The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1883-10-05

SIS to $25 Il ton. with corn from IS
cents to one dollar and farm worth,
we'll. / can't tell how much-for one
is seldom sold. but reckoned all the
way from $75 or to $3.50 an acre-still
dairying is one of the most reliable
and profitable of anything followed
on the farm. still they do not get
much. il any more, for the products
of the dairy than we do here. To day
l am selling from my farm, butter for
as good u price rs the man is getting
for his, made on the farm In New
Hampshire where l was born. To
say that my butter does not cost over
half rs much is absolutely within the
truth. spoke Of the price of farms
in New England. There is no price
To them there. Take the farms all
through those six States and the aver
age. if forced to sale, or il sold the
hest possible, would not bring what
it would cost to put the building on
them. asked great many farmers
If they would sell their farms for
what the buildings cost, and the an
swer always was they would be glad
to-"
Ii was most interesting to me to
study the state of things there and
contrast them with things here. No
one thing strikes Il western farmer
more than t. see the great houses and
harms on those small farms, and he is
always wondering how it can he pos
sihle tn support such great buildings
on such poor, small farms. Call ut
almost any farm house you may there,
and you will tinb old grey haired peo
pie. Enter into conversation, AMI ask
them how long the house they live in
has been built. and not one in ten can
tell you. or by whom built.
slept in one house in Stratham.
New Hampshire, that was ut least
200 years old" said the owner.
Not man in one hundred that lives
on those farms built the house he
lives in. The farms have been hand
ed down from father to son, from
generation to generation. l do not
remember now of Seing but one small
house i'm the process of building on a
farm in all my rambling there. 1t is
next to impossible for IL man to he
able TO put up buildings from the pro
creds of his farm. Many cannot keep
them in good repair. l found many
shut up and left to tumble down.
Great. large houses they were, too.
| almost pnvied the eastern farmer
his large barns; no suclra thing there
as farm without its harm. No mat
ter how small the, farm, it had
it's big barn-large enough to
store inside every nanlahle
thing raised on the farm. Every
straw, hay, corn stock-every husk,
pea vine and bean pod-all were say.
I'll tn feed out in winter. Oh! how
tidy and neat everything was. Every
tool IN its place and housed, every
wagon and cart wheel under cover
But am staying down east too long
1t is a good place tn visit, but il yon
stay too long they will begin to think
how much the butter and eggs yon
eat would come to if they could have
sold them. and rightly. too. Let us
bid ulieI to their winding roads, pine
tr. IS and rocky fields and pastures,
ana turn now to our broad prairie
farms, with our rude and small
houses and rude barns. but with u
soil holding in it the vast possibilities
unknown to eastern farmers, and only
partially realized by us who own
them. With the same economy, in.
,lustry and calculation used by the
eastern farmer, what may we not ex-
poet for ourselves here? Everything
they can grow there, at SD much ex-
penSe for fertilizers and hard labor,
we can grow in vast quantities at
much less cost. Railroads and other
improved methods of transportation
have placed the $75 to $3.50 per acre
farm that once laid close around BOs
ton. New York and Philadelphia,
away west of the great lakes. They
are here in Iowa, Illinois and Mime.
sofa. For all real, practical purposes
farms here in Southern Minnesota
are as near New York to day rs were
the fine farms of Herkarmer or but.
chess counties fifty years ago. To-day
brother farmers of Minnesota, your
farm. right here, is worth us much,
acre for acre as is the farm that lies
within one hundred miles of the great
cities of the east. You have no rocks
to dig or pile up in the corners OF
your field, tO get them oar of the
way; you have not to wait years for
the stumps and their roots to rot away
so yOu can plOW; you do not have to
pay out every year tor fertiliZers-as
much rs your entire crops are worth.
Your farns-yOur entire farms--are
oil al, NH I. "A
are superior i'm mellOwness, fertility
AMI depth Of soil to the hest garden
spot on any Of the New England
farms.
All you want is to know what is the
best line of farming to follow, SO rs
To- bring you i'm the hest return, ana at
the same time retain the amazing fer
tility Of your soil. / know that for
some reason or other the wheat the
small grain mania-takes possession
of almost every man that opens mp Il
farm in the west. For the first year
or two, grain is all right. l'ut the
trouble wit most Of us Is we are too
much like the man.with the whisky.
we meyer know when to stop. Bitter
years IF experience, however, have
taught many useful lessons both To
the drinker and to the wheat raising
farmers.
Now the question comes up all
around, ''wllaL shall ! do to be
sav-d?' Down in BUR state we are
answering that question both to the
| drinker and the farmer.
To the first we say ''shut up the sa-
loons;' n the last we say ''by grass,
dairy and stock"
Are those answers pertinent here
for you. my fellow Minnesota farm.
ers!
/ am inclined to think that the i'm
aginary line Over which uncon.
scio,sly passed on my way here-Ihat
divides Iowa from MinnesOta--,iOes
not make much difference in soil or
climate, At any rate. shall talk
with yOn ~ ] do win our farmers OH
the south side Of that line. l suppose
il will not do to say much about the
first thing l mentioned, the drink
matter, especially to-day. This is an
agricultural day ID. county fair-a
farmers day--and all talk must be
about farming; hut, only want to
give notice to yo,,. Farmers of Blue
Earth county, and OF this state in
fact. that l am always willing. and
eager even, to talk upon this saloon
business. for of all the blIghting cur
SEES, and mildews, and rust. and I'M.
timely frusts. that have ever struck
the farmers homes, and the highest
welfare OF his family, this liquor
traffic is the worst; and We farmers of
Iowa are seeing IL, and we are arising
IN our might and are writing on the
wall it's doom. and it is this. "thou
art weighed in the balance and found
wanting" n