EARLY MANHOOD IN THE MIDDLE WEST 131 



his return home, after caring for the livestock 

 and milking the cow before he seated himself at 

 the family board groaning with plenty he 

 spitefully threw a liberal supply of corn on the fire 

 and said: "Damn you, burn, You ain't worth 

 anything at the station or anywhere else, so I'll 

 keep warm until I enlist and then I suppose the 

 Johnnies will make it warm enough for me with- 

 out burning corn ! " 



Those who now occupy those fertile prairies, 

 dotted with groves and orchards amid which are 

 comfortable, well-provisioned homes, can hardly 

 realize the heroism and suffering incident to the 

 settlement of that part of the Middle West which 

 was reclaimed between 1850 and 1863. Produc- 

 tion had so far outrun consumption and popula- 

 tion as to make many farm products unsalable at 

 any price. No one appeared to understand the 

 trouble much less offered a remedy for it. The 

 struggle for a home on the prairies was, I can but 

 think, a far more severe one than that which had 

 been waged by my ancestors in the wooded dis- 

 tricts of Central New York at the beginning of the 

 Nineteenth Century. 



The corn cribbed at the station was not shipped 

 for many months after it was produced but was 



