The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1881-08-26
THE farmers of Blue Earth county


r now %threshing and marketing
their wheat, and although the crop
is hardly up to their expectations or
wishes, the general quality of the
grain and the prices being paid there
for help wonderfully in making up
for shortages in product. The ex-
perience OF another year, added to
that of previous years, will convince
most of them whether wheat-raising
rs Il specially has been, now is, and
promises to be in the future a fair
compensation for their labor and the
a~nXieties Of mind which they suffer
from the day they scatter their seed
till the results are developed from the
thresher. We have not the audacity
to Obtrude our own ideas upon the
agricu,turists of Blue Earth county,
and TO proceed in due form to tell
them what we know about farming,
lest they turn and rend us by saying
we are only wise in our WI cOnceit.
and that there is more hope for u fool
than for us. But if in the way of q
friendly talk, We should tell them
that we had taken some pains to talk
with farmers whenever they dropped
into IL office to learn the preponder-
ating drift of their minds, we should
expect to arrest their attention ~
almost speaking from the book.
With singular unanimity these men
yield the point, that II new leaf must
be turned over and more diversified
farming he pursued to make their
vocation remunerating. This being
the exact drift of our own minds, re-
sulting from close observation in
both seed.time and harvest for 4
number of years, supplemented by
the uccess which has rewarded those
who struck out some years since in
stock-raising, decreasing their acres
in wheat and increasing them in corn,
oats, barley, flax, ETC., it does seem
to us that we are on the eve of a new
departure. Having passed u number
of years in the pursuit Of farming,
OH Il far more rugged soil than that
of Minnesota, we somehow feel our.
selves justified in talking freely with
our farmers and v~enturing hints
through the FREE PRESS for their
benefit.
Farming in Minnesota is altogether
different from farming i'm New Eng.
land. In the former, the soil is far
richer, deeper and more lasting with
out fertilizers, than in the latter.
Here, in Minnesota less care is paid
to blowing and cultivating and
harvesting crops than in the East.
Weeds are allowed to grow to maturi.
ty and drop their abundant seeds in
most of our corn and potato fields, to
spring up and detract from the sue
ceeding crops year after year, till the
wonder OF an eastern farmer, fresh
from his carefully cultivated fields is
aroused to know how we can realize
the apology for Il crop from such
neglect. Diversified farming is the
rule in the east, and the careful say.
ing and utilizing all the fertilizers
accumulated in his barnyards and hog
pens and heneries, are deemed indis.
pensable to maintain his cultivated
acres in proper condition for good
crops. Here, the s.ipshOd, disgusting
spectacle is presented of heaps of ma
IMres, the accumulatiOns of years,
which lie in heaps where it has been
dropped or thrown till the barns have
to be moved to new places to give
room for the cattle to move and save
the farmer from becoming mired in
the accumulated filth. But we are
told by many of our Minnesota
farmers that the soil is plenty rich
without manures, and that the use of
them will produce only u rank and
~ungainly growth of stalks, without
corresponding fruit.
The men who hold to this theory
are on the certain road to ruin
their farms and beggar themselves.
All the manures accumulated in on
long winters, should every fall be
rigidly given back to the fields that
have been cropped, and if it is feared
that the corn, pOtatOe, wheat or other
cultivated fields cannot stand such
crowding, spread the same over your
meadows and then get three tons to
the acre where now one and half and
two tons are obtained at the most, OF
hay.
A good farmer has "a mortal enmity
to weeds. A shiftless farmer never
minds their presence or avoids their
cOmpaniOnship. Success in farming
does not depend upon large acres half
cultivated, but a few acres thorough.
ly worked and kindly remembered in
the dispensatiOn of fertilizers.