The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1884-03-21

LIST, good COWS, and among these LIST,
stock raiscrs; End, good mixers in
quantity, for cheese making; 3rd, good
mixers in quality, for making butter.
He thought that at present we need
those that will breed we'll and yield a
good quality of milk at the same time.
We should furnish plenty of good tame
grass pasturage, and tame hay. Ex-
perience has taught him that tame hay
land pastuIage is the only feed that we
can make good butter on, for wild
grasses are more or less sour and bitter
and this flavor must be given to the but
ter made from it. Good water he
thinks is one of the most essential
things in successful dairying. Stagnant
water and low marshy grass will spoil
the flavor Of bntter, no matter how well
made. Hswould recommend for grass,
timothy blue joint, Aissee clover and
other well known varieties. nr. Ar
getsinger laid great stress on the care of
stock; warm and clean barns should be
provided constantly. He also called
attention to the fact that milk houses
and all utensils should be scrupulously
clean and deprecates the practice of
keeping butter and milk in straw sheds
and other novel places as he has seen
done.
Questions.-Dr Bishop-What breed
of COWS do you recommend?
Mr.. Argetsinger-I would advise
farmers to select by experience. For
dairy purposes select those which give
good quality of milk.
Mr.. Hubbard-What use would you
make of sloughs.
Mr.. Argetsinger-I would ditch them
and thus get rid of them.
Mr.. D. w. Brooks next read paper
on: "The Future of Our Vicinity, and
for practical thoughts, absence of
theories, and general points of merit
the paper is worthy of much praise. In
substance it is:
I am aware that there is and has
been a feeling of encouragement
among the farmers Of this community
in trying to maintain their families; pay
their taxes and save their farms. But
I will prophesy that in the near future
we will have rich country, because we
have the resources in our grass and our
soil. We have but to utilize those and
we will prosper. I am well satisfied
that we have a good corn country, and
corn, grass and oats will make good
stock. Our railroads have brought good
markets to our hand, and the evil is in
Irlie fact that we make too few ship
ments instead of prices being too low.
Our northern regions will always have
to draw on us for draught horses and
dairy products. We will soon learn
that we can maintain more COWS on
small area of ground, and by a little ex-
penditure of money and labor, winters
are not to be dreaded; for if prepared,
we can attend our stock and laugh at
the storm. We may be discouraged at
times in providing these, but we must
be patient. Be industrious and look in
! to the future. We must be more eco
nomical in use of fodder, and we are
blessed with climate in which fodder
can be preserved with little difficulty.
Fodder put up here will cure and come
out bright and fresh, while under the
same circumstances in Massachusetts
| it would rot to the ground. Our
cold climate is blessing in one re-
spect, it drives out the lazy shiftless
farmer and leaves the enterpris-
ing. Still there is one class of lazy
turner's, who don't freeze out, i.e.,
a class who work hard, but are too lazy
to calculate. Too much hard work
without proper thought will lead to
failure, hence we must think and plan
more, and not work 80 hard, because
our failures comes from misdirected
labor as often as from lack of it. We
should have more direct communica-
ton with the consumer, for heretofore
the middle men have eaten up
our profits thus compelling us to sell
our produce at loss. Let us raise
more course grain and feed it out, and
cut our farms up into divisions so
that we can pasture them more, then
we will not have to 60 begging. We
should study the market more for
there is call for different products at
different periods, and we should be
prepared to take advantage of those re-
Iquirements. We have the advantage
of creamery in our midst and should
keep more cows and support the cream
cry. Again We should raise more
poultry, for every farmer can turn off
$50 worth of poultry each year, which
will be almost clear profit, because it
CLEANS it's living from waste matter. I
have heard lady say that ~ hens will
yield as much net profit in a year as
one cow. We must be content with
small gains and progress slowly; beau
tify our homes, educate our children,
and improve our minds. In doing SO,
we do enough if we don't get rich.
Questionable. Brown.-I would
like to ask for the name of that lady
who has the IL hens?
Mr.. Brooks,-It would be no use she
lives in Massachusetts,.
Mr.. Henry Francis was introduced
next, and read a very interesting paper
on Successful Dairying." Mr.. Fran
els thinks we cannot denounce our
country as dairy region, as many do;
because we have never given it a pro-
per test. In his estimation it will stand
q good test. His idea of q test would be |
to equip farm of 100 acres with 25 |
cows, team, IL calves, several hogs, |
and devote 30 acres to raising feed and
the rest to pasture and meadow, and
test it for three years at least then, he |
thinks.we would render verdict on it. |
He also urged the need of proper shell
ter and care. The speaker estimates
the dairy portion of our country to be |
only 800 miles wide, and we are in the
centre of the belt, hence we should not
fear the results. Delaware Co., Iowa,
he says is the banner dairy county Of
the world, and we are only hours ride
from it, and fifty years ago there Nas
no interest in dairy farminS there. He
thinks that dairy and wheat Arming |
should be carried on together, and take
better care of our stock, If &e con-
tinue to impose on the poor Gov we |