The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1883-10-05
SOUTHERN MINNESOTA.
Contrasted with Northern Dakota and
New England.

Contrasted with Northern Dakota and
New England.
The Best Agricultural District ON the
Globe.
Address of Hon. =. l.. Coffin, of Iowa, at the
Blue Earth County Fair, Sept. 18th, 1883.
MIR. PRESIDENT AND FELLOW
FARMERs-lt is not always the best
time or place, at IL county or state
Fair. to attempt to gle or listen to
an address. SD many things are there
to take up ones time and thoughts.
SD many old friends togreet. so many
things To see, that to listen tn u prOSy
and dull talk IS something altogether
out of the question. l am almost
ready to conclude that ut Il Fair is no
place for Il speech, Yet us you have
done me the honor OF AN invitation to
meet with you for the purpose of say.
ing something. suppose it is expect
ed of me t. attempt il. What l shall
say may not be of that polished style
or stamp which should. perhaps.
adorn an address ; but want it to he
nevrrihrles IS I'm earnest. plain, mat
ter.uf.tact talk an expression of
| truths and facts-that will bear re-.
mrmhering and thinking over when
you and | are ut our homes holding
the plow or feeding and milking our
cows. am too busy 4 man to spent
time la come up here from my home
just for the sake OF talking AN half
hour. as all know | am il farmer and
Il busy one, too. Ii i make addresses,
| do that us | farm, 10 IL Tor il riir.
pose. am called IN enthusiast,
sometimes, in farming. Well am
glad am. If am rightly named. If
| am an enthusiast, perhaps | may lie
able Ia cnlh,ise others in the same
direction. Down in our State when
| am invited tn address farmers
meetings, tell them | shall feel
have failed in my effort unless have
convinced any fan er that hears me
that he is ut least by % per cent. IL
richer man after the meeting than hr
reckoned himself to he when he LETT
his home to come to the convention.
That is just what want to do here
to-day. | want that farmer, who has
IL good average farm, To feel that he
would not sell his farm to night when
he goes home for less than ut least 20
per cent. added To the price he would
have put upon it in the morning. In
other words, l want you farmers, for
| am here To talk with my brother
farmers to-day, to go home from this
Fair fully ~ to 100 per cent. richer
than when you come here. Now, i
an i'm plain, sober earnest in this mat
ter one of the great missions of the
real. true agricultural writers and
speakers here in this western country
is to get the farmers to correctly I'M
derStand the immense advantages
they hold in their hands. i have been
talking in this direction for the last
six years and had begun to fear /
was harping too much on this line
hut | have just found ont that have
not been talking one half of the real
truth.
1t has been my privilege. this sea.
son. to make "A short visit to my Old
native state New Hampshire, where 4
had lived till man grown. i visited
some of the very best farming cOun.
ties of that State ard some of those
not so good. 1t is absolutely impOS
sible for me to express to you the vast
contrast it seemed to me between
farming here and farming there. We
often speak about a lone horse con.
Germ "or one horse business" Now.
\,
friends and relatives who live there
and farm there, to say that farming
i'm New England now is Il one horse
business expresses IL exactly unless
one has too large horse i'm his mind
IA one pony horse business rather
thin one at that, would he the true
thing. Although l was horn and
raised OIL the farm there, although ]
worked with my father on the old
farm till 23 years old, yet it is to me
now almost an insOlvable mystery
how those people down there can live
SO well as they do and make the ends
of the years meet, on those little bare,
rocky hill and mountain farms. You
or / could not possibly do it now. But
when shall tell you 10y and 10y what
| Ii is they live upon most, you will STE
more clearly what l mean when l
speak of our advantages and my ankle.
ty that we should realize them.
| started from Maine Oh my return
home and came by the IOOsiac Tun-
nci route to Albany, n. V. thence
to BinghamtOn and Elmira, thence to
Mradville, Pennsylvania, Youngstown
and Canton, Ohio, and SO on through
Indiana to Chicago; then to Des
MONIES. Iowa. The same day l
reached Des MOines ! was ordered by
our State Agricultural society to start
for Fort Yates. Dakota. l went up
the Iowa Central and Milwaukee and
It. Paul Railroads to st. Paul and
then by the Northern Pacific to Bis
marck, then by team IS miles to
Standing Rock Indian Agency. Thus
you see traversed in few days
time from one extieme of our farm.
ing country, this side of the Rocky
mountains, to the other, and only
wish had the power of language to
express tn you how fully and IN
mistakably WAS impressed with the
immensely OF the advantages the
farmers of Southern Minnesota, of
Iowa. Illinois and Southern Wiscon.
sin. hold over I'LL others i'm any of the
States. Beyond all dispute, beyond
all gainsayii K, we are occupying the
veiy garden of these United States of
America. Taking everything into
consideration, We are holding the keys
to the agricultural wealth of this
great nation. All this region has al.
most every diversity Of agricultural
wealth open to it. Here almost every
farmer can take his choice of lines Of
farming or can combine all At the
same time there are open to him some
of the great leading lines over which
his location, soil ana climate gives
him such immense advantages that il
amounts to IA monopoly. The farm
ers here are not shut up To any one.
two or three specialties. as is the Case
in other localities. Go up TO the re
giOn of the Red river. near Fargo,
those almost bOundlrss fields of wheat.
On either side, rs far Us the eye could
reach, IL was one continuous view of
sacks of wheat, and thinking only of
wheat the man of our thought and of
our idea says, this is the land for men.
But reflect 4 moment. Once there
one is shut up to that one thing alone.
1t is wheat, wheat, wheat, or moth.
ing, and sometimes the years come
round when it is the nothing. One
cannot raise pork, or beef, or wool.
neither can he dairy, mean rs a
business. When the one crop fails
all fail. Go farther west to the cen.
trail or western Dakota and more
desOlate and fOrbidding looking cO,in
try never set eyes upon.