great many of the farmers did not cut their grain because
there was nothing in it for them. The man where I boarded cut his grain
but he had little or nothing, and that which he did get was soft and
smutty. He took the same to be ground into flour and the bread the flour
made was almost black, as they did not at that time have mills to take
out the smut.

The people in the best condition financially were mighty glad if they
had Johnny cake, pork and potatoes and milk and when they had these they
thought they were on the "top shelf."

At this time too, they had to watch their fields with guns, or protect
them with scarecrows and have the children watch them to keep them clear
from the blackbirds, which were an awful pest. There were millions of
these birds and there was not a time of day when they were not hovering
over the fields. These birds would alight in the corn fields, tear the
husks from the corn and absolutely ruin the ears of corn; also feed on
the oats and wheat when it was not quite ripe and in a milky condition.

During the winter they would go south, but come back in the spring when
they would be considerable bother again, by alighting on fields that had
just been sown and taking the seed from the ground. Farmers finally
threw poisoned grain in the fields. This was made by soaking wheat and
oats in a solution of strychnine. It was ten years before these birds
were exterminated enough to make farming a profitable occupation.

Farming was more successful after that, for the reason that these birds
did not need watching. During the summer of 1858 and all during the
summer of 1859 the river was navigable. St. Paul boats came up often and
sometimes a Mississippi boat from St. Louis. We had no railroads in the
state at that time.

During the year of 1859 State Banks were put into the state but these
did not last long. I know at that time my brother sent out $150 that I
had borrowed of Harry Lamberton. He sent this money by a man named David
Lyon from New York. He came to where I was boarding and left State Bank
money. The people where I was staying gave me the money that night when
I came home and told me about what it was for. I started for St. Peter
the next day to pay the debt and during the time the money was left and
when I arrived at St. Peter it had depreciated in value ten per cent and
it kept on going down until it was entirely valueless. Money was very
scarce at that time and times were hard. We had