Plains Folk

Some may say it is a sign I am in my dotage, but lately I have been thinking and writing more than ever about agriculture, farming and ranching. You see, I was never supposed to be a farmer. My eldest brother was that guy, and thanks to him and his capable wife, and the others gone before them, as well as the cohort coming on, I believe I will see the family farm into the seventh generation.

“In your travels,” writes Larkin Powell, “you may stumble upon birders who make you wonder how a human being can drift so far away from the mainstream--these are the folks with binoculars that cost more than the car you are driving, and a camera with a lens longer than their walking stick. “You can learn a lot by talking to these intense birders,” observes the author of Great Plains Birds , “but do not expect this to be a long friendship. They are here for the birds.”

Sometimes I envy my companion in the fields of autumn. Angie the History Dog is, by profession and inclination both, a hunting dog. She takes to the field in truly recreational fashion, intoxicated with the sensate experience of it all. Me, maybe I think too much. This tendency led me to the new book by Philip Dray, The Fair Chase: The Epic Story of Hunting in America (Basic Books). You see, I am aware that the folkways of my prairie-farm-boy culture are somewhat out of sync with 21st Century

Last week I detailed how the arsenic-laced pesticide, Paris Green, came into general use more than a century ago, mainly to combat the Colorado potato beetle. I was led to this topic by a fascinating paper presented to the Western History Association by Professor Lynn Ellen Bennett, of Utah Valley University. I determined that here in North Dakota, sale of Paris Green was handled, under state regulation, by drugstores. I intimated, too, there would be more to say about the deadly effects of this

Wrapping up the prairie gardening season of 2019, I bid farewell to some slimy companions. As I work in the beds, often barefoot, I welcome all the frogs, salamanders, and toads I touch with my toes. I like to see the nightcrawlers boiling up when I lay down a water hose. I am not a strictly organic gardener, but I spend a lot of time in the beds, and we eat a terrific amount of our own produce, so I minimize the use of hot chemicals and deploy a lot of manure and compost. The slimy critters are

Well, I will not inquire if you did your homework. Last week I asked you to go to a Cornell University website and listen to the call of the upland sandpiper recorded at Long Lake in 1988. As recorded there and as heard it in the wild, I find the bird’s tuneless trill to be wonderfully macabre. The call of the upland plover--which is what I call the bird, by historical usage, despite the preferences of ornithologists--the call of the plover, like that of the sora rail, makes me feel like I am in

One night in March 1900, the Pennsylvania alumni of Yale University gathered in the genteel quarters of the Scranton Club to host a visit by Yale President Arthur T. Hadley. A sumptuous feast was served, including courses of salmon, chicken, beef, and a wild game entre: Broiled Plover on Toast.

Prairie folk of the late nineteenth century were accustomed to reading grim reports of deadly gorings inflicted by horned cattle--a catalog of grief and outrage chronicled in my previous essay. In March of 1888 a correspondent of the Emmons County Record offered them an answer to their problem: dehorning.

In one of our family photo albums is a snapshot of me, age pre-school, sitting astride our prize polled Hereford bull. I’m pretty sure his name was Domino. I’m also pretty sure if such a photo were taken and viewed today, there would be charges and investigations.

“Spend less, see more” -- this has been the candid and standard advice dispensed for 25 years by Seth Kugel, author of “The Frugal Traveler” in the New York Times . Now, in book form -- under the title, Rediscovering Travel: A Guide for the Globally Curious -- Kugel codifies his practical approach to travel, updates it to deal with the modern, digitally dependent travel industry, and gets philosophical about the experience of travel.