Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1905-10-16
Man, Whose Methods Are Care
less, Usually Lasts Only
Short Time
WILSON'S RURAL OBSERVATIONS
Mon With Large Families and Small
Farms Moving to Cheaper Land = A
Norwegian Farmer and His Exper-
ference In the Fatherland - German
Churches and German Weddings.
Special to Times-Republican.


to note the changes that take place In
the course of year, among the peo-
pie living on the line of rural mail
route. One who spends a day or TWO
ON a route expecting to repeat the visit
in about twelve months, acquires the
habit of specializing on some Of the
that he was not altogether incorrect.
when he finds man beginning farm
ing for himself, careless in his methods
of work, spending q good deal of time
in town with "the boys" to the neglect
of the fields and with an occasional
omission of some of the choring, 1t Is
a pretty safe guess that next year will
see another tenant on that place, the
former one having decided that it
doesn't pay to farm. and moved to town
where he picks up whatever work he can
find. Or where last year lived thrift
ty 80-acre farmer with a couple OF
husky boys large enough to run
team, this year he is likely to find
young IllinoisapN going it alone, the
other having sold out and moved to
Minnesota, Nebraska or Dakota, so that
he could have more land and keep the
family together few years longer.
Age disease, or accident are generally
found to have effected the final change
for one or more, while in the case OF
many others one may expect and does
find little apparent difference in condi-
lions from year to year.
An incident along this line came un-
der my observation about a year ago.
A prosperous Norwegian farmer de-
clared his intention OF selling the farm
and of going back to the land Of his
birth, and buying few acres, where
he was sure he could make more money
and live happier than he could here.
This year he occupies the same house
that he did last year, but under very
different circumstances. He sold out.
went to Norway, returned few weeks
ago. found the house which had been
his former home unoccupied, rented 1t
and is now looking around for farm
to buy. His youthful associates were
all strangers when he returned to them
Their mode OF life wasn't at all what
his memory had pictured it. He could.
MT make money half so fast as he had
done here, so he came back rather the
worse in a financial sense for the ven-
ture, sbut emphatic in his declaration
that Norway isn't lin IT. with Iowa as
a farming country at least.
you will not find many people ut
home out this way today" said a far
mer to me, one day last week. The
Germans are having one of their big
weddings few miles farther on" he
explained. Passing country church
some time afterward, 1 saw so many
teams tied near 1t that it seemed the
house must be crowded, as it doubt
less was. After the ceremony was
over they all went to the residence of
the brides parents. The procession
was nearly mile long, consisting of
double carriages, containing entire
families, single buggies, occupied by
only two persons, who in some cases,
perhaps, were planning for similar
performance at some future time, in
which they should be the principal
actors; some on bicycles, old and
young, large and small, were there.
The members Of three different
churches were invited, no one else re-
ceiving an invitation. One who was
present said that 900 persons attended
the dinner. At infrequent intervals
man was to be seen at work in his
fields. When asked why he was not
at the wedding, his invariable answer
was. that he didn't belong to- their
church.
1t is not every year that the seas
ons of hay-making and corn husking
coalesce as they have done this fall.
On the fifth day of the present
month, man residing near Bristow
was moving meadow that contained
a fair crop of second growth timothy
which was sufficiently matured to
make first class hay. On the 9th inst.
another man, living on route No. l,
from this town, was putting up some
clover and last Wednesday a farmer