The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1860-01-13
Local AHai rs.

LEGISLATIVE FARMERS AND MECHANICS
CLUB.-The third meeting Of this club was
held in the Representatives Hall. on Thurs
day evening, the President, Col. John II.
Stevens, of Glencoe, in the chair.
The attendance was not so large as at
the previous evenings, in consequence of a
party at the Governors.
The subject for the evenings discussion
was stock raising.
Mr.. Shrewsbury, of Hennepin, said that
Providence had evidently intended Mime
sofa for stock raising country-its natu-
raj meadows enabled the emigrant to COM
mence raising stock when he first made his
settlement. The winters are so dry that
cattle will do better here on hay alone than
in other States-they will come out better
in the spring than in Indiana and Illinois,
where they are fed on turnips, hay and corn.
Almost any farmer can easily winter from
twenty-five to fifty head of cattle upon hay
from his own farm.
Mr.. Hoyt, one Of the Oldest settlers in this
section Of country, made some interesting
remarks upon farming in this country. He
thought highly of the State for stock rails.
ing, but would not have exclusive stock or
grain farms, but would raise everything that
the country was capable of producing.
He spoke particularly of the adaptation of
the climate to sheep raising. The animals
in the far north had heavier furs than in the
south, and he thought the sheep would pro-
duce more wool here than in Missouri or
Iowa. 1t was his conviction that no pur-
suit would be more certainly remunerative
than the raising of all kinds of stock, vege-
tables and cereals, on the same farm.
Mr.. Abbott, of LIE Sueur, said Minnesota
was pastoral State. We should endeavor
first to raise enough of everything the
soil was susceptible of producing for
the purpose of supplying ourselves, and then
consider what we could raise that would be
most profitable to export. We should never
import any thing that we raise ourselves.
He thought there was necessity for raising
all the wool we could. At present our
great export staple was wheat, but on &C.
count of the high cost of transportation it
was not nearly as profitable as beef and
cheese-he thought cheese would be the
most profitable export-much more so than
butter and that next to beef and cheese,
wool would be the best, because it cost but
little more to transport pound Of wool to
market than pound of wheat or flour
and that all our surplus cereal and vegetable
crops should be tusned into that which
could be most cheaply transported to a
market.
MIR. Langworthy gave an account of his
starting stock farm, which was not very
encouraging. He brought one hundred head
of two year ODDS, and it cost half of them to
get the other half wintered the first season
Col. Stevens suggested that probably
Mr. Langworthy came into the country in
the fall with his stock, without having made
any provision for the winter.
Mr.. Abraham, of Hennepin, thought the
reason why we were so poor now in Mime
sofa, was, that we had been, ever since its
FIRST settlement, importing instead Of export.
ing. He thought that no business here
would pay better than raising sheep and
wool-that we could compete with any
body in raising sheep and stock. He
thought it unwise to have any but the best
breeders. He thought it useless to have a
kind that would not yield more than three
pounds of wool, when one that would yield
six pounds would cost no more. Wool
could be shipped to New York for
about one cent per pound, and would
there bring forty two cents per pound.
The wool crop of Wisconsin last year
amounted to over 100000. There was
another reason why we should turn our at
tention to wool growing-it is because
Minnesota has such superior manufacturing
facilities. We have also to supply the vast
country to the North and West of US. The
speaker stated that the wool grown in the
North was heavier than in the South-that
Missouri sheep yielded one-fourth more wool
in Minnesota than at home. Too much
attention cannot be paid to stock raising,
and to the care of stock during the winter
no Pennsylvania farmer would think of
tying cattle out of doors to posts and fences,
if he expected them to pillow his fields in
the spring, any more than he would expect
to 60 to Gibralter on sled; with the same
attention to this point here, cattle would
come out in the spring twenty per cent.
better here than there. 1t was good econo.
my to take good care of stock. The speaker
said that hogs should also be better taken
care of, as pork raising was only second in
nroft tn wool raising. He had imported