DISCOURAGEMENT. 553 



Dwelling houses were made from the sods turned up in break- 

 ing the land ; barns also were composed of the same material, 

 or else were posts covered with hay or straw, timber being 

 scarce, and only to be found along some water course. The 

 soil was rich from the ashes of the burned prairies, and for 

 years yielded abundantly of all kinds of grain. But when 

 this grain was raised, the absence of machines to thresh it, 

 offered poor inducements to break up the soil in large tracts. 

 Such were the surroundings in the early settlement of Rock 

 county, Minnesota, though, but a counterpart, I presume, of all 

 frontier settlements. No locality, however, even though 

 remote, having a fertile soil, with a healthy climate, will long 

 remain isolated. 



The census of 1870 gave a population in the county of 

 but one hundred and thirty-eight persons. Soon after this 

 year, immigration began pouring in, and to-day the county 

 polls over eight hundred votes, which, estimated in accordance 

 with the usual ratio of five inhabitants to a voter, gives 

 us a population of over four thousand. 



DISCOURAGEMENTS. 



Our railroad facilities are good. The Saint Paul & Sioux 

 City railroad built a branch from its main line through the 

 county in 187G, since which time the country adjacent has 

 rapidly improved, and immense quantities of grain have been 

 raised, despite the many drawbacks which have come upon us. 

 The grasshoppers were succeeded by a blight in 1878, caused 

 by excessive hot weather in July, just as the wheat was 

 passing from the milky to the doughy state. Had it been 

 delayed for only ten days, the largest yield ever known 

 would have been the result. We were not discouraged, and 

 the Spring of 1879 saw an increase in the number of acres 

 sown of one hundred per cent. The yield has not been satis- 

 factory, and I am satisfied that the failure was due to two 

 causes. First, the inability to properly prepare so much 

 ground, and second, owing to the seed of the previous year 

 not having been ripened, and in consequence not giving a 



