The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1878-06-20
Farm Manufactures-What Might be
Done.

OlNCE SClcuc0 Has cCdScU W NC IuC
property of a chosen few. and thought
and intelligent inquiry into the causes
of Natures manifestations has so
largely displaced the time-honored
habit of following the ancestral rut of
uses and abuses, most conditions of
life have realized material benefits
from the changes produced by the in
novation of thought, and the barriers
of caste and trade gave way before the
young idea that brought the increase of
life's comforts or pleasures with it. Of
all the occupations in life, the reprcsen-
tatives of none were so slow to avail
themselves of the march of progress as
the tillers of the soil-the producers of
the "staff of life." At first thought,
this might appear surprising, for, as
class, there is not a more thinking
body of men. Their very occupation
changing the "howling Wilderness in
to the bIest abode of peace and plenty
-necessitates, at every step, FORE
thought, care and prudence, in the war
with the elements. With all our inn
proved machinery, only the "sweat of
the brow wrings the golden harvest
from the often intractable sol-saves it
from the inclement blast of the north,
or hastcns to "make hay while the sun
shines. This is the key to the mys-
terry: The drudgery of every days du-
ties, of necessity, SO fully wears out
mind and body, that to "leave well
enough alone is regarded as the cli-
max of practical wisdom. What is the
resultP In some sections of the country
poverty reigns in the midst of plenty.
Corn is used for fuel because the ex-
pense of transportation to distant
market exceeds the price of the COM
modify. Grapes are allowed to rot in
California vineyards on account of the
over-production of that one article, the
product of the cellar, which, since the
days of Noah, or earlier, has been
made from the grape. Milk is fed to
hogs, when in our large cities human
babies suffer for the want of the pure
article; cotton seed is a waste, because
the few mills pressing oil from the seed
have a limited capacity, and make
their own price for the raw material;
tobacco is sold at low figure, because
the purchaser does not fancy the color,
or flavor, or burning quality of the
"weed." In all these, and many SIM
liar instances, the farmer is at the mer
cy of the purchaser of the one article
he has to sell. at the mercy of the rail-
road companies, making their own ar
bitrary terms of transportation, fire.
quantly for good reasons; while little
progress would raise him above the
chances that now too often rob him of
the fruits of a years work.
| Suppose q farmer, or number of
farmers jointly, should erect a starch
factory, which can be done cheaply in
most places, and utilize their corn in
that way. Their accounts would i'm
prove very materially above those from
the sale of corn. The latter is worth
to-day in Chicago about forty cents per
bushel, which includes freight to this
city. One bushel of corn yields, on an
average, twenty pounds Of good starch,
the expense of producing which is about
one-half cent per pound, and which is
as salable as the wheat" if good, in
all quantities, at three to four cents per
pound-equal to sixty or eighty cents
per bushef of corn. The freight upon
twenty pounds of starch is only one
third what it is upon bushel of corn.
The expense of handling the grain in
elevators, frequently quite exorbitant,
is saved, and the thirty-six pounds Of
hull; gluten and colored starch sepa-
rated from the white starch in the grain,
arc as good food for cattle or hogs as
the grain itself, either in the fresh state
as It comes from the starch mill, or
dried. Turned into pork or beef, this
refuse alone becomes, more valuable
than the entire grain is at present.
The manure of cattle or hogs fed on
this refuse, retained on the farm, re-
turns to the soil all the salts taken from
it with the grain, and the ground will
never be impoverished; will never re-
quire artificial fertilization, as is the
case now upon most older farms where
the salts, the goodness of the soil
have been continually removed, and
nothing has been returned. The i'm
portance of this one item to the lasting
success of anv farm il now renerally