St. Paul daily globe., 1893-03-06
DIVERSITY OF FARMING.

The country papers of the state are
beginning to discuss this subject.
There is no subject to which they could
devote themselves with as much proht
to the farmers as urging unanimously
aud perSiStently that the AGRICULTURAL
pursuits should have diversity or
interests. This Is the especial field OF
the country paper. Few farmers ever
see city daily, but nearly every farmer
takes the weekly paper published III MS
market town. The farmers OF Mime
seta need to be aroused to the impor-
tance of raising few acres at least OF
every kind of crop which can thrive at all
in this climate ;alS0 atew head OF horses,
as many hogs as they can we'll care for'
cattle. sheep and poultry of every Kind.
They have placed too much reliance IN
wheat; i'm fact, so much that many OF
them scarcely know how to grow any
thing else. With wheat alone they are
first at the mercy of insects and the ele-
ments; and if they have been favored
by these. then they are at the mercy or
the markets. 1t generally happens that
when they have raised large and hne
crop of wheat the markets average very
low, and when their crops are almost
failure the markets sre very high.
Either way the wheat farmer comes out
at the little end of the horn. Ihls Is
not a corn state, yet corn can be raised
to some extent, and occasionally very
good crops are had. Every farmer
should plant few acres of this grain
not enough to lose heavily if the crop
does not thrive, and just enough 10
make something if it turns out good.
Oats do well in Minnesota, and IT is
profitable grain on the average. Inc
farmer should grade the number oi
acres devoted to each crop in proportion
to the chances it has in this climate.
There is one thing which the farmers
should add to their list, and that Is
sugar beet growing. The experiments
so far made in the state show that that
would be an almost unfailing and about
the most profitable crop Of the lot. The
tests of the sugar beets raised here show
that the per cent of sugar in them Is
greater than in the beets of any other
state They do not impOyerish the SOIL,
but seem to enrich it. and they leave
the ground in excellent condition FOR
use the next season. Forty years ago
the farmers of Germany were on the
verge of bankruptcy-vastly worse on
than the farmers of Minnesota. They had
for centuries devoted their soil to pro-
ducing only barley, rye, wheat and oats
and the land had reached point where
it refused to produce these crops longer.
They lived under the belief that their
cold country was not adapted to any
other product. At length millionaire
philantnropiSt became fully alive to the
peril of the farmers, and resolved to find
something else which could be prOlitably
grown in Germany. He hit upon the
sugar beet. His experiments proved
that it would thrive admirably, SO he
devoted a large share of his fortune to
distributing seed among the farmers
and helping them IN their first efforts
with it. Today the German farmers are
among the most prosperous in the world,
and the large majority OF them are
wealthy. all of which they owe to the
efforts of the philanthrOpist.
Rotation of crops is as important as di-
yersty. The prosperous farmer not only
raises every variety of crop, but rotates
them, so that the land on which he
raised wheat this year Will be deyo ted
to corn and other things next year. One
of the most prosperous farmers of Hi
nois has farm of some 1000 acres. He
seeds with timothy and clover every
year eighty acres, and plOws up another
eighty which has been raising timothy
and clover hay crops two or three
years. In this way every eighty acres
of his farm is turned into hay land ey-
cry few years. His land is always rich
and productive by this means. lie
raises every kind of crop, and rotates
them with the best of judgment. The
idea that a man who is unfit for city
vOcatiOns can be a farmer is mistake.
The successful farmer must be man of
brains; he must be thinker as well as
industrious. The country papers will
have performed a good service for the
state if they keep agitating this subject
until every wheat farmer reforms in his
method of conducting his business.