The true northerner., 1899-02-01
A SUCCESSFUL INSTITUTE.
CONTINUED from lst page.)

A. Cummings, were unanimously adopted
Resolved, that Bigamist Roberts, con
gresham elect from Utah, should not be
admitted to seat in the national con
gress of the United States, and that a
copy of this resolution be forwarded to
our congressman.
Resolved, that United States senators
should be elected by the people.
Resolved, that we are in favor of the
of fees.
Resolved, that we favor the enacting
of law to more effectually sustain local
option in this county.
Resolved, that we, as farmers and fruit
growers of Van Buren, county, deprecate
any dishonesty in the packing and ship
ping of our products, and recommend
that all shippers shall be required by
law to have their products distinctly
marked with the name and address of
the shipper, and that we use our best
efforts to have such law enacted and
executed.
A. s. Packard OF Covert read paper
on the Necessary Requirements to Sue
cessful Peach Growing" AS Mr., Pack
ard is one of the most successful peach
growers in the county, it goes without
saying that his paper was both interest
ing and instructive. AS the Northerner
has the promise of the paper for publ "a
tion in the near future, we will not at
tempt to summarize it. 1t should be
read and needed by every fruit grower
in the "belt." Mr.. Packard said that his
last falls crop of peaches was about
1900 bushels and that it averaged him
over dollar bushel.
4, w. p. Squier of Geneva was on the
program for paper on Transportation, !"
but not being present, at the suggestion
of A. G. Glidden the matter of growing
sugar beets was taken up for discussion.
This topic was not on the program, but it
proved to be a subject of absorbing
interest.
G. w. Young, who had just returned
from Bay City, where he had made some
investigation of the question, was called
for and responded with some very inter
esting statistics that he had gathered
there as to the profits of beet growing.
The figures he gave showed that land
rented for cash rent of five dollars per
acre had returned net profit of about
thirty dollars per acre to the grower, and
other cultivators had done even better
than that.
There was a considerable discussion on
this subject, pro and con. 1t was stated
by Mr.. Glidden that Van Buren, Kala-
mazoo and Calhoun we're in what might
be called the beet belt, and that in no
other part of the state could sugar beets
be more proftably grown. Mr. Young
thought that any of our upland that
would produce corn crop would also
grow profitable crop of sugar beets.
Hon. j. j. Woodman counseled to make
haste slowly and not to be over sanguine
in regard to this new industry. The
prevailing sentiment seemed to be that
Michigan was to become, in the near
future, great sugar producing state and
that the farmers of Van Buren, should
and would be sin it,"
Hon. G.. j. Monroe was slated for a
paper on Marketing" but was not pres
ent and the convention took a recess
until evening.
The evening session was to have been
opened up by Clarence Jennings OF
Lawrence with a paper on Farmers
Interest in Schools" but neither Mr.
Jennings nor his paper we're present
miss Alice Bangs, who was to open the
discussion of the topic, read well writ
ten paper which was followed by
an animated discussion participated in
by quite number of ladies and gentle
men. President Rich thought that
children should learn to read at an early
age: il it were not for the laziness of
parents the average boy or girl should
be reading in the second reader at the
age of five or six years. Mrs. Bangs
Joined issue with him on that proposition
and said that no child ought to begin to
learn to read under age of six years and
lit was evident from the many mods of
approval that the audience was with her.
"The Needs of Rural Schools" was the
title of an excellent paper read by School
Commissioner Brown. 1t was replete
with valuable matter and should have
been listened to by a much larger
audience than was present, the extremely
inclement weather causing the meeting
to be much more thinly attended tn >.
previous sessions had been. The paper
is worthy of a large circulation and the
Northerner hopes to present it in full to
it's readers in future issue.
The reading of this paper, the last on
the program, was followed by adesultory