I will relate what Pa told us when he got back late Monday night. He found that he needed to go to La Crosse to sign the various documents - and Mr. Sura said he should have a word with the Markhams, a rich family who live nearby, to see if he could borrow a horse from them to ride there, as it would be faster than going by Uncle Simon’s cart. (Uncle Simon had stopped in to say he was off to La Crosse to buy a plow.)

Pa said it was wonderful to be riding a proper horse again, and it was a fine horse that he was lent. The Markhams offered him a cordial welcome to the area. He rode cross country, rather than going the route we had taken with the boat, so it was fewer miles, but still 20 miles away.

Now this is what he found when he got to La Crosse about mid day.
Claimants had to be twenty one years of age, head of a family, and a U.S. citizen (so first Pa had to file a declaration of intention to become a citizen). Luckily there were Polish speaking people at the Land Office, who were used to dealing with newcomers, so they had no trouble. Then he filled in declaratory statements which was merely a sworn statement signed by the settler which indicated that he had settled on a given tract of land and was declaring intention to claim said tract under the preemption law. This statement required the name of the claimant, residence, age, date of actual settlement, and a description of the tract. Mr. Sura had given him a full description of the area to take with him. He also had to declare that he did not already own 320 acres of land within the United States, that he had not quit or abandoned land owned by him in the same state or territory, and that the homestead would be for his exclusive use.

As our tract of land was on what they call "offered" lands, that is, lands formerly homesteaded but not completed, which had been surveyed but not sold, (in this case because the man had been unable to give the required payment,) the declaratory statement had to be filed within thirty days of actual settlement. Pa had to pay a filing fee which he said was $1.

So Pa was then given the rules he had to follow before the land became officially his. He had to give proof that he had complied with the legal provisions of the law before receiving title to the land from the government. He had one year in which to do this. He had to pay for 40 acres, at $1.25 per acre - or $50, he had to provide notice of intent to “prove up” each week for not less than thirty days in a legal newspaper (there was one in La Crosse which he could use) near the land. This provided notice to anyone who had an adverse claim to the specific tract so that a contest could be filed. So Pa had to check back at the end of the 30 days, to make sure that nobody else had counter-claimed the same area. Uncle Simon doesn’t need to worry about all of that.

It will take five years before the land becomes officially ours. And we have to reside on it, and cultivate the land for that period. They did say if there were problems such as grasshoppers or drought during the five year period, making it impossible to cultivate the land successfully, the period could be extended to seven years.

Then if all went well, after the five years, Pa would have to complete an affidavit proving that he had met the legal requirements and two witnesses completed similar forms testifying to the facts offered in proof of the claim. 
Before he went through this procedure, the official told Pa that if he could pay in full for his land straight away he would have received the title to the land after six months with proof that he had resided on and cultivated the land. He would then be said to have a commuted homestead. But we have no choice but to go through the long five year plan.

It took the boys all day to get the small garden patch dug up. We then all had a go in planting out the seeds. We needed to hoe a straight line, and then carefully place the seeds so they won’t grow too close together. We planted potatoes, beets, carrots, cabbage, lettuce, tomatoes (including the half grown plants which needed staking), radishes, peas and beans and some things we never had before in Prussia, but Pa had bought some seeds for them for in La Crosse, - corn, squash and pumpkins.

Uncle Simon, with Pa’s help, hopes to have a small cash crop of wheat this year. So at break of dawn this morning, Pa walked over to Uncle Simon’s new house and they started in with the plowing. We haven’t seen his house yet, but no doubt will go over next Sunday.

Pa told us a bit about what his farming jobs were going to entail.  They use a heavy plow to break the soil and a V drag to break up the clods. Once they get that done, the grain will be sown by hand or "fiddle". The main crop all around here is wheat and the harvested grain has to be taken to Trempealeau. Pa says he heard there will be caravans of ox teams wending their way from as far north as Chippewa County. Farmers receive gold for their wheat and because of frequent robberies they travel in caravans when returning home.

The soil here is so rich that for a few years after its broken it should yield 45 to 50 bushels of wheat per acre. Mr. Markham told him that a few years before the Civil War broke out a threshing machine run by a tread-power was introduced and he tried it out. It was just a cylinder, concave and fan. One man stood at the rear with a fork and threw the straw back but he wasn't very impressed with it, and when it broke, he didn't bother getting it fixed. He says it won't be long before there will be a machine run by horse-power.

Pa says one of the other men has a  reaper which he described as a great heavy, clumsy machine, very apt to clog in heavy grain and requiring two men to operate it. One drives and the other is strapped to a post set in the center of the platform and removes the grain with a rake as it is cut. But Uncle Simon's hay crop will be cut with a scythe, hand-rake and pitchfork.

Pa described the plowing. Uncle Simon's new plow has no wheels and is made of cast iron. It cuts a rectangular clod about nine inches wide by three and throws the dirt over the side. It can cut through small tree roots and roots of bushes. Apparently the soil is so rich it doesn’t need fertilizing.
He says that the plow had been built specifically to go around tree stumps, and is the sort of shape of a triangle. The teeth of the machine are made of iron, not wood like Pa said he used in Prussia.

Because we want to be able to plow our land next year, Pa says the first thing we must do is to notch all the trees we want to cut down a few inches deep - and those will die and fall of their own accord.

The weather is now very hot, and there is little rain, so we need to have a supply to water our tender seeds.

Our sod house itself is dark and damp, and very uncomfortable - and way too small. But all the time, Pa says we have to do this, so he can save money to buy the land and then we can build a log house and barn and have a proper farm as soon as possible. We can’t berate him, as he will need to work all the hours that he can all summer, to get us enough to buy the necessities of farming - oxen and a plow as well as a cookstove, and seed for planting winter wheat in the fall.

I must admit that it is pleasantly cool in our house in the very hot weather, and I have been told that it will also be warmer in the winter than our neighbors fancier log houses.

The dirt floor, now has a rough covering of gunny sacks. We have an open fire, which Moma is getting used to cooking on, and we have a kettle nearly always on the boil. Moma and I have made bread and cooked it in our Dutch oven on top of the open fire, which didn’t turn out too badly. 

We have managed to string up a clothes line between some trees, and little by little we are getting settled in, but I hardly have any time anymore to write in my diary.