The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1891-02-19

those who are putting up linen mills in
Minneapolis that they will take all the
fiber that the farmers of Minnesota and
the Dakotas can produce. The hand
scutched fax is much better than that
prepared by machine. We have it from
Eugene Bosse, of st. Paul Park, that he
realized $3.50 from six acres of flax in
single season, without interference with
other farm work. The gentleman has
promised TO attend this meeting, and
with a fax break and scutching knife
explain what may seem to be difficult
feature in the preparation Of the fiber.
These instruments were made by the
Great Northern railway and the COM
pany is DESTROYS that the farmers of Min
nesota should try this industry in their
spare hours. The tools are of wood, OF
simple construction and description
will be cheerfully furnished so that the
rudest mechanic can make them.
And in this connection let us call at
tention to hemp, which grows wild and
in abundance throughout Minnesota.
city of st. Paul grow up with it every
season. One man has realized as high
as $50 ton for prepared hemp and
ton and quarter can be grown on an
acre. A mill at Champaing, Illinois,
last year contracted for 5000 acres OF
hemp from Illinois farmers.
Men often idle away time in one way
or another that could be most advan-
tageously employed in the potato field,
the onion patch, and other work COM
monty called rtinkering, and generally
thought too undignifed for men and too
insignificant for any one. Things can
be engaged in which are not very labori-
GUS in their nature and that will amount
only to pastime, and when market day
comes, $25 from onions, $50 from navy
beans, $50 to 800 from potatoes, $50
from other root crops, 800 or more
from flax fiber, together with respecta-
BILE amounts from other sources, will
make up quite a snug sum, goodly to
see and handy to have.
Always Keep Live Stock in Variety.
Every small farmer can have various
kinds of stock. Horses, cattle, sheep,
hogs, should all be kept. Good milk cows
are indispensable, and the annual differ
ence between scrub COW and good
one is 100 or more pounds of butter. If
the milk cannot be sold to creamery,
butter may be made by the housewife.
Our state is well adapted to the rails
ing of sheep. We can make mutton
cheaper and better than they can any
where else in the civilized world, and
when we supply home demand there is
plenty of demand abroad, as no Euro
pean can make frst-class mutton as
easily and cheaply- as we can, and NUT
ton is favorite meat abroad.
The stock should be cared for and so
should the implements. Rust and rot
do more for the implement maker in the
winter than wear and tear do in the
summer. and rain and sun do more in
summer than wear and tear. Shelter
for animals as well as implements can
be cheaply and easily made in Mime
sota-if nothing more, poles and straw
can be used.
More attention should be paid to
poultry. Chickens and turkeys can be
proftably raised aud are always salable,
and, with the abundance of water in the
lakes and rivers of Minnesota, ducks and
geese can be made a source of income,
and something too can be made from
fish. Eggs can be preserved against the
day of good prices by methods simple and
easily practiced. The best grades of
poultry should be selected and the
fowls given comfortable quarters and
other needful attention. The average
price received from two eggs will keep a
chicken week and in good condition.
We bought last year $2,300,0OO worth
of eggs from Canada, and in all agricul-
tural products to the value of SIS, SOC, 900,
or enough to divide $500 each among
81, 900 American farmers.
In this land of flowers every farmer
can keep bees cheaply and profitably.
With proper care and attention single
strong healthy hive of bees will produce
every season at least 100 pounds of good
honey, worth from 10 to 20 cents a
pound. A farmer at Alexandria, Mimi,
100 miles north of US, gathered 5000
pounds, or three tons, of honey from a
small apiary.
By attention to these little things a
man of reasonable industry and intelli-
gence can make farming the occupation
that it should be. The merchant makes
his best profits from his notions. Every
other business man looks closely after
the little things. The small farmer
especially ought not to reject the staple
crop, but he ought not to depend upon
that more for real profit than upon his
fax field, vegetable garden, berry
patches, poultry yard and many other
ways and me.ns that can be so easily
adopted and s.slized.
Let the editv<s of Minnesota and the
Northwest gf-e more attention to the
discussion ana development of small in
| dustries in their towns and speciality and
variety on their farms, than creating
small politicians and there will be more
in it for the country.
Without assuming to tell the editors
what they aaght to do, / ask if
the papers Of the farming districts
should not give the interest upon which
the prosperity of their community de-
ponds a large share of space. How
few papers solicit contributions from
their successful farmers, telling why and
how one succeeded with his crops, while
his neighbor failed. If the farmer
feels unable to do it, let the editor write it
up. A hint or suggestion whereby a
subscriber is enabled to make an i'm.
proyement, and in anywise increase his
| income or better his condition is worth
more than the knowledge of the exist
ence of the greatest pugilist that ever
lived.
discard the Ideal. Retain the Practical.
TWAS the expressed ambition of the
good king Henry III, of France, that his
subjects would become SO prosperous
that every one of them might have q
fowl in his pot whenever he wanted It.
Every one DESTROYS of his country's good.
viii heartily wish, not only that every
farmer can have fowl in his pot for his