IWicms. 
ABOVE PAR. 
The Verdict of all Who Have Carefully 
Investigated the Agricultural Region of 
Southeastern Dakota. 
MESSRS. HOLMES AND SWEETLAND, 
[Special correspondents or tlio Rural New-Yorker.] 
Every workman in the exercise of his art, 
•who may- he considered skilled, is fully pro¬ 
vided with the proper implements, then, back 
of these, are talent, mechanical ingenuity and 
dexterity to produce from the crude material 
the curious piece of mechanism, the finished 
dramatic effort, the touching landscape view, 
the chaste and beautiful piece of statuary, or 
the delineation of Nature through the instru¬ 
mentality of words. 
But there is something fully as necessary as 
these implement'. The sculptor eauuot make 
a perfect image from an imperfect stoue; the 
artist to succeed in producing a beautiful 
picture must select a suitable subject; so it is 
with the writer—although he may be able to 
command the most copious vocabulary, with 
apt and pertinent quotat ions, still if the sub¬ 
ject matter does not accord with facts the 
various inaccuracies are plainly apparent aud, 
like the towering light-house, warn of the 
rocks behiud the Scylla and Charybdis ofFalse- 
hood and Deceit. 
A glance at the map—a late one—of Dakota 
will show that the settlement of the Territory 
has been most rapid iu the southeastern 
portion, where you will notice the various 
lines of the Chicago, Milwaukee and Bt, Paul 
Railway weaving in aud out.Jlike the web of a 
lazy spider. This road, however, is not “a 
lazy spider” liy any means, but alive and 
active to everything conducive to the welfare 
of the country wherein it recognizes its own 
prosperity. 
The surface of the country, except immedi¬ 
ately along the hunks of the Big Sioux River, 
is gently undulating aud almost devoid of 
natural timber, although the artificial groves 
are springing up in abundance and the hills 
and valleys are covered with a green mantle 
of rich and luxuriant natural grasses. 
Many farmers depend upon the spontaneous 
growth of these for the feeding of their stock, 
pasturing their cattle almost the entire Win¬ 
ter. Others have sown pastures of Blue-joint 
and Timothy br well as other cultivated 
grasses, all of which grow luxuriantly. At 
the time of our visit the prairie grass in many 
of the “draws,” was from four to six feet high. 
The soil of this section is mainly of the char¬ 
acter of silicious marl, is deep, rich and warm. 
As the settlement ia this part of the Territory 
dates back further than in the western portion, 
results are more satisfactory and the general 
agricultural characteristics of the land more 
thoroughly known by the results of actual 
cultivation. Those who have farmed in this 
section report good success with corn, flax, 
oats, tame and wild grasses and all root crops, 
and many farmers bad this season excellent 
fields of wheat with a good stand, well filled 
heads, long spikeleta and large grains. 
Oats have been a very successful cropi every 
year and the reports made to us indicate a 
yield of from 40 to 50 bushels p>er acre. Many 
of the young farmers have planted corn upon 
their sod after Fall “breaking,” and although 
the yield iu pust years has been good, still we 
doubt the praclibility of it as there is no ques¬ 
tion that sod is not left in good condition for 
cropping to small grain after a growth of 
corn has been taken off. It has been prac¬ 
tically demonstrated that flax is about, the 
only crop which does well on sod and does not 
impoverish the soil. 
The stock business has received quite an 
impetus lately. M«ny farmers are bringing 
in sheep which will flud ample pasturage 
Spring, Summer and Fall, and wdl do well if 
provided with shelter aud feed during the 
Winter months. As there is an increase in 
the corn crop, there is aiso a notable increase 
in the number of grade hogs, Berkshires aud 
Poland-Chinas being raised for market. 
There has been, during last year, consider¬ 
able attention given to the importation of 
blooded horses, cattle, sheep and hogs, aud the 
farmers who have located in this regiou seem 
determined to vie with those of other States 
in the character aud condition of their stock. 
Dakota has a herd law which is a great benefit 
to immigrants, as it does away with the enor¬ 
mous expense of fences. 
Land is yet obtainable by government 
entry, but at some distance from commercial 
centers. Purchasers, however, could doubt¬ 
less find lauds for sale; many choice sections 
were presented to our notice. 
Bioux Falls, 
the important business center of the above 
described territory, is seldom surpassed in 
beauty of location or excellence of situatiou 
in a-business sense. The first settlement was 
made here in 1857, though the Territorial 
organization did not occur until 1861, and up 
to the early Spring of the present year the 
population increased but slowly,then reaching 
about 3,000; while at the present writing 
parties who have just completed the census of 
the city for directory purposes, place the 
number at “over 5,000.” 
