1890.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 4. 89 



so low. A good opportunity occurred to sell out, and we 

 concluded to do it, get out of debt, and take what we had 

 left, come West, get a larger farm for nothing, fit it up and 

 begin anew. Good recommendations led us to this locality, 

 of which, however, we had no actual knowledge until we 

 reached here. We did not find it just as we expected. We 

 supposed we could get a location near the railroad and con- 

 venient to town privileges, but nothing could be home- 

 steaded there. Then there was no wood for fuel or timber 

 or fences. We wanted to both keep stock and make crops, 

 and a good barn shelter for them and a house for ourselves. 

 The timber to do this must be brought from the far north 

 through Chicago or St. Paul, and it would all cost more than 

 we could afford. We could not go farther, and disliked to 

 go back, and finally concluded to make the best of the 

 situation as a trial. 



" We got here in July, year before last, and you can see 

 what we have done. We brought a few household o-oods 

 with us, and soon after getting here we bought a pair of 

 horses, a wagon, and all the rig, some tools and two cows. 

 That season we built the house, a part of the barn, set over 

 a piece of sod for spring wheat, and cut and stacked a lot of 

 hay, some for the stock and more to burn. I have now 

 grown two fair crops of wheat of two hundred bushels each, 

 a little corn, and all the prime roots and vegetables we 

 wanted. The cattle have increased, and we are better off 

 than when we lived on this spot in a two-horse wagon. We 

 haven't got everything we want yet, — water, for one thing. 

 You see that pile of dirt out there ? that is where we are 

 digging a well. We are down now forty feet, but five or 

 six feet more will bring it. To this time we have brought 

 all we have had a mile and a half, in barrels, from the sink 

 down yonder. This soil is good, and no mistake, — better, 

 I think, than it was in Ohio. 



" The climate, — Avell, you should live in it a year or two 

 to appreciate it. If it is good, it is good ; but when it gets 

 on a tantrum you had better stand from under. A blizzard 

 struck us last year in May, and we had a terrible one the 

 18th of the following October. Describe a blizzard ? No ; 

 I don't know any words which meet the case. The wind 



