1890.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 4. 91 



there he is in the power of the same ring ; and so the wheat 

 raiser surrenders, and the weighing commences. A bag 

 or two is emptied, when the buyer discovers the wheat is not 

 up to standard, is not well cleaned; he won't have it; the 

 farmer may take it back, or throw off ten per cent for re fan- 

 ning. The farmer yields again from necessity, thinking it 

 is but one load, and it is soon in the machinery ; but 

 ' Cash is short to-day, and we cannot pay now possibly, but 

 will be ready and cash it when the whole crop is delivered.' 

 The farmer goes home a wiser but not a happier man ; 

 but the buyer gets his whole cro}), and nearly all others that 

 are in the vicinity, in kindred ways. That is how and 

 where we get our money. 



"We are comfortable, as comfort goes out here; but 

 yet we have, as you see, no roads ; a month in the fall, 

 six weeks in the spring, and after every great rain, we 

 are mud-bound, however great our necessities. We could 

 not get land nearer the village and depot ; it is ten miles 

 there, and somebody owns the land all the way, and is hold- 

 ing it for a rise. We have no schools, no society, no meet- 

 ings, no doctor ; yet people die out here." 



During this conversation we were sitting on a wagon-seat 

 placed on the ground ; thinking it was taking a gloomy turn, 

 we arose as if to go, but were cordially invited to walk into 

 the house and take a cup of tea, to " strengthen us" for a 

 ten-mile tramp to the village. The little boy ran to the 

 hay stack from which he came on our arrival, and immedi- 

 ately returned bringing some loose hay and a handful of 

 twists. We then discovered that he and his sister had been 

 engaged in twisting and piling hay for use during winter 

 blizzards. Entering the house, we noticed it had really but 

 one room, with two small windows ; there was a bed in one 

 corner, from beneath which peeped a trundle-bed ; there 

 was a large sheet-iron stove, a small table, a chest ; shelves 

 around the walls, on which were pans of milk and an assort- 

 ment of crockery and tin-ware ; in a closet near the stove 

 sundry cooking utensils, four chairs about the room, and all 

 neat and tidy. In a wonderfully short time the burning hay 

 made the steam whistle from the spout of the tea-kettle, and 

 soon "a humming cup of tea" was presented us. That 



