, or preserves
small fruits. These little industries
might be much extended if the farmers
lived In communities where extra labor
could be had when needed. and where
there would be mental attritiun to wear
OFT the rust of the winters Incidence
and stimulate effort on new lines.
SOME ILLUSTRATIONS.
The early French colonists who set
tied along the shores of the Red River
| of the North, in Manitoba, divided the
land into long, narrow strips running
| back from the river banks, and thus
formed continuous village many miles
long. In this they followed the exam
| pie of their ancestors, who first occupied
the shores of the st. Lawrence. 1t was
adherence to this custom, and resistance
to the division of the land into checker
board squares, that brought on the re-
bellion of Riel and his half-breedS on
who occupy the western side of the Red
river just north of the American bound
airy, live in villages. With the exception
OF few peculiar religious communities
in Iowa and Kansas, | know Of no
other Instances where farmers have
established their homes in compact set
tlements. In all our prairie towns.
| however, one finds in winter many
farmers families who have left their
houses and stock to the care of hired
men, and are living i'll rooms over
stores, or in parts of dwellings rented
for temporary occupancy, in order to
| give their children opportunity for
education and to escape the
dreary monotony of isolation. The
! gregarious instinct thus asserts itself,
in spite of habit, and of the inherited
American idea that farmer must live
upon the land he tills, and must have
no near neighborS. This habit will be
hard to break, but l believe il must
| ylel0 some Time 10 The evident adVall-
tages of closer association. | have
known Instances, however, where eff
forts at more neighborly ways of living
have been made Oh a small scale,
and have failed. In the early set
tlement of Dakota, il sometimes hap
pened that four families, taking each
quarter-section homestead, built their
temporary dwellings on the adjacent
corners, so as to be near together; but a
few years later, when they were able to
put up better buildings, they removed
to the opposite sides of their claims,
| giving as reason that their chickens
got mixed up with their neighbors'
fowls. In these instances, should add,
the people were Americans. There is a
crusty individuality about the average
| American farmer, the Inheritance of
generations of isolated living, that does
not take kindly to the familiaritIes of
| close association