Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1915-08-25
THE FARMS BY THE SIDE OF
.. THE ROAD.
(By e. NJ Carr -

.t& THE ROAD.
(By E. M. Carr .-
st Paul Mimi, August 21st, 1916.
bEshars Democrat, -...
3 Manchester, Iowa. - E., r.
a few words about the farms and
\ crops along the line OF the c. M.
rs st. P. Ry. between Oneida and
st. Paul may be Of interest ito some
Eof = g readers of the Democrat.
It is about $50 miles from Manches.
\ ter to st. Paul by the milwaukee,
y line and at the present time there
ss;ts an unusual sameness in the ap-
spearance OF nearly everything ad-
jacent to the southern two7thirds of
the route. The grain shocks still
remaining in the fields are mute Wit
nesses TO the abundance Of. this
years small grain crop. And the
h pastures and meadows never looked
( better in the latter part of August
than they do this year. But the
corn srn crop Well, unless the weather
IS exceedingly favorable for the next
/; six weeks, there Will net be more
n than half crop In the section of
the country about which am writ
ing. The corn in Delaware county
will average better than the corn i'm
the northern tier OF counties in Iowa
and the counties OF Southern Mime
sofa. but that is not saying very
much for the Delaware county crop.
For more than a score of years the
writer 4 has travelled through the
\ country between Manchester and St.
Paul during the months OF July or
August and never until this year
has he seen the corn crop look as
well in any part cx Minnesota as it
did In Iowa. This year, however,
is am exception. Commencing about
rs or 50 miles south of St. Paul the
corn fieldg begin to look better and
more uniform. The corn in this Sec
ton OF the country is just as good
ON the Low lands as it is en- the dry
Lands, which plainly shows that up
here they have not been afflicted
with an excessive rain fall this sea-
SON. s=ti@@Er
We have travelled all day Through
splendid farms and past commodi--
GUS and well appointed farm build-
ings. The farmers Of the upper
/ Mississippi river valley are progress
sdve and prosperous; they are the
lords Of creation y, they are the most
independent body OF people in al
tina land !; they know no s1lperiors or.
Interiors they have no wants that
their own heads and hands can not
supply. And there is another
change in this country, about which
Il ann writing, that becomes more no.
ticable each year. When the writ
'er first drove through northern
Iowa and southern Minnesota, it was,
generally speaking, a level treeless
Rlnln. IN the French language prair-
lie means meadow, and the French,
who were its first white settlers,
were more than Justified in calling
IT great meadow. 500 But tire land
sqape looks more like a woodland
than meadow at the present time.
3Aa.tifi cia1 groves and orchards now
Geck the landscape and ait a dis
lance OF few miles hide from view
the spacious fields Of cultivated land.
EARLY tomorrow forenoon we ex-
pect to cross the Missouri river at
Mobrid ge That is where the West
now begins. It began hundreds CT
miles east Of there only few years
ago. %~. ~
We expect to see the sights at
the San Francisco exposition, and
enjoy goodly part of our vacation
1mtbibing the ozone of the mountains
and RETURN home with increased en-