IN DAKOTA. 23 
help, which I procured at $1.50 per acre, got it all 
done but about ten acres. before the winter set in. I 
had been told that backsetting would not pay, but all 
my experience proves this to be a mistake. The 
more thoroughly the ground is prepared in the fall, 
the better the crops will be. There is no exception 
to this rule. 
| WINTER'S WORK. 
During the winter I hired a carpenter for about ten 
days, and with his help built a “lean to” alongside 
my house for use as asummer kitchen, and a small 
milk house by the well. The latter was simply a 
cheap frame with a good roof, and boarded up with 
the cheapest lumber. In the spring I sodded the 
sides, and my wife planted some rapid-growing vines 
all around it, and early in the summer it was com- 
pletely covered with vines and flowers, and even in the 
hottest weather was delightfully cool inside. 
I also built another granary, to be ready for the 
crops | hoped to raise the coming year. And there 
were a good many /vttle things that I did to make the 
house and its surroundings pleasant and convenient. 
There are literally thousands of such things that any 
man with a hammer, saw and plane, a little lumber 
and some nails, can do, if he will, which will add 
largely to the comfort and convenience of his family, 
and the beauty of his home. There are many de- 
lightful days here during the winter, when such 
work can be done, and I have no patience with the 
man who will lazily lie around his house during the 
