Low Prices, High Costs

Land might have been less expensive than in Norway, but the cost of living was high on the plains.

"I guess I’ll send a few more lines hoping that you have received a letter with pictures that I sent to you this summer. . . News is so scarce there is nothing to write about except all is well.

Micheal is now through plowing and he has plowed 40 acres almost alone with two oxen. Now it is to haul wheat to town but it is so sorrowfully cheap. Think, only 50¢ and less for each bushel. This fall we got 900 bushels wheat and 300 bushels barley and oats. We had a threshing machine one day for $60, so it is expensive work here in Dakota. There was a time this fall they paid $2 a day with the machines so the farmer has to pay a lot again.

We bought a self-binder this fall and paid $130. From us they got four oxen, for which they gave $106, and the rest he paid with cash. You might know, grandfather, that Micheal was a big man when he got to sit on the new binder and drive it.

Father and Anna shocked so we do not have to hire anyone for work because the children are so big and strong that they work like grown people. So we have it good with that too lately."

Chores and Herding

"Most of the work for us children was chores. And my first work besides that was to help on the threshing floor in the winter after school hours. Then came springs work, and after that the herding seasons (gjete), as we said. But here I was more lucky than most of the others because I had a helper. Sissel and I were twins, and consequently the same age. They did say Sissel was a couple hours older than I, but that made no difference when it came to herding except that I herded spring and fall and she during the summer. Therefore, I began to stay home during the summers earlier than most others."

-- excerpt from Tosten's autobiography, written in 1917