Year: 1871

]


PUBLIC DOMAIN,


Unchanged as /. came from the


hands of the Creator and the govern


ment surveyor. There Is something


grand in the idea of government


land-a feeling that one is indeed the


heir of Nature, add that the right


to cultivate these acres is no less a


GOd-given birthright than privilege


granted by the government. There


il, too, realization Of a more imme-


diate dependence on the government,


when choosing a farm upon the estate


of our bOuntiful Uncle Sam, than


there is in voting, or cheering at a
Fourth of July celebration. And


there it was-a beautiful variation Of


upland, prairie, valley and stream /;


but with a scarcity of timber, that TO


one not accustomed to prairie life,


would make the country seem unin-


habitable. Absence of timber don't


trouble Dakota settlers. They do not


fence even their grain fields, having


n herd law TO protect them; ana as
for building materials, il they don't


use the sOds and hay they have at


hand. 10 build with, they have TO


haul their material from the Missouri,


where they can get it at about the
same rates as with Us in Ohio.


Government land is divided, in sur
Z veying, into townships of six miles
square, each township into thirty-six
sections of a mile square, the sections
into quarters of one hundred and
sixty acres, and the quarters into other
/ quarters, or forties. The sections are


marked by the surveyor by a MOUND
and stake at the corners, and hall
way along the sides. Three Of the
! corners OF every quarter are, there
, fore, marked, but the fOrries can only
I he found by surveying. We may Sc


lect any OF the land, except sec
tions number sixteen and thirty-siX,
I which are reserved for school pur-
1 poses. The claim selected must be in
/ fOrties. in any shape you choose
square, T, L or Z-shaped, or a mile in
. length and but a forty in breadth
only the forty-acre pieces must join
each other.


Some one has said that a farm is
I like a wife in this respect, that every
man is duty bound to think his own
the best. Could not the resemblance
, be carried further, and the selection
I of the one be likehed to the choosing
of the other, with the slight excep-
I ton that the power 10 possess, as well


as desire, is not the same in both
Z cases? This claim, for instance, that
{ is highly recommended TO you, has
I little attractive in its appearance; 1t
I is rough, stony, dry, barren. But
7 you are told there will almost GER
tainly be a railroad crossing here, and
then, as a matter OF course, a town
perhaps a county seat. This is the
prospective heiress with wealthy papa
or bachelor uncle. Remember that in
either case you are choosing for keep,
and pass on to this claim that has
a diversifieation of bluff and valley,
and a rather pretty view Of the coun-
try up and down the stream. II you
look closely, however, YOU will notice
that the upland is gravely. and the
grass Ia sure indication of fertility or
barrenness) is thin and scattering.
The stream, too, which first drew
your attention. y1u find 10 be but
wet weather affair, going dry when
you need il most, and the bottom
land bOggy. Is this not the exquisite
OF made-up life ?-the maiden who is
not altogether what she seems? But
here is a claim you. are told may be
had, as the person who first settled on
it has been gone so long that his title
to il is forfeited. There is n little
breaking and other improvements on
il, and il Is otherwise a desirable piece
of land. Any one who has expert
enced the delightful sensation felt
when the girl he has been paying his /
addresses to, was recOnciled to her old I
beau, OF the widow whose smile is the /
life of his hopes, has a husband re- /
turn-EnOch Arden like-as from the 4
dead. need not be warned not to med I
die with this quarter. No; we do 1
not purpose putting ourselves at the /
mercy Of some indignant pre-empter I
-YhO-may yet come back to claim his I
land, and use frontier law TO eject /
US therefrom. We prefer land that
has not been tampered with, aud /
to which no one has a title but that /
benevolent gentleman, Uncle Samuel. (
And we find ito us, a beautiful /
combination Of upland and valley, |
stream and hillside, with a trifle OF
timber clustering at the foot of the 4
bluff and fringing the stream. It
may not be attractive to others, but .
we easily persuade ourselves that il
was just our ideal of a prairie farm
from the first; and the number Of
claims for our little colony are sur
yeyed and taken.


What remains to do, before we can
have a clear title to them, is, il they
are hOmesteaded, to pay fee Of four
teen dollars at the land Office, live on
the land five years, and the govern
ment gives a deed. If they are pre-
empted, on payment Of two dollars
we may live on the land six mOnthsl
and then buy Of the government at a
price of less than a dollar per acre, If
land scrip is used in payment. Some
of US think one hundred and sixty
acres all they would care for, and PIE
fer to have the balance of their money
in stock or implements. These take
hOmesteads. Others relish the i,lea
of q large estate at such light cost.
and pre-empt. After they have lived
on their claims six months they ex-
pect to pay for them, and then home
stead, for one cannot hold land under
pre-emptiOn and homestead at the
same time. By taking the pre-emp-
tiOn first, and afterwards homestead
ing, they obtain three hundred and
twenty acres of land for less than
SlT5, including fees at the land Office.


Few sections Of country offer the
inducements to stock raising, or dai-
rying, especially, under the cheese
factory system, that the Vermillion
Valley does. Cheese must sell here,
from the factory. for at least the
freight more than they are worth
in the East. StabliLg is easily and
made by digging in the bluff
and roofing with hay, or of a frame OF
poles covered with hay or straw. The
grass is sweet and nutritious, and dai-
rymen tell me their cattle do as well,
and the milk, both in quality anu
equal TO that from tame
grasses.


such claims as can now be taken,
uplsnd prairie for grain
growing and bottom land for hay,
with such water as the VermilliOn
offers, leaves little to be desired in the
way Of stock farm.


DAKOTA As IT Is.


1t is the opinion of most persons
who have seen southeastern Dakota,
that few parts of the yet unsettled
West excel it. Some may in one par
and some in another; but if
we consider the purity of the atmOs-
phere, the almost universal fertility
of the soil and its adaptation to almost
all grains and branches Of agriculture,
- ,I-o HON ,,aor n the aonfar and