Proof of the requisite settlement and improvement shall be made by the preemptor to the satisfaction of the register and receiver, in the district in which the lands so claimed lie, who shall each be entitled to receive fifty cents from each applicant for his services rendered. as aforesaid; and all assignments and transfers of the right hereby secured prior to the issuing of the patent, shall be null and void.  (See U. S. Stat. at Large, vol. 5, 453-458.)

But I was on the point of advising the settler what he should bring with him into a new country and what leave behind.  He should not bring much furniture.  It is very expensive and troublesome to have it transported.  Nor will he need much to begin with, or have room for it.  It will cost nearly as much to transport it seventy miles through the territory as it will to bring it from whence he started within the limits of the territory.  Let him pack up in a small compass the most precious part of his inanimate household, and leave it ready for an agent to start it after he shall have found a domicil.  This will save expensive storage.  Then let his goods be directed to the care of some responsible forwarding merchant in a river town nearest to their final destination, that they may be taken care of and not be left exposed on the levee when they arrive.  St. Paul is now a place of so much mercantile importance and competition that one may buy provisions, furniture, or agricultural tools cheaper there than he can himself bring them from the East.  The professional man, however, will do well to bring his books with him.

Let us assume now that the settler has got his house up, either a frame house or of logs, with a part of his farm fenced; and that be has filed his application for preemption at the land office in the district in which he resides.  Let us suppose further, that he is passing his first autumn here.  His house, if he is a man of limited means, has but two rooms, and they are both on the basement story.  He has just shelter enough for his stock, but none for his hay, which is stacked near by.  The probability is, that he lives in the vicinity of some clear stream or copious spring, and has not, therefore, needed to dig a well.  The whole establishment, one would think, who was accustomed to the Eastern style of living, betrayed downright poverty.

But let us stop a moment; this is the home of a pioneer.  He has been industrious, and everything about him exhibits forethought.  There is a cornfield all fenced in with tamarack poles.  It is paved over with pumpkins (for pumpkins flourish wonderfully in Minnesota), and contains twenty acres of ripe corn, which, allowing thirty-five bushels to an acre, is worth at ninety cents per bushel the sum of $630.  There are three acres of potatoes, of the very best quality, containing three hundred bushels, which, at fifty cents a bushel, are worth $150.  Here then, off of two crops, he gets $780, and I make a moderate estimate at that.  Next year he will add