386 
AMEEIOAl^ AGEIOULTUKIST. 
[September, 
\ 
Editorial Correspondence. 
From tlie Nortli-west. 
Abundant Harvests. —The golden horn of 
plenty is pouring in its richest treasures upon our 
land. Wherever we have gone, through Ohio, 
Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and 
Dakota, we have found the tillers of the soil happy in 
the prospects of luxurious crops. Here corn has suffered 
from the drouth ; there hail stones as large as walnuts. 
have cut down the standing corn, or a sweeping cyclone 
has leveled entire fields of grain. But these are excep¬ 
tional cases. An enormous wheat crop will be harvest¬ 
ed, and if no untimely frosts, as last year, overtake the 
North-western cornfields, they will give satisfactory 
yields. While those engaged in commercial pursuits 
have complained, and are still complaining, of the 
general dullness, the tillers of the soil are apparently 
vouchsafed overflowing granaries. 
No “Emigratiou Boom” tills Year.— 
The wonderful emigration to Western Minnesota and 
Dakota during 1882 and 1883 apparently spent itself last 
autumn, and the remarkable scenes which a year ago 
quite took one’s breath away, are not witnessed this 
year. The cold winter, “ hard times back East,” and the 
failure of the railroads to advertise the country as much 
as usual, are among the various causes assigned by the 
settlers for this halt in emigration, when there is still 
much land to be had. But we infer, as above stated, 
that the boom in this direction spent itself for the time 
being ; and now during 1884 there Is considerablemigra- 
tion to Oregon, Washington Territory, and to Western 
Nebraska. Notwithstanding this lull Dakotaward, there 
has been a steady, healthy grow’th during the present 
spring and summer, and we shall subsequently describe 
in detail the various villages, scattered along the net¬ 
work of the Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad System, hav¬ 
ing last autumn visited and described those on the lines 
of the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad, as far west as 
the Indian Reservations, beyond the Missouri River. 
Bfew Settlers Keturnliig. —Ten years ago, when 
the dazjiliiig stories told in the circulars of some of tlie 
railway companies, and elsewhere, allured many people 
from the older States to the Far West, without sufficient 
funds, great suffering ensued. Then scorching drouths 
and grass-lioppers sent thousands of them back to their 
old homes, broken in spirit and poverty-stricken. Now, 
with a better knowledge of what is required, people arc 
not disposed to migrate to the North-west without suffici¬ 
ent funds to tide them over the first year or two. Further¬ 
more, there have been but few drontlis and fewer grass¬ 
hoppers these later years ; but yet there are those wlio 
have returned because of the severe hardships they ex¬ 
perienced during last winter in Dakota. Those must 
have indeed been trying times for the settlers in some 
portions of this vitst territory, when the snow at times 
completely enshrouded their rude dwellings. But these 
experiences and vicissitudes the settler must expect. 
If he is not willing to encounter them with a stout, brave 
heart, he had better not go West. If, however, full of 
resolution, pluck, and determination, he goes to the 
front and surmounts these earlier difficulties, a few years, 
at the longest, will place him at a point of prosperity 
which perhaps he could not have attained in a life¬ 
time further Bast. Push and patience be your motto. 
Too RIucli Free Fand for Individual 
Settlers.—”1 think it'would be much better if the 
Government gave but one hundred and sixty acres of 
land to every settler,” said Mr. E. Martin, an old sub¬ 
scriber to th.Q American Agriculturist, living near Man¬ 
chester, Iowa, as we rode eastward from Mitchell, 
Dakota. “I would,” he added, “ allow no man to have 
over one hundred and sixty acres, and I would then com¬ 
pel him to put ten.acres of this laud in timber. Then I 
would exempt these ten acres from taxation. I would 
repeal the Tree-Claim Act, and the Pre-emption Act 
entirely. This would give each man only one hundred 
and sixty aci'es, which he could cultivate well, 
and would remove the temptation to- him to 
get under the various Acts, loo much land which 
he does not half cultivate. He would likewise 
then be removed from the temptation of allow¬ 
ing himself to be used by speculators in ‘ prov¬ 
ing up’ claims for their benefit.” We found these 
views very generally shared by farmers on the 
border. And this as a question worthy of the 
immediate consideration of Congi-ess. Now, 
by means of the Homestead Law, the Pre¬ 
emption Act, and the Tree-Claim Act, a settler 
can secure control of many hundred acres of 
land, the majority of which is likely to inure to 
the benefit of speculators purely. But if this 
were not the case, the fact'that one settler can 
now secure so much land from the Govern¬ 
ment, will necessarily prevent a large number 
from securing any, inasmuch as all the land of 
value is being rapidly absorbed. Furthermore, 
the residents of these Border Lands are begin¬ 
ning to realize that small, well-improved farms 
are not only moi-e valuable to the owners them¬ 
selves, than would be large sections of unim- 
pi'oved territoi-y, and that the small farm 
system enables the population of the Border 
States and Territories to increase much more 
rapidly. If a few settlers can come into a new 
country, and by means of the various Govern¬ 
ment Acts, each one secure an entire section (more 
or less) of land, naturally only a few are required to 
absorb the whole region. 