There are in this section comparatively 
few persons of foreign birth—say about one- 
third—while in the entire county there are 
less than 50 colored. This gives a clue to the 
remarkably rapid increase during the present 
year, the new settlers coming principally from 
the Eastern and northerly Middle States, 
influenced, among other reasons, in their selec 
tion of this locality by the comparatively 
low price of lands of incomparable quality 
and situation to be found in the immediate 
vicinity of a young and vigorous city con¬ 
taining all the modern necessaries of Ameri¬ 
can life, and furnishing the means for the 
gratification of tastes for the luxurious—a 
city which, in its efforts to retain its suprem¬ 
acy, keeps pace with the times in the develop¬ 
ment of the surrounding country by all the 
improvements thus demanded. 
This, in turn, benefits the new comer who, 
during the first year, is enabled to reside 
where his family may be comfortable while 
the first improvements of “breaking” and 
building are going on, and where, after these 
have been completed, he may secure positions 
in which his labor will be remunerative until 
the next season shall require his attention at 
the new home. Here skilled labor commands 
steady employment at from $2 to §3 per day. 
Teams bring from *3 to $8 50, while the 
laborer is scarce at $1 50 per day, and, too, in 
a city where the expense of living is as cheap 
as can be expected anywhere. Here is now 
in process of erection the Territorial Peniten¬ 
tiary, 54x70 feet, with a wing 51x77]^ feet, 
respectively four and three stories in hight. It 
is constructed of the celebrated “ jasper- 
stoue,” which •'« found underlying the whole 
section at various depths, and is certainly one 
of the mo4 excellent materials for the pur¬ 
pose which has ever been noticed by the 
writers. It is easily quarried, and though too 
hard to be easily dressed, yet it is susceptible 
of a most beautiful polish, and may be used 
for tiling, mantels, and in many of the numer¬ 
ous other places where marble is utilized gen¬ 
erally. Geologically speaking, it can hardly 
be called “jasper,” nor is it properly a quartz. 
Perhajis the term “quartzite” will best con¬ 
vey its character, and as to quantity, it is 
practically inexhaustible. 
At a time when the whole Eastern portion 
of our country is laboring and expending vast 
sums of money to find some thoroughly scien¬ 
tific method by which tie building stone they 
are compelled to use may be hardened and 
preserved from the action of the elements, 
this examination strikes in upon us as a flood 
of light, for in the construction of this build¬ 
ing matei ial Nature seems to have consumma¬ 
ted her work, aud from its central location it 
may be supplied to the East as it has been to 
the South, at a reasonable expense for so val¬ 
uable an article. 
Sioux Falls is located on the Big Sioux 
River, and boasts a water power second in 
this country only to that of Minneapolis It 
has been improved largely, one flouring mill, 
“The Queen Bee,” having a present capacity 
of 800 barrels per day, but capable of exten¬ 
sion to 1,200 barrels per day, is said to be the 
finest built aucl equipped mill in the world. 
Between the Big Sioux and the James (bet¬ 
ter known as “ Jim”) Rivers, may be seen a 
territory from 40 to 60 miles iu width, con¬ 
taining more than 1,000,000 acres of rich and 
fertile land with scarcely an acre of waste. It 
is gently rolling, and toward both rivers flow 
numerous small streams, many of them of 
practical use. Who can foresee the extent in 
size, wealth and beauty to which Sioux Falls 
must attain when these uuraerous and extend¬ 
ed natural advantages shall be fully developed ? 
In educational matters remarkable progress 
has been made here. The Dakota Collegiate 
Institute, the school for deaf mutes, and, not 
least, the public graded schools, are in a most 
flourishing condition, and each is under the 
superintendence of highly competent, labor¬ 
ious and painstaking educators—another proof 
that the present public spirited citizens are 
uot building alone for to day. The public 
reading-room, the Board of Trade, the Masonic 
Societies—Blue Lodge, Chapter and Coraman- 
dery—those of the I O. O. F., Lodge and 
Encampment, the Good Templars, and others 
alike beneficial in their way are silent point¬ 
ers to a future promineuee among the cities 
which shall be noted for liberality in all mat¬ 
ters tending toward public advancement as 
well as for the refinement, taste and culture of 
its residents. 
