The diamond drill. (Crystal Falls, Iron County, Mich.) 1887-1996, 1909-12-25

ming factory at Menominee and the
goods it turns out commands price
second TO none In the country.
Seed potatoes are In a sense like
peas They must be grown In north
ern latitude 10 produce best. The state
OF Maine today raises one-half OF the
seed potatoes planted In all the south
rem states Michigan and Ohio pro-
duce most Of the other half. Potatoes
grown from southern seed are soggy.
while those from northern seed are
mealy. The upper peninsula is it TO
grow seed potatoes that would sell in
competition with the seed potatoes Of
the lower peninsula. or Of New York
or Maine.
"We cannot expect 10 grow pears
and plums In the upper peninsula but
we have successfully demonstrated that
we can grow as hne apples as any
where In Michigan. One farmer near
Ontopagon has 20 acres OF strawberries
from which he sold -. 900 worth OF
berries In the last three years. We
have demonstrated that we can grow
as much as hve tons of alfalfa to the
acre, which beats the alfalfa states OF
Colorado and New Mexico. With such
crops Of alfalfa the possibilities OF ex
tensive dairying are manifest
THE growing of corn has been
problem, but l believe we have solved
it, secured some North Dakota corn
tnat required from the day OF planting
to the day Of cutting 100 days BY Sc
lecting tor several years the ears that
ripened earliest and planting from the
ears have reduced this time between
planting and cutting to ~ days l will
distribute for next years planting
seed from this 7s-day corn to few
hundred farmers. This corn grown in
~ days mas yielded as.much as 65 bush
els to the acre. which IL even better
than the average of the Iowa corn crop
/ might say that upper peninsula
Strawberries, coming in later than any
others, have a market PECULIARLY their
own.
II am strongly impressed that lower
Michigan is neglecting an upper pen
insula market for more or less of their
products that they might get II they
hustled for IT, Take grapes tor in
stance. know personally that hun
dreds upon hundreds of baskets OF
Michigan grapes are every season
shipped to the copper country cities.
not by the growers but by Chicago
commission houses. The growers sell
TO Chicago dealers, who take their pro-
fit and then reship back to Michigan
to be sold in the upper peninsula. l
know, because Chicago dealers names
are on all the baskets. / know of no
reason why the growers should not
themselves seek this upper peninsula
business and save for themselves the
profit that the Chicago dealers take.
When | first went into the upper pen
insula used 10 mest Detroit CONNER
cial travellers frequently. Now rare
ly meet one. The commercial travellers
we see arc principally from Chicago
and Milwaukee. Detroit should get
busy.
The most essential thing we need
is advertising. Advertise Jour agricul-
tural resources. In the upper penin-
sula 1000, 600 acres could be set aside
for forestry purposes and there would
still be enough OF good tillable land
for 100, 900 additional farms Canada
keeps an agent permanently ut Mar
quette TO drum up settlers to 20 TO the
Canadian northwest. yet little or no
OF the kind Canada Is pay
ing for has been done far to bring
settlers to Michigan's lands or to keep
those We have here. and I'm speaking
particularly Of the upper peninsula
We must hustle like Canada does IL we
would attract settlers 10 our vacant
lands. -