1875 After January 1875 the winter proved more severe than during the close of the preceding year. The spring was dry making spring wheat a failure. The chinch bugs threatened to do much mischief to other crops but the summer proving wet, they did little damage. The grasshoppers made a raid in southwestern Iowa and northwestern Missouri and in places destroyed the growing crops. They seemed to work in spots; destroying the corn in one field and hardly doing any mischief in the next. The season proved to be the best for several years, and the fields that were not molested by the grasshoppers, produced abundant crops. About the middle of May, I took the measles and was obliged to dismiss school for two weeks. Nearly all of my pupils were taken down at the same time, one of them dying. After closing my summer school, I went home and put up hay on my mother's place. This venture was not a success financially, as I never sold any of it and fed out but little of it. Feed was plenty, contrary to expectations. I taught school during every month of the year and did considerable studying, reading Dick's Works and Shakespeare. and studying Rhetoric, Civil Government, and Composition. I bought some cattle which I fed at home during the winter. My expenses were light, my board at home costing me only 6.00 a month. +++++++++++++++++ Lori