TUB BONANZA FARMS. 33 



vestment the first year, and fifty-five per cent, the 

 second. 



As that was just what I wanted to see and be con- 

 vinced of, if it could be done, I gladly accepted his in- 

 vitation and took a trip upon that road to the points 

 he designated, and some others. After running about 

 seventy-five miles, on the borders of a well wooded 

 stream, we emerged upon an open, treeless, rolling 

 prairie, not unlike the prairies of Kansas ; thence, to 

 Windom, seventy-two miles further, was a succession 

 of prairie billows, with an occasional lakelet and some 

 dozen apparently flourishing towns. 



At Windom I found the proprietor of the Clark 

 House ready to receive me and show several of the 

 large forms and the country in his neighborhood. 

 Mr. Clark, a native of Massachusetts, and there a 

 resident until within a few years, himself owned sev- 

 eral hundred acres of land, and was having it culti- 

 vated, mostly in wheat, by contract. 



The next morning after my arrival we visited the 

 farm of Richard Barden, Esq., about six miles to the 

 eastward of Windom. Mr. Barden is a well known 

 and prominent grain dealer, residing in St. Paul. 

 But we had the good fortune to meet him on the 

 place. He has 2,100 acres of land, 1,200 of which are 

 in wheat, with a small amount in oats and corn. The 

 work of the farm is done by monthly labor, under the 

 direction of a superintendent. On the place is one 

 small neat one story house, the residence of the super- 

 intendent, and two large barns and a long shed. The 

 farm is stocked with a small herd of about twenty-five 

 very fine short horned cows and two bulls, and a stud 



