The idea of The Prairie Practitioners was sparked by the advent of the centennial of the South Dakota Veterinary Medical Association in 1991. The editors realized that in South Dakota there were dozens of very interesting stories to be told about the life of the hard-working veterinarians on the prairie. From 1993 through 1995, they collected accounts (most of them written in the first person) from young and old veterinarians throughout the state. In all there are over 125 accounts. Some are less than a page long and some are a few pages long. All help the reader build a picture of what practice on the northern prairies was like over the past 3 generations.