. The story of agriculture in the United States. comers gave rise to exaggeratedreports of the ease with which any farmer might get rich,so the settlers swarmed out upon the prairies in increas-ing numbers. But all was not ease and plenty on these westernprairies. In no other large section of the country, per-haps, have farmers suffered so many afflictions. Aselsewhere, the Indians were sometimes before and after 1870 there were sudden attacks andmassacres, many farmers and their families losing theirlives. Then there were the prairie fires and the terriblewinter blizzards, wh
. The story of agriculture in the United States. comers gave rise to exaggeratedreports of the ease with which any farmer might get rich,so the settlers swarmed out upon the prairies in increas-ing numbers. But all was not ease and plenty on these westernprairies. In no other large section of the country, per-haps, have farmers suffered so many afflictions. Aselsewhere, the Indians were sometimes before and after 1870 there were sudden attacks andmassacres, many farmers and their families losing theirlives. Then there were the prairie fires and the terriblewinter blizzards, which not only brought serious damageto stock and crops, but also entailed much suffering andloss of human life. The years of drought that came at 222 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES different periods ruined and discouraged thousands offarmers. For weeks at such a time the sun burnedfrom a cloudless sky; a scorching wind made thegrain wither; the leaves of cornstalks curled andturned brown; and the grass dried on the parchedand cracked Rocky Mountain Grasshopper or Locust Perhaps the most dreadful affliction was the plague oflocusts, or grasshoppers (1874). Out from their breedingplaces in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains they camein clouds that darkened the sun. They settled down uponfields, woods, and pastures, leaped over streams andrivers, swept into every fertile place, and everywhereleft a desolate waste behind them. There was nothingleft for man or beast to live upon! Hastily the familyand the household goods of the poor man who could notafford to buy food were bundled into the canvas-coveredmoving wagon that perhaps had brought them to theirWestern farm, and the long journey back home wasbegun. Supplies were sent from the East to support THE WESTWARD MARCH OF WHEAT 223 many of those who stayed. Such were some of thehardships of pioneer Hfe on the great plains. What a story is this — the march of wheat halfwayacross the continent! In 1800 Washingtons plan
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectagriculture, bookyear
