CHAPTER XXIV
THE PRICE OF GOLD
During the period from 1862 until 1875 the white settlements in South Dakota made little progress. Population was increasing somewhat, but farmers had difficulty in learning the way of the soil, and got but small return for their labor.
The prairie soil in a comparatively dry climate requires different methods of cultivation from the heavy clay soils of the more humid eastern states. The time of year when it should be plowed, the quantity and variety of seed to be sown, and the manner of cultivation of the growing crop are all different, but the new settlers of those early days did not quite understand these facts, and for a long time tried to farm in the same way their fathers had done in the eastern states. Only after long and painful experience did they work out methods adapted to our soil and climate. For instance, they had learned to make high beds or ridges in the vegetable gardens, on the top of which the crop was planted, and the cornfields were worked up in high ridges that the rain water might drain away. Here experience finally taught them to work their soil flat, so that all of the water falling may be husbanded for the benefit of the growing crop.
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