The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1904-01-22

So PioPoA WINS NhS
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 o 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
triotism, more of everything that goes
to 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
here can remember what. a few years
ago. We called the late unpleasantness.'
the men left their plows in the burrows.
half way across the field. 10 follow the
flag OF their country, and the armers
sons were the men who most distin-
Country life is better fitted to develop
a man than in the city; It gives him him
Dsutase op ps orittun nd II ne an wili 70 ta ;mnr aas
upon the fathers and mothers, if they
are here. that their children in growing
upon the farm should not look forward
when they can have, their hair banged
and soaked down, and come to the town
10 LOON LOT Il JOD. Better HleH anu DSt-
ter women live in the country. The time
will never come when this country can
afford 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
most valuable iron mines in the world,
but you have no coal, YOU cannot make
iron. All you can do is to dig iron ore
with steam shovels and take it 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 it is very doubt
full If iron will ever be successfully made
in Minnesota.
That leaves YOU the farm. from which
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
lers, 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
f Ennrsa,f To Tbe help eipts him Ras means q most to help help
lent experimental farm. or a department
attached TO the state university. 1t does
a little more now than help to get APP
IA " liz otliO CIfu.
There was a time-let me see-twenty
years last spring, in this state. and par
t~icularly in the northern part q. 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. l didn't know as
much then as l do now. l was younger
and had less experience. l thought | would
f tSsy t Reul tsrm not defend OF the on s'a ons s s0 tina
thought l would help them TO some good
stock and cattle and hogs. And in my
innocence Slaughterl l thought that when
advantage, of it. | got together some
excellent herds of beef and dairy cattle
years, mainly from the north of England
and Scotland, about 500 thoroughbred
bulls. Something. over 500 of them We're
distributed in this state. and less than
200 in North Dakota. Now, / want to say
that the people of North Dakota derived
more benefit from less than 200 than the
did they do? Most of them sold them.
Naughter.) / gave them pigs. and they
killed them in the fall-and they were
good winter pork! Laughter.) This Is
actually what they did with the pigs
that 1 brought from the old country, or
with the stock which was bred from this
stock and for which 1 paid prices as high
as $500 for a single animal.
Farmers Misled by Demagoaues.
They were misled. A lot of designing
III %" liz al Z
no more about the farmer than they do
about the wind that whistles. if they can
get his vote, told the farmers that l 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
free of price to the people OF the state.
1t was ~discouraging. but 1 kept it up and
showed them that they might, in Mime
sofa: feed cattle successfully and send
stock from Minnesota to compete with our
friends from Illinois. l fed stock ten
miles from here. raised the fodder it ate.
and | have a hat full of gold medals that
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 a single steer to the live
stock show at Chicago because they, had
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 a Minnesota fed steer. the high
est record in the United States of per-
centage of dressed to live weight TAX
per cent, killed in Chicago in competition
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
paid $1,000 for the steers, gave them
$1,000 worth of food and sold them at
$1,000 per head. a profit of $4,000 r-r
head.
A Public Domain.
Now, if I 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 e~verybody'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
1 Enough to Give Us ALI a Farm" Today
lie has not any farms to give us that
we can cultivate. All of the agriculture
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 a large area of country A couple
of months ago. at Bismarck. 1 made a
statement in regard to their country, and
was to some extent miSquoted. and will
take occasion to correct 1t. They have an
area north of us equal, practically. to that
lively small portion of that can be culti-
waited with profit. They probably nave 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 $4,000 each for
five years to conduct a campaign of edu-
| cation. sending men about the country to
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:
II. That not another acre of public
land shall ever hereafter be granted to