The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1896-02-13

lexample Of Stearns county, between
st. Cloud and Sank Center. That sec
tion was settled by Germans from the
j upper Rhine country. Not long ago
you could hardly find a man there who
could speak English. Now the old
farmers are worth $4,000 or SIS, OOO
Many have sold their farms to their
sons and moved into the towns and
these farmers have bought the farms
ofsless Industrious people around them.
i Let the foreigners come in; they will
help develop your country and add
property to your assessment rolls.
tWesshonld all remember that agricul-
ture is the main pursuit and upon its
prosperity depends the success of all
other lines Of business. Nine-tenths
of all the wealth Of this State is pro-
duced upon the farms. You farmers
must earn ten dollars in order that
people IN other pursuits may get one
ldoier. We are all interested in the
sucess Of the farmer. If you had not
lsuna bus products to ship and no money
to spend in travel we should have to
stop running railroads
Mr.. Hill spoke at some length in
praise Of the work being done at the
agricultural college, which he re-
i garded as the most important branch
OF the State university. f had been
4 demon trated at the college, he said,
that twenty sheep could be subsisted
on an acre OF land, and that three half
breed steers could be fattened on the
feed consumed by two scrubs and
would give fully third more beef.
4 Hess said that if the farmers in Mile
Laos county would go down next sum-
mer and spend day visiting the col
Elege and experiment farm and learn
all they could about the new scientific
methods of farming and feeding stock
he would be happy to have special
train ready for them and would take
them down and back without any
Icharge didn't care how many
went; the more the better.
Mr.. Hill spoke of his own experience
in farming. He said that this year he
had made his potatoes count for Is
cents a bushel by feeding them to pigs,
and he said that he had found that he
could fatten four hogs from the skim
med milk Of one COW. There was no
money he received which he valued
more than that from selling butter to
:, his neighbors. Speaking of stock rails.
ing he said there used to be saying
& down East where he was brought UP
q that ttff tn best man to drive cattle was a
q cripple who walked with one crutch,
because he couldn't throw stones at
the cattle without falling down. Some
men thought all that was necessary in
feeding animals was to scatter some
feed on the ground and give them a
kick. Farmers sometimes character
lied very ignorant fellow by saying
that he did not know enough to carry
milk to a SOW. He had some such men
in his employ, but he didn't keep them
long. Nothing paid better in raising
domestic animals than kindness. He
was fattening 500 sheep for Armour,
and he instructed his man to feed them
on chopped straw and oil cake. Going
out to look at them he found they were
not doing well, and he found that the
man had put the oil cake at the bottom
and the straw on top so that they would
have toeat up all the straw before
they got any of the cake. HE was
one of those fellows who didn't know
enough to carry milk to sow Mr..
/ Hill was listened to with the closest at
tention by the large audience and was
frequently applauded.
Mr.. Hill was followed by E. v.
Smalley who described how people
had rushed past the forest counties in
their haste to reach the prairie where
fields lay waiting only to be ''tickled
I by the plow'' to yield rich harvests.
They had not studied the conditions OF
J, the country and many had settled
where the rainfall was not great
enough to grow crops. He would not
i advise farming in a country where
there was not at least rs inches of rain
fall-30 was better. There are three
things necessary for farming: soil, sun
and rain and the latter was just as i'm
portant as either of the others. The
.sdrying up Of our lakes was easy Of
explanation. There was just as much
rain in the last 10 years than
4 in the 10 years that preceded them
/ Now it fell on cultivated land and was
absorbed by the earth. Formerly il
ran off into the lakes and rivers. The
lakes were simply Natures sinks
3. Now we are using the moisture as il
falls and turn it into wheat and corn.
q Judge 9. A. Dickey next spoke, his
task being to show the advantages pos
n caccnd nv NTil1o r oos county, 1rb;ob h