A Charming Letter.

At the head of the agricultural department in The Prairie Farmer I notice a standing invitation, viz.: "Farmers, write for your paper." All right! Now, if you will just move up a little I'll take a seat in your Communicative Association.

We, that is my wife and myself, eagerly read and discuss the interesting articles with which The Prairie Farmer is replete every week, and many are the practical hints that we have found therein.

It is not strange that, in the heart of a new country with vast undeveloped resources and unlimited possibilities, a young farmer who has his fortune yet to make, should be particularly enthusiastic. Tired of the atmosphere of the school-room, fagged out by ten years of study and teaching, and plainly seeing the improbability of being able to lay by enough for a rainy day or old age in this noble, but as a rule, unremunerative calling, my mind involuntarily reverted back to my early life on the old homestead in Illinois, to substantials implied in that word, and to its pleasant memories.

My mind was made up. With my portion of the old homestead in my pocket, I turned the key in the school-house door, grateful for the experience and lessons of patience gained inside of it, a friend of education, and with a heart full of sympathy for the teachers of our public schools. I came to "the land of the Dakotas" once more to break the "stubborn glebe" and enjoy the sweets of farm life. Next June I shall have had three years' experience in my new undertaking. I have succeeded fairly well. At some future time I may communicate something about raising wheat and vegetables in Dakota, to the readers of "our paper."

This winter is proving to be rather long and stormy, but with plenty of fuel, good books and papers, time has not hung heavily on my hands. Indeed, I consider these long Northern winters a decided advantage to those who regard the cultivation of the mind as important as the cultivation of the fields. I am afraid the majority of farmers do not lay enough stress upon mental culture. In this age of cheap books there can be no excuse for being without them. Systematic reading leads to the best results in mental culture just as systematic farming leads to the best results in agriculture. At the beginning of the winter I select some standard work as my principal reading matter and stick to it until I have it completed, reading for an interlude, good weekly newspapers, and one or two of the standard magazines, with which I always like to be supplied. This breaks up all monotony, and makes reading thoroughly enjoyable and instructive. This winter I am reading the works of Goethe, the great German author.

March, the last winter month, has come, and although the wind is still howling and snow flying, before the first of April we expect to see the railroads thronged with emigrant cars bringing new settlers, more thrift and more capital. Thousands of new homes will be established on the fertile prairies next summer.

Will you please regard this as a kind of an introduction into your "association?"

If we find that we are mutually agreeable perhaps we shall find occasion to meet again.

Kasper von Eschenbach. Prairie Park Farm, Bath, D. T.