The Minneapolis journal., 1901-05-25
DR.. Otto Lugger as a Farmer

ing certain cultivated grasses in with the
swamp grasses in order to overcome them.
A clear spring flowed into the lake and
this was to be damned up until it should
form small deep pond at the immediate
rear of the barns. At the mouth of the
stream from the pond into the lake gate
was to be constructed so that the pond
could be kept at any desired height. This
pond was to be for the watering Of the
herd, the movement of the flowing water
keeping it open the winter through.
Fine Fish in the Lake.
Soundings had been made in the lake
proper, but il proved to be too deep for
ordinary methods, so tits summer it was
the professors intention to make COM
plete soundings by the scientific methods
used in deep sea soundings, so that he
might make as complete man as possible
of the bottom Of the lake. The water is
so cold, as it is fed by springs below, that
the fish in it are of the finest quality,
some of the varieties that, in shallower
waters, become soft in midsummer, there
remaining firm and edible the season
through. On one side Of the lake is a
small outlet, beyond 1t a shallow basin
some ten CT fifteen feet deep and embrac-
ing number of acres. AS the shore line
embracing this outlet was controlled by
DR.. Lugger and his friends, plans were
under way for dam at the exit. This
was for two purposes. One of them was
the control of the supply of water which
was to be allowed to flow into the basin
beyond the lake. Into this basin, when
filled up and controlled at its lower end
a miniature lake-the young of various
fishes we're to be introduced through the
aid of the fish hatcheries at Duluth, the
small fry to be kept in the basin until
large enough to look out for themselves,
when they were to be allowed to ascend
into the ain lake to stock ii anew. The
other object of damning up the outlet
was to secure power for an electric light
plant, which was to supply illumination
for the cottages of his friends along the
lake shore, as we'll as for his own home
and for driveway around the entire lake,
several miles long. He was planning for
the erection of a commodious house for
his own uses. 1t was one of the funda-
mental principles of the farm that it should
not only be made to pay for itself year
by year, but that it should be all the
time earning a surplus to set aside for
the future. In every step he took, no
matter how deeply he studied into the.
matter from a scientific point OF view,
DR.. Lugger looked steadily at the practical
side.
The Fight of the Ice.
In his conversation he described a Curl
GUS incident which came under his notice
but a few weeks ago. when he went up
to the farm for a spring examination Of
things. He had gone out onto the point
where the land projects into the lake TO
see what prospect there was for break
up in the ice. The extreme coldness of
the lake preserves the ice each season
until after it has disappeared from shall
lower bodies of water, and so there was
an unbroken field ahead of him. 1t was
in the early morning. AS he stood looking
at the lake he noticed a fissure starting
at the point of land on which he stood,
and moving steadily across the lake, cut
ting it into two great foes. Soon the
wind rose and the two vast bodies began
to move He watched the steady motion
with great interest and, at last, after
long time, the wind veered TO the opposite
direction and the waves of the open places
began buffeting the ice foes until at last
they came together with a crash and the
ice was piled up cake on cake, jagged
mass across the center of the lake. The
professor was SO interested in the battle
of the foes that he forgot all about his
dinner and stayed until late in the aft
ernoon watching the fight.
His superintendent had pile of stones
along the shore TO be used for the founda-
tion of a new building or in some work
or other. DR.. Lugger had called attention
to the pile and had told the man he ought
to have hauled them up to the place where
they belonged higher on the bank.
Stone Hauled by the Ice.
'But the man knew better than I did,
said the professor, 'for he told me that
when the wind shifted the ice foe would
come in and the cakes of ice with all that
vast body behind 1t, would carry the
N1,o1 f1ao
the enormous power of the foe moving
but an inch at time, forced itself against
the pile Of stones and steadily they were
moved as if by glacial power right up the
bank where the man wanted them"
DR.. Lugger had already begun to reap
the benefit of his project, for the small
fruits he had planted yielded literally last
year; he had begun to market the choicest
butter and the freshest eggs and he was
preparing for much more extensive
harvest Of all the products of his farm
during the coming summer.
He had entered into the project with
great zest. He was not a man Of wealth
and he was obliged to stop and count the
cost, but he was demonstrating in every
step he took not only the value ofasuch
work from a scientific point Of view,
bringing to the different divisions, as
forestry, horticulture, agriculture and the
dairy, every known and tested scientific
fact, but he was at the same time proving
in a most interesting manner the prac-
tical value of such institutions as those in
which he had long been a conspicuous
professor in making the farms Of Min
nesota not places to be Stunned or en-
dured only as stepping stones to some
thing else, but abiding places where the
highest form of mental and physical labor
may find scope.