The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-11-22 00:00:00

THE STOURBBIDGE OBSERVER_

of the stock during the long winter and their restric-
tion daring that period to dry food interfere with
their thriving. With cheap sheds, more yard room.
a few roots or cabbage, which grow capitally, mingled
with the hay and corn and some attention to their feet,
there is no reason why sheen should not answer well.
Hogs are not so numerous as in the more purely corn-
growing State of lowa and Missouri, but are gene-
rally good. Indeed, I have not seen a thriftless bad
pig since I landed in America. Horse breeding is
receiving attention, and much need, for the horses
are neither as big, shapely, nor as profitable as they
should be.

The prosperity of Minnesota has been mainly fostered
by the extensive and energetic' development of her rail-
ways. The Missisaippi, navigable for 90 miles above
St. Paul, was originally the great highway, and still
proves useful for them wing of lumber and some heavy
goods. In 1562 the State bad but 10 miles of railway;
now she has 3,000 miles, and is laying down upwards
of 300 miles annually. Through the level prairie,
without any heavy cuttings or embenkments, with
only low wooden bridges, such lines are con-
structed and equipped at about £2,000 a mile.
The St. Paul and Sioux City and other enterprising
lines do not always wait for the march of population
on westward; they obtain from the State a grant
of very alternate section of one square mile or 640
acres for twenty miles on each side of their approved
line; they push their railway into the new, scarcely
Inhabited, country. There are no heavy Parliamentary
expenses, no litigation with captious owners objecting
to severance of their estates, not even a sportsman puts
in a plea for the disturbance of game. Within six or
eight months a line of fifty miles is often surveyed,
staked out, and built, the iron rails laid, station houses
put up every six or seven miles, and a steady fellow
appointed, whose principal work for some time is in
his garden. But as emigrants follow along, the man's
Importance and income speedily increase. He has
a small percentage on the business done; he has
something for showing the railway lands which are
soon picked up at prices varying from 4 dole. to 5 dole.
an acre. Those three or four miles back from the
railway are obtainable at less money. In Minnesota,
the Government lands have almost all been taken up
under homestead, pre-emption, or timber grants, and
the various railway companies are hence the chief
parties from whom good, accessible lands can now be
obtained. The price of land, as alight be expected,
varies considerably with its situation and other cir-
cumstances, beginning as low as 3 dole. an acre. It
Is, however, steadily rising. Near railway stations,
even 100 miles from St. Paul, a great deal bought or
pre-empted at 1 dol.. or 2 dols, an acre is now worth
10 dole., and where buildings have been erected,
trees and fences planted, and other improvements
made, even purely agricultural sections sell for 20 dole.
to 25 dole. Although a large proportion of the State
has already been disposed of to settlers, speculators,
and others, and although a considerable area is use-
fully occupied for grazing, not one-tenth has as yet
been brought under cultivation, and of that cultivated
portion certainly not one-half receives the ploughing
and other labour requisite to produce the best returrs.
The deep, good, easily wJrked soil which is so widely
distributed in this State only needs more labour,
capital, and steady industry to increase its production
both of breadatuffs and of meat.

Under the head of "Vegetable and Dairy Farming in
Minnesota," The Times of Wednesday published another
letter from their Special Correspondent, under ,date St.
Paul, Oct. 13. The following is an extraet therefrom :
Market-gardening, which flourishes on the light,
friable loam around St. Paul, and is pursued
chiefly by Germans, who have recently been paying
£3O to £4O an acre, and generally cultivate five to
ten acres. Same have advances to about half the
value of their purchase, accommodation for which
they have to pay 10 per cent. Most of the smaller
farmers also grow the commoner vegetables for
sale in St. Paul and Minneapolis, succeeding parti-
cularly well with potatoes, which produce 200 to 300
bushels an acre, and sell at about 25c, per bushel, with
cabbages, which bring 46. or sc. per head, and with
onions, which fetch 35c. per bushel. There is nothing
special to note in the management of these vegetables.
The growers as yet are, however the only farmers who
appreciate the value of and find time to apply manure.
By others it is regarded as a waste product, to be got
out of the way as cheaply as possible. When it
accumulates several feet high around the buildings a
stream is sometimes turned on to carry it away, or the
hovel itself may be moved. If the manure is carted,
it is generally to fill up some hole or make a road.
Wheat straw sells for a dollar a ton in St. Paul, but
a few miles out it is valueless and thousands of tons
are annually burnt throughout the State. When the
paper mills which are in contemplation in various dis-
tricts are in full operat'on, straw may become of some
value independently of its agricultural uses.
Owing to the abundance of common lands and
grazisgs in the woods or on occupied prairie land, rent
free or at nominal rates, many cows are kept
in the neighbourhood of St. Paul. They are seen
in herds often numbering 100, and are looked after,
as the law insists, by a lad. Some are turned out
with their calves at foot. Many are decorated
with a bell hung round the neck. All are brought
in and distributed to their owners at night. Milk
sells at about 10d. per gallon. Butter is of good
quality, usually wade rather salt, and worth is. to
iii, 4d, per lb.; cheese is rarely made. All the con-
siderable dairy folks have "spring houses," usually
built of atone, situated on some stream or lake,
sheltered by a few trees, with the water flowing through
rude clay, stone, or iron tanks, in which the tins of
milk are placed so soon as drawn from the cow. All
these people are comfortable and well-to-do. Their
common history is "ten or twenty years ago they had
nothing." Now they own, often without encumbrance,
their land and what it carries.

