Proceedings of the Farmers' Club. 539 



maps of public lands in the United States land office there, he fixed 

 upon York county as affording desirable homesteads. He therefore 

 walked on thither, seventy miles further. Having picked out the 

 farm which suited him best of all those still vacant, he returned to 

 the land office and filed his claim to it September 2, 1871, paying 

 fourteen dollars in fees. His homestead consists of eighty acres. 

 Repairing again to the farm of his choice, he made sundry improve- 

 ments for a month. He made him a dug-out, and stacked twelve tons 

 of wild hay. His purse was now empty, save one dollar and a half ; 

 but he walked to Lincoln and thence home, as he had walked thither, 

 daily laying behind him about twenty miles. Soon after reaching 

 home, at the end of a nine hundred mile walk, he learned that his 

 hay-stacks had been burned by a prairie fire. Having no plow, he 

 had been unable to make a " fire-break " around them. But through- 

 out all, he seems to have lost nothing of heart or hope, but to have 

 remained as jolly as Mark Tapley. Through all winter he worked at 

 his trade, sometimes beginning his toil at two o'clock in the morning. 

 Thus he finished three good wagons ; two he traded off, each for a 

 mule and harness. Then putting on board his wife, a barrel of pork, 

 a harrow, all of wood, made by himself, and some other needments, 

 he drove westward by the same route which he had last fall traversed 

 on foot. He took with him three other Scandinavian homestead- 

 hunters, each with a wagon and family in it. Nills Nysten is sixty- 

 two years old, though he declares himself only forty — when just 

 shaved. His example shows what others can do. 



Adjourned. 



April 16, 1872. 



Nathan C. Ely, Esq., in the chair; Mr. John W. Chambers, Secretary. 



What Yariety of Potatoes to Plant. 

 Gerard C. Brown, Croton Falls, N. Y., wrote as follows — The 

 query " What shall I plant ? " reaching me constantly from potato- 

 growers in all parts of the country, has led me to endeavor to com- 

 municate with these inquirers through the medium of the Farmers' 

 Club. As I have quite exceptional opportunities for learning results 

 in various sections, I have the more confidence in the conclusions to 

 which these facts and my own experience have led me. I do not sup- 

 pose that the same advice will apply to all, but I will suggest a few 

 of the worthy and reliable varieties for the greater part of our potato 



