The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1904-09-02
An Opportunity Overlooked.

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Yesterday morning magnificent spec
linen of Sir Walter Raleigh's food tuber,
the potato, was brought into, the office !,
of The Free Press from the garden of !,
Aid. j. B. Coy on Agency hill. 1t was as
large as six or seven ordinary potatoes !,
and many people remarked that it would
look well in the agricultural depart |
ment of the Minnesota state fair. The
giant vegetable would certainly not be |,
out of place, if it were so displayed to |
the gaze of the people of the state at !,
large.
Some months ago, another gardener |
presented the editors with cupful of
enormous gooseberries, each nearly an
inch in diameter. These, too, had grown
in the immediate neighborhood. All who
saw them uttered an exclamation of as
constituent and had to take close look
before believing that those things were
real gooseberries.
Some time previously, another gar
dener, living near Mankato showed to the
scribes several immense Strawberries,
any one of which would fill teacup.
These were grown just few miles from
the city.
There are other instances of fine
specimens being brought in from the
neighboring farms and gardens this
year and exciting wonder and admira
ton. Blue Earth county has oeen re-
markably well favored in weather condi-
tions during the past spring and this
summer and nature has been unusually
generous, not only in the quality, but
in the quantity of her soil products as
well.
How does it come that these facts are
not brought home to the people liv
ing in other parts of the state? 1t is
true enough that the Twin City news
papers have made some mention of the
excellent crops in Blue Earth county;
but such impressions are but faint on
the minds of most newspaper readers,
and are soon effaced. 1t is when peo-
pie are brought face to face with ac-
tual facts, that their memories are
stamped with lasting traces. When the
newspaper readers see in their papers
statement that Dakota county has good
farm products and plenty of them, these
people may and may not remember what
they read. The chances are hundred
to one that they will scarcely give the
matter another thought. But, when they
90 to the Minnesota state fair, and see
the beautiful array that Dakota county
has in the horticultural building, col
lection of splendid fruits, vegetables and
grains of the county, occupying space
equal to an ordinary living room, then
it is that the people actually begin to
think of Dakota county as rich farm
ing section of the state of Minnesota
In this same building Mankato peo-
pie and their rural. neighbors look in
Earth county. The huge potatoes, the
enormous berries, the plump well-filled
heads of wheat, and all the other pro-
ducts in which the farmers of this
county are taking especial pride this
year, are unrepresented. The average
visitor at the fair leaves the horticul-
tural building with very favorable i'm
pressions of the counties of Dakota,
Olmstead and ten or more others, whose
people have had the enterprise to show
off what they have, but there is moth
ing to suggest as much as thought of
Blue Earth county.
In the poultry hall, too, Blue Earth
county is left entirely unrepresented
Nobody unacquainted with Mankato
would suppose that this city was the.
location of a poultry exposition every
year, and that the leaders in this en-
terprise were for the most part her peo-
pie.
An opportunity to display Blue Earth
county's products has been overlooked.
Who is at fault?
Blue Earth county people should learn
to push their part of the state into
prominence. The question of getting the
county adequately recognized at the fair
ought to have been taken up months
ago. The Blue Earth County Agricul-
tural association, the Central Minneso-
to Poultry association, the & Mankato
Board of Trade, the Mankato Business
Mems association, and in fact all par
ties, whether associated or individual,
who have at heart the development of
southern Minnesota, and who wish to see
Mankate the big commercial center that
it ought to be, should feel it incumbent
upon themselves to see to it, that at the !
next Minnesota state fair, this coun-
ty shall have all the prominence it de-
serves. 4a.g,
They All Speak Well of Miller.