Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1889-01-23
COMMON-SENSE TALK.
Ih" Limited Demand Existing for Luxu-
ries Produced on Farms.

Il. COMMON.SENSE TALK.
Ih" Limited Demand Existing for Luxu-
ries Produced on Farms.
farmers, gardeners, stock growers
and poultry-keepers are often advised
by agricultural papers to ''raise only
the best." They are informed that it
costs as much to raise u poor animal
as 1t does a good one, and that the last
will bring twice as much money as the
hrst. Dairymen are informed that no
more feed. milk or labor is required to
produce butter that brings 50 cents per
pound than that which sells for only
one-fourth as much. It is often point
ed out that on the day when Concord
grapes wore dull at cents per pound
Black Hamburghs sold readily for so
cents. An occasional sale of fat capons
at 40 cents per pound when ordinary
fowls brought but II affords text for
asermon On tho profits of raising choice
poultry for the city market. When
some specially large and fine strawbel-
r.es and blackberries sell for so cents
box, farmers and gardeners are re-
minded of what they could do if they
only tried.
This sort OF advice probably does
some good. 1t encou"aq~s people to
try to excel and shows them that thew
will be rewarded if they succeed. It
does little harm for the reason that few
who are the victims of unfavorable cir
cumstances will attempt to follow it.
Persons who live on farms that have
just been taken up in the forests or on
the prairies know that they can not
keep thoroughbred animals of the best
breeds for various reasons. They have
not the money to obtain the breed
ing animals. They have no suitable
buildings for sheltering them and no
means of erecting them. They have
no hay except that made from wild
grass. They have no time to devote to
the proper care Of fine stock. The
loss of high-priced bull or stallion
would ruin one of these poor farmers.
1t is evidently better for them to keep
a considerable number of common ami
mails and to grade them up as their
circumstances improve. They want
strong but not stylish horses to work,
COWS that will give milk and will calve,
and hogs and steers that will supply
the family with meat
1t is true that fancy prices are paid
in every large city for fancy fruit,
fowls, butter and vegetables. But it Is
not generally true that farmers in new
places will find any profit in producing
these articles. They have too much to
do in improving their places and in
supplying the wants Of their families
to devote much time to the petty de-
tails necessary to raise strawberries
as large as peaches. finely bleached
celery, Or the grapes that are wanted
at some fashionable banquet. Besides
they have not the knowledge required
to raise them nor the facilities for pro-
ducing them. Something more than
milk, churn and bag of salt is
needed to produce butter that will sell
for fifty cents per pound. Superior
COWS, the cultivated grasses, old past
ure sod, warm barns, pure water,
line milk-house, excellent dairy uten-
sils and supply of ice are all re-
qulred before the making of "gilt-
edged" butter can be commenced, and
all these in the hands of any person
who is not an expert will not produce
the article that is needed to obtain the
high price.
1t should also be kept in mind that
the demand for farm, garden and dairy
articles that deserve to rank among
table luxurles and which sell at the
prices they bring is very limited Only
a few persons have the means to paw
fifty cents for quart of strawberries,
a cluster of grapes or a pound of but
ter. Salad made of the flesh of capons
and bleached celery is only found on
the tables of the very rich, and is not
often found there. If there was no
butter that could be bought for less
than fifty cents per pound most per-
sons would use some substitute for it
on their bread and beefsteak. Indeed,
the present price of creamery butter
Is so high that none but persons of
means can afford to use it. When but
ter becomes very high not only butter
inc but many other things are used in
the place of it. Dried and canned
fruit, commercial jelly, sirup, molas-
SOS, and cured fish can be employed as
relishes for eating with bread. If no
berries could be bought for less than
fifty cents per quart they would cease
to be numbered among the necessities
of life.
It may be difficult to name a price
that certain rich epicures will not
sometimes pay for choice articles of
food, especially those produced out of
the ordinary season. But the great
mass of humanity can not pay the
prices. They must of necessity eat
those things that can be obtained at
comparatively low prices. A few
brook trout can be sold in every large
city at dollar pound. but the major
ity OF persons would prefer to obtain