The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1910-11-10

the eastern markets.

the eastern markets.
During our side trips across
country We visited many of the farms,
on almost all of which we saw excellent
buildings and other signs of COM
Portable prosperity, while the general
tendency to progressiveness only
accumulated the isolated cases of
living stagnation that we're interesting
by reason of their rarity. About four
different stock farms we're on our
way, and the cattle were invariably in
prime condition, the pasturage in the
timber seemingly being right for that
businesses. Several places had quite
nice herd of sheep that were looking
thrifty, and those that we're stocked
with hogs appeared to be the best
fixed farms, probably because the
animal helped to add home-like air
to those of us who came from Iowa.
We turned aside to see them harvest
ing potatoes, 200 bushels to the acre,
and it was interesting to see two
medium sized horses walking along
easily with the heavy looking digger,
and the tubers falling behind the
machine almost as clean as if they
had been washed. To us it looked
like very fine yield, but the shortage
in this years export business proves
that they must usually have much
better, besides the fact that the
acreage planted to potatoes was some
what in excess of former years. From
thirty-two acres this man had already
sold three thousand bushels when the
price was seventy cents and higher,
and there was still fair sized crop
being put into pits, as they are called,
at the time of our visit. On the same
farm we went over a piece of red
clover, second crop, that reached
nearly to our knees. and just as
heavy stand as we ever saw in any
country. Almost every farm has
clover field, and they all looked
about as good as the one we
examined. Corn looked dwarf-like to
US, the ears hanging so low that tie
husker will have to bend down to
gather the crop, while the stalks we're
small in proportion, although the
ears were much larger than expected.
Several of the fields we took samples
from were estimated at twenty to
twenty-five bushels to the acre, and
all of the corn was found to be abso-
lutely ripe and dry, many of those
who had their potatoes dug being
busy cribbing. Thinking light soil
like that would be almost arid in a
dry season like the past one, we dug
a couple of inches into the ground to
find that it contained growing mois-
ture to within less than an inch of the
surface, indicating the presence of a
! substance that retains water better
than some heavier soils. The horses
all looked to be in good shape al
though they are just at the season of
their heaviest work, which is
accounted for by the ease with which
the ground can be worked. The
general custom, among the successful
farmers, is a rotation of crops, pota-
toes followed by small grain and that
by clover, the last being usually cut
once and the second growth plowed in
when at the proper stage. When the
potatoes are dug and gathered the
land is ready for sowing oats, wheat,
rye or barley, and the clover being
put in with them, there is really no
need to pillow the ground but once in
three years.
The whole country is dotted with
lakes of various sizes which offer fine
summer pleasures in the way of
camping, boating and bathing, while
in the early winter they are resting
places of the migrating water fowls,
and the homes of several species that
remain until spring entices them to
the northland. The lakes that are fed
by springs never freeze over, and
there the deer is hunted in season. the
adjacent timber Offering him a home
during the severer winters of the
farther north. Quite few investors,
anticipating the time when the land
will be taken up, and hunting or sum-
mer outings will have to be pur-
chased, have bought up extensive
tracts in the vicinity of the lakes,
and not few are now realizing profit
from their investments.
GEO. CUMMING.
Announcements