Vol. LVII. No. 2535 
NEW YORK, AUGUST 27, 1898 
*1 PER YEAR, 
" T.HE SILVER LINING.” 
WAIT TILL THE CLOUDS ROLL BY, 
Sense and Sentiment from Grundy. 
Misfortune’s Hard Blow. —Here is part of a let¬ 
ter that came to me recently from a fai mer in Missouri: 
“ Rust and Chinch hugs cut a prospect of 25 bushels 
of wheat per acre down to four bushels. Then the 
Chinch bugs swept in from three sides upon my corn 
field of 30 acres, and utterly destroyed it. I worked 
hard in the heat and dust all last Fall to prepare the 
land in the best manner for that wheat, I sowed good 
seed, and what do I get? Nothing! I 
worked early and late all the Spring 
preparing the land, planting and culti¬ 
vating that corn, only to see it destroyed. 
My crops are a complete failure, not 
through any fault of mine, as you can 
see, and I find myself nearing the end of 
the year with nothing to show for all 
the hard work I have done. What sort 
of advice and consolation are you able to 
give an unfortunate like me ? ” 
I once read a song of the sea in which 
occurred these lines : 
Those who die young, or are left for¬ 
lorn, 
Think grief is no older than they. 
Evidently, our Missouri friend 
thinks, just now, that misfor¬ 
tune has struck him harder 
than it ever struck anybody 
before. Bless you, my boy, 
you are not half so badly off 
as you think you are! You 
have health and strength and 
skill, and a large fund of ex¬ 
perience, and all you now need 
to do is to renew the sand in 
your craw ! 
Some Personal Experi¬ 
ence.—I know just how you feel, for I've been there 
full many a time and oft. Truly have L drank deeply 
of the bitterest dregs of disappointment. For in¬ 
stance, I once received an appointment to a position 
which would, in a short time, have enabled me to clear 
up all of my debts, and would have placed me in com¬ 
paratively comfortable circumstances ; but a few men 
without an atom of that principle which elevates 
civilized man above barbarians, or that manliness 
which constitutes true honor among men, concocted a 
foul conspiracy against me, and by the most infamous 
misrepresentations and low trickery succeeded in 
cheating me out of it. Just as I realized the full force 
of my misfortune, a good old man tapped me on the 
shoulder and said, “ The triumphing of the wicked is 
but short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a mo¬ 
ment.” “ Vengance is mine, I will repay saith the 
Lord.” 
I will submit for the consideration of our Missouri 
friend a portion of a long letter 1 once received from 
a R. N.-Y. reader in Nebraska. I have often thought 
it good reading, and possibly he may think likewise. 
It may help to renew his faith and courage. 
A Happy Outlook. —“One Sunday evening, just 
before sunset, I and my wife climbed to the top of a 
low knoll on our farm, and looked down on 90 acres 
of wheat that was gently billowing in the soft Sum¬ 
mer breeze ; 90 acres of wheat just headed and begin¬ 
ning to bloom; 90 acres that promised us a full 25 
bushels per acre. It was a beautiful sight—a waving 
sea of emerald, and a prospect that was more than 
pleasing to every sense. 
“‘That’s our wheat,’ exclaimed my wife in an 
ecstasy of joy ; ‘ our wheat, Ed, and it’s waving good¬ 
bye to that old mortgage ! ’ 
“ ‘ Yes,’ I replied, ‘ waving good-bye to that old 
mortgage ; and I see in my mind’s eye a kitchen built to 
our little house, and the shadow of a little barn. I 
also see you starting on that long-wished-for visit to 
your old home and the folks in Ohio this Fall! ’ Well, 
we acted like a pair of silly lovers for a short time, 
and just as the sun went down, we knelt and offered 
our heartfelt thanks to the Giver of all good gifts for 
the gladdening prospect; then we returned to our 
home supremely happy. 
A Bliglit and a Blessing. —“ Forty-eight hours 
later I stood on that same knoll gazing over that same 
field. The wheat was curled up—blighted—ruined! 
