The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1902-04-04
ENTERPRISE VS.. PROTECTION.

1t is an easy and comfortable thing
for people to get together at dinner
in Montreal ard bemoan the hardships
suffered by Canadian agricultural
implement makers at the hands of
American rivals in the Canadian
northwest. But perhaps there is an
other side to the case. Perhaps the
Canadian makers do not exert them
selves always as they might. This
reflection is suggested by an account
published in the Manitoba Free Press
of a recent visit to a Doukhobor set
Element in the Saskatchewan. The
writer tells, for example, of having been
shown by the headman of the village
of Terpennie his treasure of treasures,
his library. 1t vas securely locked up
in a stout box eighteen inches long and
a foot in width and height An
American implement catalogue INC
Csrmick's was the only book printed
in English and from this he hoped to
learn the language. Further on we
are told that in every yard stands
stands a granary, and against every
granary a lean-to, ''stocked with
BINDERS Mccormick in every in
stance-harness, plows, mowers, rakes
and every necessary agricultural i'm
plement." These Doukhobors are do
ing well. Particular enquiries were
made in only two cases, but one man
had 900 bushels of wheat, 100
bushels of barley and 400 bushels of
oats, and the other $50 of wheat and
. 900 of oats and barley. Their trade
is worth looking after. Can it be sup
posed to be adequately looked after by
Canadians when the binders are seen
to be "a Mccormick in every instance,
ard when the literature of that firm
! is all that is found there2" AS prov
ing the nature OF the opening that
mas apparently been neglected., it will
suffice to quote the following extract ;
SIN T~erpennie-rhe village we were
!, ! visiting-there were between 100 and
40 inhabitants-forty-seven families
in all. Between them they had TWEEN
Y 'horses, a hundred and thirty cat
tie, and forty sheep. In the village of
Hierolofka, ten miles away, there
were five hundred cattle and a hun
3 dred horses. Last fall the Terpennie
people had plowed with nine OK or
horse teams, in three weeks, 1926 acres
: of land, and, with the amount OF
breaking done, they would have this
/ year a thousand acres under cultiva-
/. ton. This year the Hierolofka people
il will have q. 900 acres cropped. AS an
b instances of the extensive nature OF
It their farming operations, they pur,
chased last year forty binders, seventy
mowers, and a hundred and twenty
plows. Nearly all this was bought or
g credit, and no better comment on theil
n commercial reliability need be adducet
d than the fact that on Jan. 1 of thil
year, though hardly a bushel of grain
had been sold, less than fifteen pc
l. cent was unpaid, and this is regarded
as being as good as the bank"
h These people have not sold any grail
yet they are hopefully watching 70
re- Mr.. Sifton to send them a railway
but aver without a railway the Nc
le Cormick agents can DO business, an
Of there must be something wrong i
re they can get an approach to a mon
opoly of it when our implemen
rs makers can find sale for nearly tw
~ million dollars worth of goods
twenty-five other countries. -Frol
he Montreal Daily Herald. March 5. 1906