The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1903-11-27
ALONG THE RURAL ROUTE.

! An apple tree of the Grindstone va
riety near Cuba, Mo-, yielded seventy
bushels. Great Scott! Got to show us.
The latest fad is woodchuck farming
Once it was skunks, then Belgian hares,
and now it is woodchucks. Oh myI
Next.
There viii always be beginners and
cutters. Some will be quitting while
others will be beginning. 1t is better
to "keep saving wood"
With 1861, 100000 of gold in his vaults,
Uncle Sam has the biggest stock of the
yellow metal ever gathered in one place
in history.
Of the five million farms in the
United States, three million produce corn.
The average cost of growing an acre of
corn in America is S..
In scientific forestry the young trees
are thinned out, the underbrush removed,
and every means possible taken to give
air and sunlight to the growing tree.
A man in Dixon, ILL.,, lays his peach
trees down in the winter and covers
them up and in the spring sets them up
again and raises big crop. A new idea.
! A tight foundation to the house is a
great fuel saver. This will be a year
when it will pay to save fuel. Look up
the cracks in the foundation and remedy
them.
! Now, then, good bye to old glossy"
The butter makers of Holland have hit
upon plan to make the finest high grade
dairy butter" of Philippine cocoa nuts.
There are still few people in the
world who do not know that turpentine
poured on a cut or scratch 1.-THE very
first thing will prevent soreness and
insure quick healing.
Do you know that common shoe
makers wax is the best thing you can
put on cuts for man or beast. Put it on
as hot as you can stand it and note
the results. It's fine.
! Over 100000 farmers bulletins were
distributed by Department of Agricul-
ture last year. The demand for some
of these bulletins was so great that the
department found it necessary to reprint
a number of the same
The silo is coming. The automobile
is going. The poor do neither, for they
are with us always. Keep one eye on
the silo and both eyes on the automobile
and do not forget the poor if you have
them in your midst.
The automobile will not milk the
cow nor tend the baby, according to the
managers of the st. Louis Worlds
Fair, but it will churn the butter and
grind the cornmeal and do pretty nearly
every other kind of work on the farm.
Secretary Wilson of the Department
of Agriculture says the estimated num-
Der of chickens in the country is 25,OO0,-
600, producing for market in one yeal
poultry worth $l36OOO000 and eggs val.
ued at $l44,OOO,OOO total value OF
$2S,OOO,OOO.
1t is estimated that the nations agri
cultural products this year will reach
total valuation of $5,000,000,000. Oh
this sum, the largest amount is furnished
by corn, the value of which is estimated
at $I,l44,95O,0OO. Wheat comes next
with 5,S72, 900, and the oats and cot
ton crops will add $796,65l $50 more
The balance is made up by hay, pota
toes, rye, etc.
Plow the garden this fall. Put OF
plenty of rotten manure and pillow deep
Next spring it will be in condition to put
in early garden crops without plowins
and planting can be done long before
it can be plowed. Try this method ant
you will have no other.
How about the boy problem? 1t vii
not down. If men are to be made O.
boys they should be treated manly. 4
boy that is treated like a mule will b.
mulish and / do not blame him. Civ
the boy the best chance that can b.
. afforded. He will do the rest.