394 INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 



been discouraged from sowing in the Fall and turned 

 their attention more to Spring wheat. This has occasion- 

 ally been injured by the chinch bug heretofore. Owing to 

 the great drouth this year it was late in coming forward, 

 and in this county, now, there are more bugs than wheat. 

 Fields just in bloom look like ripened grain, and the smell 

 of decaying straw, or dying bugs, is strong enough to 

 knock down an elephant. This will affect the health. — 

 They are now attacking the oats and corn. The uncom- 

 mon strength and rank growth of the latter will prevent 

 any serious injury; but the loss of wheat will be felt 

 severely. This constant failure should induce the people 

 of all this great grass growing region of country, after 

 battling fifteen years with all the ills of life that wheat is 

 heir to, to sit down and count the cost, in days of harvest 

 toil, of all the bushels of wheat ever grown upon these 

 noted "wheat lands of the West." Has the husbandman 

 been paid for his labor, or does he chew the cud of bitter 

 disappointment? He certainly has had to chew many a 

 hard crust of bitter bread from shrunken wheat, and yet 

 he has faith more than equal to a grain of mustard seed, 

 for he still casts his wheat upon the waters trusting it 

 will come after many days. 



Now, my friends, is it not time for you to begin to 

 think that wheat is not the most natural and profitable 

 staple crop of this part of Uncle Sam's big pasture? Does 

 any land in the world produce better beef than the prai- 

 ries of Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and Iowa? Grass, 

 either wild or cultivated, is ever growing luxuriantly upon 

 an inexhaustible soil. Indian corn, the best crop in the 

 world for making beef, rarely, if ever fails. If your 

 winters are longer than in Virginia, yet you can winter 

 stock cheaper than there; because, here grass grows 

 freely and there only by the hardest exertion of cultiva- 

 tion. Your cattle are already far superior to theirs, yet 

 how much might they be improved. 



I wish I could exhibit to you a herd now advertised in 



