The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1903-11-20
ALONG THE RURAL ROUTES.

ALONG THE RURAL ROUTES.
Wood ashes are an excellent garden
fertilizer.
Apples do not sweat; the skin has no
pores in it.
New York city consumes 100000 bar
rels of potatoes year.
A sprinkling of lime over the potatoes
that are disposed to rot is help.
The total income of all American farm
ers last year was about $5,5OO,OOO,0OO.
| Why is it so much harder work to
put the farm tools back under cover
than it is to get them out?
1t does not injure any other gait of
the horse to train him to walk fast, but
it does increase his value.
There are three serious faults in but
ter making-over- ripening of the cream,
ever churning and over-working.
: 1t is estimated that during the last
five years telephones have been put into
nearly half a million rural homes.
The horse is perhaps the only animal
known that does not breathe through it's
mouth-it breaths through its nostrils
only.
G. B. Hall of Barry, ILL.,, owns the
smallest Shetland pony in the world. 1t
was born June 6, and weighed but
twelve pounds.
When clear drops of water stand on
the butter it is worked enough. Do not
work butter too warm, as it gets salvy
and will never make good butter.
If the condition of the cream for churn-
ing is not exact it will froth as the
white of an egg when beaten. The
remedy is little more activity.
Sometimes bit of taffy goes good
ways toward making man do his best.
Cows are just so. Kind words and good
treatment count for sight. Ever try it?
Barnyard manure is a most excel
lent one for trees that have lost vigor.
1t should be applied in the fall or win
ter, at the rate of from five to ten two
horse loads per acre, every three years
or oftener.
| The cows bag is not made of India
rubber Some of us act as if we thought
it was and that the cow has no feeling in
! it, But she has. She is the most sensi-
tive of creatures and no doubt suffers
much at the hands of her mixers.
| 1t is claimed that air Stacked lime
thrown on potatoes in the cellar will
keep them from rotting. The lime seems
to absorb the moisture which causes the
rotting. Care must be taken to use only
Stacked lime as fresh lime will burn
them.
/ The ground sets us men folks pat
tern of industry. 1t is the most indus
trious thing with which one is acquaint-
ed. 1t is there to grow things. That is
what it is for, and if we don't give it
good jobs, why rather than be idle it will
set about growing weeds and vile pests.
A large number of Southern Illinois
farmers have signed an agreement to alb
stain from growing wheat for five years.
An effort will be made to get all the
farmers in two townships into the agree
ment. The object is to exterminate the
chinch bugs. Government reports an ex-
ceptional wheat wear when the average
is thirteen bushels per acre. How's that
for 500 land.
Snap wins. But what is snap3 Why,
it is-just snap! Snap is the thing
that makes man want to be at the head
of his profession. If he is a farmer,
it inspires him to keep his buildings
neatly painted and every board in
place. It makes him uneasy if rail
is off the fence. 1t prods him until he
has just as good herd of cows as any
one in the neighborhood.
At Kenyon, Minnesota, the farmers
know how to comparatively sell their
grain. Their cooperative company was
organized about seven years ago, with
cash capital of $500. 1t now owns an
elevator property worth $4,000, has paid
l25 per cent dividends on it's original
investment in six years. The report at
hand shows that nearly 100000. bushels
of grain and seeds were handled during
the year, dividends paid, $2,420, and
VE