Year: 1868

inclined To drop you line again about oul
prospects here


take it for granted that you would like
to know how well our crops have turned out
here, and how fast we " jay hawkers " are
getting rich. must make the confession on
the start that my observation this season IL
somewhat limited, for it is a fact worthy o.
record that / have not been five miles from
my quarter section within a year. But
viii be candid, and so far as my observation
goes l viii give the full benefit of it. 1 used
to think when | was in old Vermont, in those
good days Of youth now gone forever, that in
that vast, fertile, country known as g out
West farmers could pile up the bushels of
wheat by the million, and that as for corn l.
oats and such like produce there was no end
Of it. But three years of trial here on the
prarics have modified these views somewhat
IF ii is the common lot Of man that he shall
struggle for life with bone and muscle the
world over he needn't think, he can escape
his fate by comingiout west There is Il diff
ference Of course, between buying farm and
MA king one but whoever makes the purchase





farm requires money. to make one requires
time ana toll, self-denal and strenuous per
severance. Then, let him who wants farm
select :, that he can pay in that which he
Ia- the most of, for be assured, o We who
are burning with the Western fever, that al
though farms capable of producing great
crops are sometimes obtained with but little
money. they have their price notwithstand-
ins; and take the world over an easy place to
live. l. seldom found for nothing As for
failures and disappointments, we have here
our full share, but perhaps notany more.


I have seen some beautiful crops of wheat
growing this season; and have seen some
fields Of wheat that looked the very opposite
Of beautiful Some fields yielded twenty
bushels to the acre and some were not worth
harvesting Some fields were destroyed by
the grasshoppcrs, some winter killed and
some were ovcrrun with the chintz bug
Spring wheat escaped the two first evils but
became more ready prey to the last But
those pieces Of wheat that escaped all these
cilamitcS brought forth, some thirty fold,
some sixty, and some a hundred As for rye
and oats they have done all that we could
reasonably expect. Corn in this immediate
vicinity promises an average crop. In some
localities it has been damaged by the drought
and in "a great many localities the failure of
tins crop rs well rs Of wheat must he charged
against the chintz bug


The chintz bug. as you doubtless know, is a
small animal but he can cause a great deal
of anxiety among farmers. He is one of the
most dlmaging foes VIC have to contend with.
lie will rob farmer Of his very bread, and
tlse farmer is powerless to prevent it. | can't
thfk of d good word to say in his behalf.
The gra-shoppers are bad enough, but they
are respectable in comparison with the chintz
bug. If the asshoppers eat up our fall
wheat why we can sow again in the spring,
and. so far Is my experience with them goes,
have found that they have always had the
good sense to leave in the summer in season
lr us to make a crop after they are gone
Rut it is not so with Mr. chintz bug You
may have ever so fair crop of wheat or corn
or other grain growing and if he appears
among it in force it is doomed, no matter how
much you may be depending upon it You
can imagine how tantalizing it is to us after
being to the expense of putting in crop of
wheat, for instance, and being permitted to
Scc il come up and grow finely until it is just
ready t0 form the seed, and we are beginning
to expect a supply of the staff life, and per-
ht;- p little surplus to turn off at harvest to
set us square before the world, to notice some
IL Il. Il
looking yellow and sickly, or perhaps falling
down ~ If it had been long time ripe and
was weary OF waiting for the reaper. We
know NJ once that our enemy is there, but
there is no remedy for this evil. This
I-a common experience of farmers, late years,
NOT only here but all through the wheat grow
ins states except those farthest north


The chintz bug sometimes seems to spring
up spontaneously all over field but generally
they commence at one edge and take a broad
side sweep through it If the grain is young
and tender it viii look behind them as if it
had been scorched by fire. When they have
finished piece of wheat if there is corn near
bv. thev Will strike for that. They never mis-
take their way. This insect is as wonderful
as it Is malicious. Men have strewed hay
-over the ground and set it afire to stop them,
they dug ditches to bar their progress, they
have tried to plow them under as they were
going from one field to another but all these
expedicnts have failed. They are certain to
have their way in the end through sheer force
Of numbers


had field of Chinese Sorghum destroyed
by them this year, and l am tempted to de-
scribe the circumstances l let the ground
to a boy whose parents came into the place
somewhat late in the spring. There was
four acres of it. 1t was forty rods long run
n.ng north and south just east of this
sorghum patch | plowed strip some five
rods wide and left it vacant. East of this
strip had two acres of oats, east of the oats
three acres Of rye, and east of the rye, my
neighb0r, whose field is enclosed with mine =,
had ten of wheat. Well on the very
east edge Of this wheat little before harvest
tine chintz bug. made his appearance Be
fore harvest was over they had crossed this
wheat field, inhcting material damage on
ci winter. and before harvest was over they
could be scraped up by the handfuls, in the
rye or oats. The rye and oats had become
too ripe u suit their tastes, and they made
for the sugar cane, which probably the
point aimed for at the commencement. The
strip Of plowing which left implanted, hop
ing they would not cross, did not delay their