We flud ourselves already beyond our pre¬ 
scribed limit, but canuot close without men¬ 
tion of the superior market here for wheat, the 
mills paying full Chicago prices. Thus the 
farmer receives a premium over those residing 
in less favored localities orf the difference in 
freight between this point and Chicago, which 
alone will add immensely to the wealth of the 
region and proportionately reduce taxation. 
Being at the end of two great divisions of the 
Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway, 
trains run here direct without change, having 
the C., 8t. P., M. and O. Railway extending 
to the northeast, wheie the capitalist, the 
traveler or the immigrant will find hotel ac¬ 
commodations suited to his tastes, and we 
venture the assertion that the advice, accord¬ 
ing to Longfellow, given by the aged Noko- 
mis to the youthful Hiawatha, “Go not east- 
ward, go not westward,” will be considered 
good for him; that he will accept this as a 
near approach to that place in the Land of 
Promise 1 e has created in his imagination and 
resolve here to identify himself 
“ In the land of the Dakotas, 
In the land of handsome women,” 
which is no joke. 
RURAL BRIEFLETS. 
During a late visit to the poultry yards of 
Hon. C. S. Cooper, of Schraalenburgh, New 
Jersey, we noticed that bis perches are all hem¬ 
lock scantlings two by four inches square. 
These rest on iron legs about every one of 
which is an iron cup which is kept filled with 
kerosene to prevent the ascent of lice. Lice 
accumulate on the under side of perches rest¬ 
ing there during the day and, like bed-bugs, 
start out in search of food at night. Fowls, 
Mr. Cooper thinks, slip on round perches and 
are better supported and rested upon those 
which have a broad, flat surface. He uses a 
salve of sulphur and kerosene for scaly leg, 
which he has found an infallible cure. 
Many complain that their tomatoes are 
Bour. All tomatoes are sour, if we may judge 
from our own experience, that are grown in 
rich soil. We want a maximum of fruit and 
a minimum of leaves and stems, if we would 
have sweet tomatoes—by which is meant not 
sweet literally, but less acidity. Tomatoes 
raised in light, rather poor soil in a sheltered 
or warm situation are always sweet in fa¬ 
vorable seasons—while those raised in rich 
soil or in partial shade are always sour. A 
rank growth of foliage shades the fruit dense¬ 
ly and interfe- e9 with the developement of the 
saccharine principle..... 
Tomatoes raised in poorish light soil will 
ripen also ten days earlier than those raised 
in rich soil. We know this from actual test 
during the present season. If large, showy 
tomatoes are wanted regardless of flavor or 
time of ripening, then the rich soil and the 
rank growth are needed. Cutting off all but 
one or two fruits of the clusters while they are 
small and green will also cause those remain¬ 
ing to grow to a larger size.. 
Mr. 8. Y Haines, who is the introducer 
of the Golden Grains Wheat, shows plainly 
enough why it has been mistaken for Black- 
bearded Centennial, We accept the explana¬ 
tion as clearing up the question and as estab¬ 
lishing the complete dissimilarity bf the two 
wheats. Mr, Haines was himself for a time 
in doubt as to whether they were alike or 
unlike and, inasmuch as there is a strong re¬ 
semblance, it is not surprising that they have 
been judged to be the same. It is now evi¬ 
dent that Mr. Haines acted iu perfectly good 
faith in calling his wheat “Golden Grain*"—an 
excellent name, by the way—while Mr. Haines 
must concede that we acted in good faith, and 
intelligently, too, in believing it to be the 
same as Black bearded Centennial. Here is 
Mr. Haines’s note: 
“ You speak of being able to pick out small 
heads of the Golden Grains that cannot be dis¬ 
tinguished from B -b. C. I can easily account 
fjr that if your stock seed came from where 
mine died. It is mixed, not only with that 
kind, but I have found as many as five differ¬ 
ent kinds of wheat amongst the Golden Grains. 
We shall have it PURE next year.”. 
We have seen pumpkins quite two-and-a- 
half inches long while yet the blossoms were 
wholly green ami unopened. How large will 
pumpkins grow if the ovary is not fertilized ? 
Two of these blossoms were pulled off in or¬ 
der to test the matter, but, unable to visit the 
field for some days after, we could not with 
certainty find the pumpkins from which the 
flowers had been removed. 
“Our botanist,” says Mr. Alexander of 
Charlotte, Vt., in a private note, “ thinks you 
are very much mistakeu about Pringle’s Hul- 
less Oats being the same as Chinese Hulless, 
Hewai surprised and thinks he could show 
you very quickly to the contrary.” 