Waiting for tlie Country to Catch Up.— 
When a new country experiences a boom in emigra¬ 
tion, it brings along with it doctors, lawyers, bankers, 
dry goods merchants, grocers, and mechanics generally. 
They locate at the nucleus of a village, and the land- 
buyers at first have generally to employ all of them in 
one way or another. Business is consequently brisk for 
them. When, however, the tide of emigration recedes, 
and the land-buyers have scattered to their various 
prairie homes and become settled, the deihand for the 
services of professional, business and trades-people 
diminishes. The village becomes dull; the hurly-burly 
and excitement which characterized the boom, are gone, 
and the villagers who rely on the farmers, complain of 
very dull times, and begin to question whether the Par- 
West is such a great place after all. As the surrounding 
country, however, begins to develop, and the virgin soil 
yields crops to the tillers, money begins to flow into the 
villages. At first it was the money brought by the 
land-buyers from the older States ; now it is the money 
made there “ on the spot—domestic money, so to 
speak, as contrasted with imported. It continues to in¬ 
crease with the increasing agricultural development of 
the new region, and the villages and towns regain the 
activity which characterized them at first ; that is, such 
towns and villages as pull through the reactionary period 
and are not abandoned. Every new region experiences 
this transition state. The villagers have to wait for the 
surrounding country to catch up, as it were, and during 
the rvaiting-period It is dull indeed. 
Too many Farm Implements, and too 
little care taken of them. —In the great Noi'th- 
west, as hitherto in Kansas and Nebraska, the reckless 
purchase of farm machinery, and the failure to properly 
take care of it, is frequently noted. The now comer, be¬ 
cause he can buy his reaper and other machines on credit, 
purchases freely, with the confident expectation that 
good crops will enable him to discharge his obligations; 
but if the crops are not so good, and he is unable to sell 
as much as ho expected, he frequently gets in a close 
spot financially. Perhaps ho has no building beyond a 
stable for his horses. Boards are expensive. He leaves 
his machinery in an open lot, with no cover, exposed to 
all the changing weathor. It often results that be can not 
pay for his machinery, and, furthermore, it is much dam¬ 
aged sooner or latex-. Do notgo to the western prairies to 
farm, unless you have enough money to pay for some ma¬ 
chinery, and enough money to construct a proper shelter 
for it, after the season is over. It is an oft recurring and 
painful sight, as one rides over the prairie, to see these 
farm implements lying around loose in every direction. 
Frairle Chickens Abundant.— Bevy upon 
bevy of young prairie chickens rose to flight on each side 
of the track, as our train sped down through Central Da¬ 
kota, from Aberdeen, among the quiet settlements. 
Notwithstanding the cold weather of last winter, and 
other untoward causes, Ihei-e is reason to believe that 
there will be a great abundance of birds this season.. 
Legislation is doing considerable to protect them from 
the merciless destruction of pot hunters, who shoot them 
down for the mere pleasure of telling how many they 
have bagged. In making a tour through Utah a few 
years ago, we were impressed with the severity of the 
game laws, and their rigid enforcement. Utah leads the 
Western States and Territories in this respect. D. W. J, 
Trouble with, the Elm Trees. 
Our subscribers in Flushing, Long Island. Passaic, N-J"., 
and at many other points, are complaining of what is de» 
scribed as a new and dangerous insect, which is destroy¬ 
ing-the elm tree leaves. Some of the New York City 
daily papei's devote much space to this pest, and express 
solicitude as to what the new insect may be. It is, how¬ 
ever, not a new enemy, but, on the contrary, is the Elm 
Leaf Beetle (Galeruca xanthomekena). 
The Elms in the City of Baltimore, being sadlf defoli¬ 
ated a number of years ago, the city authorities assumed 
tiiat the trouble was due to the Canker-worms, and pro¬ 
vided the trees with barriers of oil around their trunks. 
The insect causing the damage was not the Canker- 
worm, but the larva of the Elm Leaf Beetle, and the oil 
could no more keep this from the trees, than the sparrows,, 
ns both male and female insects have wings and can fly.. 
The mature insect is a small beetle, a native of Europe,, 
from which country it was introduced many years ago.. 
It has become wide-spread, and is found in numerous lo¬ 
calities as far north ns Newburgh, N. Y., if not beyond. 
The beetles are oblong-oval, about a quarter of an inch 
long; grayish-yellow, tvith three small black spots on the. 
thorax, a broad black stripe on the outer edge of the. 
wing covers, and a small oblong spot near tbeir base. 
The larv® are thick, cylindrical, six-footed grubs, which 
feed upon the under surface of the leaves, eating out 
the green pulp, and leaving the hard veins as a complete- 
ELM LEAP AND LARVA! OF ELM BEETLE. 
frame-work. The engraving shows an eaten elm leaf, 
and two “ worms,” natural size, and an enlarged larva 
of the beetle on the right of the cut. 
As to its destruction, the Elm Leaf Beetle has not re¬ 
ceived that attention that its importance demands. No 
better remedy has been suggested than showering the 
foliage with a very dilute mixture of Paris Green or Lon¬ 
don Purple in water. A tablespoonful of either poison 
in a barrel of water, would probably be sufficient, if the 
mixture is kept well stirred to insure a thorough diffusion 
of the heavy poison, Pyrethrum invariably kills them. 
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