Milford chronicle., 1910-01-07
4 VISIT TO The FARM.

man, his wife and a young mar
who lives with them-who live tei
miles south of Mankato, Minn.
and their condition, and that o
their neighbors, seemed to bear ou'
/ so completely what you have beer
publishing about the prosperity o
the farmers, that 1 was moved tC
write of it from my own observa'
ton
arrived in Mankato Friday
noon and after having lunch at a
hotel, telephoned the farm There
was no one at home but the hus-
band, aud he told me that the wife
and the young man were in town
and that might locate them by
going to the automobile garage.
Now, had heard these reports
of farmers owning automobiles, but
to have an instance brought to my
immediate attention in this manner
was little surprising.
I went over to the garage to
which he had directed me and
found the Young man working with
his machine, a touring car. ask
ed the cost Of such a machine, and
was told it had been SG,o5o, but
that the extra" had cost $500 or
5000 more.
The farm found to be in a very
prosperous condition. They own
ed $50 acres on one side of the
road and 40 acres opposite. The
house was a large square building,
containing about twelve or fourteen
rooms, all we'll furnished. Part of
the farm was rented to neighbors,
as they could not farm so much
land themselves and they did not
like to bother with hired hands.
The farm had two large orchards
mainly apple trees, and the big red
apples going to waste on the ground
made my heart ache, when I
thought of the specimens we pay a
nickel apiece for in Chicago. I j
asked why they did not sell them to |
make cider, and they said that or
they would, but this year
they had been so busy hauling out
grain (wheat) that the few dollars |
the apples were worth would nor
pay for the time necessary to handle
them.
The price Of wheat at the local
market was 90 cents.
On the farm were a number of
we'll built chicken houses and
about 900 chickens, ducks, turk
eys, geese and guineas. In fact,
never Cdw so many fowl together,
and the most remarkable thing
about it was that all the fowls were
IF pure bred strains. The fowl
alone on that farm must have been
worth not less than 81 900 or 81 200,
They MIXED about ten cows
III pure bred Holsteins-and separ
tied the cream in a separator,
which they said did good work
every Saturday they took the cream
o a cooperative creamery, three
niles from the farm. The next
morning accompanied The wife to
he creamery, she driving a team to
light road wagon. She got her
monthly check that morning,
mounting to almost $50.
On the way to the creamery I
ould not help remarking that every j
arm we passed looked as though
IS owner was very prosperous. a
he said that the generation before a
ad home-steaded the farms and t.
nat now most of them were owned e
v their children, who were pretty b
'ell fixed. L
Just beyond their farm she point t'
out an eighty" that she said j
ley had offered SIS an acre for. b
he said that was a good price for K
but they wanted it to put a ten b
ut or two on for the purpose of re
airing for most OF the 800 acres 81
ley already owned, and for that t.
.ason they were willing to pay P
lat much. The offer, however n'
as declined by the owner.
The day before, as we were leav F.
g Mankato, they stopped to look so
a house on Third street, the fin
t residence street of the city, ia
hich they were thinking of buy
g as an investment. "
During the day suggested to
e man that maintaining an auto "a
obile, with each new set of tires pl
sting Stoo, looked to me like pr
expense. ou
well, " he replied, it does look cd
,e throwing money away, but ly
; get lots of satisfaction out of the OF
]