It may be. We have never said they were 
the same botanically. We say there is es¬ 
sentially no difference. That is, they are 
not superior to the Chinese Hulless and are so 
like them that either will answer for the 
other...............*.*. 
Mr. J. A. Richardson gives the Albany 
Cultivator and Country Geutleman the results 
of some testB with pyrethrum powder upon 
potato beetles. For instance, he says; “At 
3:27 p. m. I put in a tin box 23 old bugs with 
pyrethrum and flour. At 4:35 they were all 
dead.” According to our own tests, Mr. R. 
was mistaken. Had he kept these beetles for 
a day or so, he would have fount t’asn a l 
alive ... 
CATALOGUES, &C. 
Houghton Farm —Experiments with In¬ 
dian corn during 1SS0 and 1881 with <i sum¬ 
mary of the experiments with wheat for 40 
years at Rotbamsted, England. An elegant 
work of 75 pages, printed in bold type upon 
fine, heavy paper. First, a colored map of 
Orange County is presented, showing the lo¬ 
cation of Mr. Valentine’s Houghton Farm. 
Then a clear description of the farm itself by 
the Superintendent, Major Henry E. Alvord. 
We have then a record of the results of ex¬ 
periments with Indian corn by Manly Miles, 
who until recently was the Director of Ex¬ 
periments at Houghton Farm, and finally a 
most instructive account of experiments with 
wheat at Rotbamsted by Sir J. B. La was. and 
an article on the amount and composition of 
the rain and drainage waters collected at 
Rotbamsted by Lawes & Gilbert. We hope 
rather than expect to do justice to this report 
by referring to it again. 
Farm Experiments (fourth series) con¬ 
ducted by J. W. Sanborn at the College 
Farm, Hanover, N. H. This report of 60 
pages will prove valuable to all fanners. 
Quotations from it will be found under “What 
others Say.” 
James M. Thorburn & Co., 15 John Street, 
New York, illustrated catalogue of bulbous 
roots—hyacinths, tulips, anemones, arums, 
crocuses, Crown Imperials, cyclamens, lilies, 
etc. 
Transactions of the Massachusetts Horti¬ 
cultural Society for the year 1881, Part 
Second. Robert Manning, Horticultural Hall, 
Boston. 
James Rennie, Toronto, Canada, circular 
of wheats. Twenty different kinds are 
offered. 
Mektin’s Odt. [Illustrated Art Notes.—Fig. 296. j 
THE ST0EY OF STONY BK00K FAKM. 
HENRY STEWART. 
CHAPTER IX. 
(Continued from page 610.) 
Patience flew to her old friend to talk it 
over. “ Never believe it, Patience. My Bar¬ 
ley is not that kind of boy. What has hap¬ 
pened I don’t know. Something’s wrong, I’m 
sure. Every month up to last June I had a 
letter and his month’s wages in it, which I put 
into the bank at Goshen for him, never touch¬ 
ing the money myself although he told me 
always to take what I wanted out of it; but 
my knitting brings me in enough, and you 
know I have a good lot of herbs and some 
honey for groceries, so I have never needed to 
touch the dear boy’s money, and there it is— 
nine hundred dollars—besides some he left 
when he went away. No; there’s something 
wrong, and the Lord only knows what it is. 
He may be dead but he’s never disgraced him¬ 
self nor his old mother; nor forgot you either. 
Patience. It’s a sore trouble to fall on me; 
but the Lord has sent it and I’ll try to bear it 
until the truth comes out." 
And after much mutual sorrowing over this 
mysterious blow which had fallen upon them 
both with equal severity, Patience returned 
home. Near home she met Jabez Jonkins who 
was evidently waiting for her. 
“ Well, Miss Patience, you don’t seem to lie 
very well to-day; I suppose you’ve hearn the 
news about the Merritt boy. It’s a dreadful 
thing, ain't it, that folks should be so given to 
lyin’?” 
“Bless you Jabez for that; indeed, God 
bless you. I wish you would say that to poor 
Mrs. Merritt, she’s nearly heart-broken. I’ve 
just been to see her and I feel—very—much_ 
for her—poor woman;” and Patience tears be¬ 
gan to flow afresh. 
“Now don’t take on for Mrs. Merritt, Miss 
Patience; if you think it’ll do her any good 
I’ll go anti see her this very evening, arter the 
chores is done up. Don’t you fret for Mrs. 
Merritt. It’ll all come out right, you be sure. 
The boy’s too much sense to throw himself 
away in any sich a manner’s that. That’s 
