Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 July 1885 — Farms on the Baltic. [ARTICLE]

Farms on the Baltic.

A more beautiful farming country does not exist than that along the southern shore of the Baltic. No fences mark the boundaries of the fertile farms which stretch away oyer the rolling hills to the distant horizon, all aglow with yellow grain. At intervals a clump of trees, often seen intensely dark against the ripe grain, shows where a farm-house Btands, and giant windmills swing their sails on the highest hill-tops. The highway, a finely built ebanssee, leads straight across the country, only curving to pass through some village. Mountain ash, birch, and cherry trees border the road in an unbroken rank. In the ditches and ( by the roadside grow countless varieties of wild flowers—a’perfect paradise for the botanist. From the highest hill the eye meets to the sontli a succession of grain fields. To the north, beyond she soft undulations df the cultivated hills, the Baltic shimmers in the strong sunlight, a narrow line, sharp at the horizon. The dimensions of the brick barns prove the accustomed magnitude Of the harvest; the luxury es the farmers’ houses tells of inherited success.