The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1895-09-13

are ever so common. And proper
keeping means the best keeping that
a farmer can give his animals cOnsis-
tent with their we'll being. The
dairy counties of Minnesota bear liv
ing testimony to the fact that the
stock raiser maintains the producing
powers of his soil. They are the rich
est in the state, that is to say, they
comprise the richest farmers. They
are rich in proportion as the dairy in
terest has secured hold upon them.
The raising of beef cattle will pay
in Minnesota, in competition with
range fed cattle and cattle from the
corn growing states. Feeding range
cattle should be an important indus
try in Minnesota every winter. We
fed steers at the University expert
ment farm last winter and made it
pay we'll. The steers thus fed tipped
the market in twin cities, the meat
bringing 81 cents per pound live
weight.
Sheep raising in Minnesota will pay.
We fed lambs at our station last win
ter and they paid US well. We sold
them in Chicago in March at six cents
per pound live weight. The present
season we are pasturing six sheep and
| ten lambs on one acre of average land,
which has not been manured for five
years. 1t is easily possible to keep
four head to the acre.
Live stock should be kept because
of it's salutary influence upon soil fer
Utility. The vision of towering stacks
seen everywhere represents to the
thoughtful mind so much capital
drawn out of the greatest bank in all
Minnesota, to be sent to other states
and to foreign lands. The hum of
threshing machines may be heard all
day long beating out nitrogen, phos-
phoric acid and potash in the grains
produced by mother earth. Men who
say that manure makes the soil too
rich in Minnesota do not know how
to farm, that is to say. they only
know part of farming. Their
knowledge regarding it is of the mar
row guage order. Manure may make
land too rich to grow some kinds of
crops, but not all kinds.
Live stock should be raised to help
to clean the land, and of all the class
es of live stock kept, sheep are thebest
weed scavengers, There is no denying
it, the average farm in Minnesota is
foul with weeds, not more SO perhaps
than the average farm of bordering
states, but far too much so. Live
stock should be kept because Of the
rotation which keeping it necessi-
tates. There is entirely too much
hazard in our present system of farm
ing. 1t is huge game in which there
is too much at stake. There is not
that variety in our farm products
that there ought to be. The corn
crop of the state is it's surest crop if
grown as a food for live stock, and
the day is coming when it will be it's
greatest crop. In an average season
five bushels more per acre may be ex-
pected from wheat following corn,
than from wheat following grain
crop. The fodder in an acre of corn is
of at least equal value with the fod-
der in an acre of cultivated hay.
But increase in numbers of stock is
not enough. Increase in quality is
even more important. Increase in
quality should be the aim OF every
stockman in the land. Without add
ing one beast to the studs, herds and
fiocks of our own state, the live stock
of Minnesota could in few years be
made so per cent more valuable than
it is today. But before this can be
done, we must have better shelter,
winter and summer, for our stock,
better cured folders, better sires,
more careful selection, and wider
knowledge of the eternal principles
that govern successful animal hus-
bandry.
Gen. J. H. Baker followed Prof.
Shaw with some rather brief remarks
and of such character as to cause
much unfavorable criticism.
State Fair Exhibit.
President Weaver, of the state fair
association, assisted in making Sc
lection yesterday of an exhibit from
the county to be entered at the state
fair in competition with exhibits from
half dozen other counties. An ex-
cellent display was secured from
among the individual exhibits of cere-
ais and vegetables, and it is probable
that no other county in the state can
make better showing. We expect