Commissioned to write of corn and cattle, of land,
its capabilities and its value, I cannot stay to describe
this beautiful and varied country; the woodland
drives by the banks of the Mississippi; the crystal
bays of Minnetonka Lake, on which four large
steamers carry (=unionists ; the delicate, Lace-like
tracery of the Minnehaha falls, or the grand command-
ing position of Fort Snelling, built in 1819, volt.
above the meeting of the waters of the Minnesota
and Mississippi, famous in many an Indian cam-
paign, and now the chief United States fort of
the North-West. . • . Although the elk, buffalo,
and other bi 4 game have retired before the advance
of colonization, there is still abundant sport in the
woods and prairies, and during the past ten days,
from trains, from carriages, and when on foot, I
have raised countless prairie chickens, grouse,
quails, golden plovers, wild ducks and geese, great
sand-hill cranes, weighing 201 b. and fat as turkeys
at Christmas with rabbits and hares, the latter
oddly termed 'Jackrabbits. A sportsman desirious
of striking into new but pleasant quarters for
either shooting or fishing might do much worse
than come to Minnesota. He can reach St. Paul
within 15 days from London, and at a moderate cost
of £25. Solicitous to preserve good sport, Minnesota,
in common with other States, has enacted game laws.
There are no penalties against shooting or trapping on
other people's land. The sportsman can shoot or fish
where he lists.
The small owner or tenant has himself to blame if
any damage is sustained from game; but a close time
is rigidly prescribed, and infringement of its provisions
is punished by fine or imprisonment

Subjoined are a few notes of two farms visited in
the neighbourhood of St. Paul, and which may afford
some idea of the farming of the locality. Mr. Smith,
of the Meadows, purchased his 300 acres three miles
from town eleven years ago at 20 dols. an acre. The
land is undulating, and PM chiefly under wood and
scrub, which has been grubbed up at a coat of 20
dole, an acre, with 5 dole, more for clearing off
the timber and doing the first ploughing. These
Items forcibly set forth the expenses of bringing wood
land under thorough cultivation. The farm is enclosed
and conveniently subdivided. Before it was enclosed
500 cattle occasionally strayed over it, devouring
everything almost as closely as the locusts did in some
districts in 1874 and 1875. Draining of a few
springy, wet places has been effected with 3in. pipes
placed 41 t. deep. Eighty acres are still in wood, with a
lake of ten acres, which it is proposed to drain. A
stable with a barn overhead has been built of stone and
timber, 40ft, long and 20! t. wide, covered with wooden
shingles, or thin slips of wood cut and put on like
slates. The building, which is 22ft. to the laves, is
divided into two stories; the lower is partitioued the
long way, allowing foni. rows of cattle to be tied up.
Accommodation is said to be provided for 100
animals. but such a number would necessitate close
packing, A well 20ft, deep is sunk in the middle of
the shed, and with pump and iron piping the water is
conveniently distributed. Ten feet of head room are
secured below, and in the barn floor shoots and open-
ings are provided, through which the food, with little
labour, is supplied to the cattle beneath. A very niee,
well-furnished dwelling-house of wood, with ten
rooms, has been erected at a cost of 2,000 dole. Around
the house evergreen shrubs have been planted, and
several hundred apple trees, but many of these have
perished fromfroet. Mr, Smith frankly confesses that he
would have had a much better return for his labour and
capital had he gone to a western prairie, where, with-
out clearing expense and expenditure of time, he
might at once have struck in his ploughs; but with a
liberal education, and anxious to attend science and
other lectures at St. Paul, he preferred te remain near
the town. The increased value ef his estate, which
would now sell for 60 dollars, would, however, repay
outlay. About 100 acres are still under the plough,
and 120 are in grass. The crops are good The
took of the farm, reduced by recent sales, consists of
even horsile four two-year-old colts, five cows, about
20 cattle of various ages, and some good pigs; but
there are no sheep, Four labourers are regularly
employed at a coat of 1 dollar a day for each, except-
ing in harvest, when rates are doubled.
The Times' Correspondent then gives a description
of the farm occupied by Mr. Sam Deering, of Bluff-
d ale (a mile from St. Paul)—a capital specimen of a
Western settler. He came to his present abode as a
tenant twelve years ago with a waggon drawn by four
bullocks, followed by seven small cows. By thrift
and indouusste and
industry be
pnroewmisoews,nsanhd is
is 75 acres,
of
toda
g
cattle, of which about twenty are superior pedigreed
shorthorns, After giving a description of Mr.
Deering's stock and farming operations, the corre-
spondent concludes by saying—" I do not anywhere
remember 75 acres of land producing such heavy
crops of fodder and contributing so largely and
profitably to feed 120 cattle and nearly as many hogs.
What Mr. Deering has done others surely may do."