A scorching, 
blistering 
hotwindhad 
crept over 
the land and 
blighted our 
fair field, 
and with it 
all our high 
hopes and 
glorious 
prospects. 
As I stoo d 
“To shorten this letter, I will merely recapitulate 
our subsequent experiences. Copious rains brought 
our 25 acres of corn out of the kinks, and it made over 
40 bushels per acre. With it I fattened 38 pigs and 
six two-year-old steers we had, and they sold well and 
knocked quite a hole in that mortgage, and wife spent 
Christmas with her folks in her old home. 
“This season, everything has come our way. We 
have grand crops, and they are all safe. That mort¬ 
gage has been wiped out, a good kitchen and a nice 
little barn have been bu'lt, and we have money in the 
bank, and-a baby in the house ! ” frkd grundy. 
... m r 
,1 
• *- ’• . 
>'• 
ONE-MAX FARMING IN SOUTH DAKOTA. Flo. 275. 
there and gazed 
on the ruin Na¬ 
ture herself had 
wrought, and 
fully compre¬ 
hended its far- 
reaching conse¬ 
quences, my 
thoughts i n - 
creased in bitterness until I felt ready to curse the 
country, the whole world, and even life itself. Then 
it occurred to me that cursing would not restore a 
grain of wheat, that it would injure me alone, and not 
do one iota of good. As I turned to go down to the 
house, I said, aloud : ‘ Thy will, not mine, be done ! ’ 
and there, right before me, stood my wife. I could 
see she had been weeping, and that made me feel 
worse, if possible, than ever. But she threw her arms 
about my neck and said: ‘ Ed, I would rather hear 
you say that than to harvest 5,000 bushels of wheat 
from that field ! You are my ideal of a grand good 
man. I am sure this trouble will not last long ; we’ll 
soon see the silver lining to this cloud ! ’ 
ONE-MAN FARMING” IN SOUTH DAKOTA. 
THE MASTER OF LARGE TOOLS. 
Eastern readers are interested just now in a study 
of western methods. A western man has to solve 
the labor problem by picking up the machines and 
methods that enable one man to cover the most ground. 
Last week, we told how the Californians make Mrs. 
Leghorn Hen take care of herself. This week we 
want to tell how a South Dakota farmer raises wheat. 
The pictures on this page are drawn from photographs 
taken with the little Peekaboo camera by Mr. A. W. 
Milne, of Edgefield County, 
S. I). The photographs them¬ 
selves were very good, al¬ 
though not quite distinct 
enough to engrave without 
first drawing the pictures. 
Mr. Milne talks intelligently 
about South Dakota. When 
asked whether eastern meth¬ 
ods would work in his country, 
he says: 
“No. This is and always 
will be a country of extensive 
farming and stock raising. 
Large farms are necessary. It is between the ranging 
country to the west and the agricultural country to 
the east. The conditions here are such that different 
methods are employed from those of the eastern part 
of the State of Minnesota.” 
“ What is the chief feature of j our cultivation ? ” 
The ground is loose, and all field work is performed 
with great ease and despatch. We do not receive a 
large amount of rainfall to pack the soil. Our fields 
ar e very large and thus we 
can use large machinery to 
the best advantage. The 
yield is not generally very 
large. The quality of the 
soil is good, but there is 
more or less lack of timely 
rains.” 
“ How often do you plow 
the ground ? ” 
“ As a rule, not oftener 
than once in two or three 
years. There is danger of 
making the ground too 
loose by too much plowing. Spring plowing does 
much better.” 
“ What crops do you raise ? ” 
“ Chiefly wheat. On account of the high altitude 
and dry Falls, the yield of corn is small. It will run 
from 5 to 40 bushels per acre, though the latter yield 
is very rare. Wheat runs from 2 to 15 bushels, the 
difference usually being due more to season than to 
skill.” 
One Mail’s Big 1 Job. —“Tell us how you raise 
your wheat crop.” 
“ Mine is what is called a one-man farm, and no 
hired help is kept except one man, for a short time 
through harvest. A one-man farm back east would, 
