The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1908-08-06


of recent years which they now pre-
sent, a trip through this great farm
ing section is revelation. Twenty
years ago | was boy on a frontier
claim in South Dakota A decade ago
| was more or less familiar with the
appearance and condition of this
country Today the whole face of the
earth almost = changed. Hardly. a
familiar landmark remains. Only the
people, or some of them, remain, ana
they are in small minority now.
Where 30 years ago, the frontier
boy could get on his pony and ride for
miles over Nebraskan prairie in al
most any direction without coming
in contact with fence or field, where
ten years ago the vision for miles in
many directions was Un0b5tTucted by
house or tree, today il looks Ike one
vast cultivated field with fences here
and there to mark the dividing line
between the crops, with houses, barns
and winjmiIIs dotting the entire land
scape and cIumps of trees scattered
promiscuously over "a territory that
only a few years back was exposed TO
the severest and coolest of winters
blasts and the hottest and most de-
stTuctive of summers winds.
Riding west from Lincoln through
the state of Nebraska, Senator Milton
remarked that he had never seen such
an immense farm in his life. 1t
stretched for miles in every direction
as far as the eye could reach and we
rode for hours through a section of
continuous cultivation-like one great
big farm, as Senator Milton said with
out break or inteTTUptiou-aG unbrOk-
en- ocean of Verdure that disappeared
only where ii met the skyline i'll a
far off horizon 1t is a beautiful coun
try, this farming section of the west
| 1t is also a big country And the sum-
mer days here correspond In length
with the bigness of the country and
done at this particular time OF the
year.
The sun here gets up early and sets
| late. In fact, you hardly go to bed be
| fore It is time TO get up again 1t
was Miss Douglass, sister of Mrs
BToward, both of whom, by the way,
were charming members of the Flor
| ida Denver party, who remarked thai
she thought the sun worked overtime
out here. One thing is certain: 1t
| doesn't carry any eight-hour union
card and the people who dig in the
soil for their sUstenance and wealth,
do not observe union hours. During
/ the long days of summer ii gets light
shortly after o'clock in the morning
and a man can work in the fields until
almost nine at night if he so desires.
But there is q reason for all this.
and the boys and girls who study
geography, with its allied branches,
no doubt now discuss the matter in
their school rooms As everyone
| knows, the further you get from the
equator. north or south. the greater
the variation in the length of the days
| during the different seasons of the
year. The movement of the earth in
| the solar system makes it so. The
summer days of the far north, or the
| far south, are long and the winter
days are coTTespCndingly short, while
near the equator they remain about
| the same. Now. if it were rot for
this variation, the various crops and
vegetables grown in the different
| ATTITUDES could not be matuTed- The
| wheat and oats and corn and irish
| potatoes of the northern latHudes
have only a short season in which TO
| grow-a few months at the most They
consequently require long, warm days
| in which to make their growth IL
| the summer days were as short here
/
crops would not be near ripened before
the autumn frosts come. In Florida
we can put I'D with short days be
cause We have a long summer in
which TO grow the crops. Otherwise
we would either have TO have longer
days or change our kind of crops. But
| all this is straying from the subject
| said this great western country
| had changed So it has. Conditions,
climate, rainfall, everything almost,
! has changed Formerly the town peo-
| pie were the ones who were making
what money was being made. Today,
| the farmer Is mkaing it. Fifteen
years ago, the farmer was signing
notes and mortgages Today he signs
/ checks. Then the rainfall of the Da-
kotaS was from Is TO 16 inches per
year Now, they tell me, it is %
| inches. Then, with less production
| were low. Today, with the biggest
production in the history of the world,
| prices are at top notch. Then the
| farmers travelled miles to the post Of
/ fee once every week, OF two weeks,
| after their mail Today they are
served daily by the rural delivery and
nearly every farmer has a telephone
in his house Then all of the farm
| work was performed by the hardest
| kind OF physical labor. Now i'm
proved machinery has eliminated
much of the extreme toll and drudg
cry Of farm life.
1 spent a few days at Mitchell.
South Dakota hired team, and drove
down among the wheat and corn
~