430 BOARD OF AGEICULTURE. 



EXPENDITURES. 



Delegates to State meeting $15 00 



Printing year booli 135 00 



Premiums to Society 20' 85 



Miscellaneous bills 87 4!) 



Delegates to midsummer meeting 10 00 



$268 34 



MRS. LIZZIE C. ROYER, 

 Valentine, Indiana. Secretary. 



PIONEER HOUSEKEEPING AND OTHER MATTERS. 



BY EMIL BEELER FLETCHER. 



[A paper read at the Marion County Agricultural and Horticultural Society's meet- 

 ing, July 13,1901, held at Brookside Park, near Brightwood.] 



It has been mutually agreed between Neighbor Cotton and myself 

 that if he trespasses upon my domain, or I upon his, in our reminis- 

 cences, we are not to adopt modern methods and apply for a divorce 

 or other legal redress, but ratlier exchasgsr TX2.''es and labors as did 

 Darby and his wife, and that will soon settle all questions. 



You have assigned to me the not unpleasant task of telling what I 

 know of matters— "all of which I saw, and part of which I was;" and 

 while I shall not magnify, as some have done, the hardships of those 

 days, to gain the sympathies of the youth of to-day, I hope to not detract 

 from the rosy tints they discern surrounding the sunset hours of that 

 hardy generation who toiled that we might enjoy. 



The distant mountain range with its curves of beauty marked against 

 the backgi-ound of clear sky, clothed as with a velvet garb through the 

 influences of light and shadow and atmospheric effect, is, to the inno- 

 cent, ignorant admirer, a veritable Beulah-land; and the snow-capped 

 summits seem to be the angel wings that make short the journey to the 

 heaven desired of all. To him, however, who has with grub-stake pros- 

 pected that apparant fairyland in search of precious metals— the enchant- 

 ment of distance fails to efface memory or even soften the realities of 

 the situation. He knows full well the obstacles of the rugged route 

 from the plain to the snow line. He sees again the endless catiyons with 

 impassable walls— the dangerous cliffs that fringe the bit of mesa land— 



