River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1904-01-21

reached such great proportions. the
annual meetings of the State Agricul-
tural Society have become landmarks
in the history of the state. The one
held in Minneapolis last week was per-
haps the most notable of all. 1t was
addressed by many prominent men,
and an address by Mr.. j. j. Hill, presi-
dent of the Great Northern railroad,
was the special event of the meeting.
After an exchange of greetings with
his audience, he said:
There is more intelligence. more pa
l~iotism, more Of everything that goes
% make good citizenship, on the farms
Than anywhere else in the country cap
plause.) 1t has always been so, from the
early days to the present. Many OF US
ago, we called the late unpleasantness,
the men left their plows in the burrows
half way across The field, to follow the
flag Of their country, and the farmers
sons were the men who most distln-
guished themselves.
Country life is better fitted :? develop
a man than in the city. II gives him
better opportunity, IL re will take ad-
vantage Of it. And | want to impress
upon the fathers and mothers, If they
are here. that their children IN growing
upon the farm should not look forward
to the time when they can leave it,
when they can have. their hair banged
10 look for a job. Better men and bet
ter women live in the country The time
win reyer come when, this country can
afforC to lose sight Of the interests OF
the people who live on the land.
Every thing that is Of value comes out
Of the farm the forests, the mine and the
sea--four sources from which everything
that is worth having comes.
Now, we have not got the sea. We
had some fine forests in Minnesota but
where are they? They are so far gone
that ten or fifteen years Will wipe them
out entirely. The trees that are left
standing in your forests are practically
all counted. You have in Minnesota the
most valuable iron mines in the world,
but you have no coal, you cannot make
with steam shovels and take 1t to other
parts of the country where they have coal
and coke and can make the metal into
iron and steel. You cannot do IT here as
things are today, and il is very doubt
full If iron will ever be successfully made
in Minnesota.
every man in the state must draw his
living Your cities, your churches, your
schools, your universities, your LAWYERS
your doctors, your merchants, your mil
Iers, everybody makes his living out of
the men who cultivate the soil, and this
must go on in Minnesota for all time.
Now, what are you doing to help the
farmer? TO help him means to help
yourself. The state has a most excel
lent experimental farm, or a department
attached 10 the state university. 1t does
a little more now than help to get ap-
proPriations for the other end
There was q time-let me See-twenty
years last spring IN this state, and par
ticularly in the northern part of it. when
no rain fell from seed time until the list
Of July. The grain stood green in the
fields barely living. In July some CO.
pious showers fell and they made a little
more than half a crop. 1 didn't know as
much then as l do now. | was younger
and had less experience. thought would
help the farmers Of the state, so that
they would not depend OH one crop.
I t,f1YN
stock and cattle and hogs. And IN my
innocence Oaughter) l thought that when
they had the opportunity. they would take
advantage of it. l got together some
excellent herds of beef and dairy cattle
for myself. and l brought out within two
years, mainly from the north of England
pulls. Something over 600 of them q ere
distributed in This state, and less shan
that the people of North Dakota derived
more benefit from less than 200 than the
people of Minnesota did from 600 What
did they do? Most of them sold them.
CLaughter) I gave them pigs, and they
killed them in the fall--and they were
good winter pork! Iaughter) This. is
that / brought from the old country, or
with the stock which was bred from this
stock and for which paid prices as high
as $500 for a single animal
Farmers MsIed by Demagogues.
"They were misled. A lot of designing
uenlaBOBueS-faIK QernagORueS-WnO care
no more about the farmer than they do
about the wind that whistles If they can
get his vote, told the farmers that / was
trying to reflect upon the great wheat
raising state of Minnesota, trying to in
jure its good namely bringing the best,
stock that L could find and distributing it
1t was discouraging, but I kept it up ' and
showed them that they might, in Mime
sofa; feed cattle successfully and send
stock from Minnesota to compete with our
from L stock
miles from here, raised the fodder it ate.
and have hat full of gold medals that
/ took in competition in Chicago with our
friends from Illinois, and Missouri and
Iowa, and Nebraska, and Kansas, and In
diana"
Profits In Stock Raising.
Mr.. Hill proceeded to say that one year
he sent only single steer to the live
stock show at Chicago because they had
pleuro- pneumonia down there, and he took
seven first prizes. He had taken the sweep
stakes against all of the states when he
showed four or five animals He said he
held for q Minnesota fed steer the high
est record in the United States of per
centage of dressed to live weight 74%
per cent killed in Chicago in competition
with all the states. AS illustrating prof
it in stock raising in Minnesota, he re-
lated that two years ago he bought a
bunch of steers and took them to his
farm, ten miles from Minneapolis. He
$500 WORT worth Of food and sold them nat at
$500 per head, profit of $500 per
head.
A Public Domain.
Now, II can do this, any farmer in
the state can do 1t. If he only will. The
time will come when he must do it. and
it is everybody's interest in the state to
see that he has a fair opportunity.
There was a time when our popular
campaign song was Uncle Sam is Rich
Enough to Give Us All a Farm" Today
we can cultivate. All of the agricultural
land that can be cultivated without irri-
cation is gone and the people are selling
their homes in the United States and
west of Winnipeg. where they can buy
land at from Sc to $40 an acre. More
people have gone there than many OF our
men would like TO acknowledge. They
have 4 large area of country. A couple
of months age, at Bismarck, I made a
statement in regard to their country, and
was 10 some extent n4isquoted, and will
take occasion to correct it. They have an
area north of us equal, practically to that
lively small portion of that can be calti-
waited with profit. They probably have an
area three times that of Minnesota, where
they can cultivate the land with profit.
and they raise good crops. North of that
il is too near the north pole"
Proceeding he explained that six rail-
roads agreed to contribute $500 each for
five years to conduct a campaign of edu-
cation sending men about the country to
lecture and call upon men in public life
to urge them to promote irrigation in
order to reclaim the public domain which
was now practically worthless He said
the platform upon which they stood was:
Il. That not another acre of public
land shall ever hereafter be granted 10
any state or territory for any purpose
whatever.
build the irrigation works necessary to
bring water within the reach of the set
tiers on public lands, and settlers to pay
the cost in annual payments without in
IS. That the timber and stone act.