The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1923-05-18
RURAL ELECTRIC sERvlcE

There has been h:uch discussion
OF the possibilities CT extending
electric service on feneral scale
to Minnesota farmers Hence COZ :
siderable interest should attack TO
the message to farmers delivered
this week by radio by Robert f,
! Pack, vice president and General
Manager of the Northern States
Power company, which serves 3SS
cities and towns and is the biggest
! northwest. His address follows:
THE present day problem OF the
electric industry is to reach the
4, American farmer with electric ser
! vice. There are those who say 1t
can't be DONE and the engineering
facts would seem to subStantiate
this attitude. There are others of
us who, say 1T must be DONE and in
voicing this determination we are
sustained principally by the history
of the electric industry, which re-
veals that the impossible has been
accomplished in the past and there
fore gives hope that we can solve
the problem of rural electric SER
vice.
I'VE served and built up the out
DIX ClIlSS WiiSu IL "do cdiu
at first that we could not carry cleo
tricity that far from our central
generating plants. We carried cleo
| tricity many miles from water pow
ers to market, after it had been
said that water powers were no
good because there was no market
at the site of the power We an
swered those who said that the
small towns could be served only
| by the costly individual plant, by
| carrying electricity generated by
Hydro plants on the st. Croix and
Mississippi Rivers and by central
steam stations in the Twin Cities
to serve the small towns almost to
the western Minnesota line and
south to the Iowa line. These
justify the optimistic determination
to serve the farmers. IL.
Last winter at the request Of
the Northern States Power COM
pany, ]. F. Reed, president of the
Minnesota Farm Bureau Federation,
selected twenty leading farmers
from all parts of this state and they
met with company officials in St.
Paul and February l. The object Of
this meeting was two fold-First,
to acquaint the farmers with the
problems involved second, to as
certain whether by power compan
les and farmers working together,
these problems could not be solved.
The farmers told us they could
not see any difficulty, in our tapping
fronting on the line. We explained
to them that most of our trans
mission lines are $4,000 volts, and
that to reduce the voltage so as to
safely serve a farm, required the
installation Of transformer, oil
switches. lightning arresters, etc,
at cost of slightly in excess of
$1,000, and that for each kilowatt
hour used by the average farmer,
two would be lost in keeping the
transformer energized. Discussion
indicated that the least costly way
to serve the farmers, probably would
be to run 1900 volt distribution
line from the nearest transformer
already installed to serve the town.
at became apparent that, briefly
and fundamentally, the problem of
farm electric service as compared
the average number of customers to
the mile Is SO, while in the rural
communities, the average is less
than three. In other words, it
costs as much to reach three Gus
toners in the rural districts, as to
reach fifty in the city.
| ION the other hand, the Rural
Lines committee of the National
Electric Light association has as
certained that there are tremen6-
uso opportunities for power devel-
opment on the farms, and corps
of agricultural engineers are now
at work devising proper electrically
driven farm equipment. There ara
six and one half million farms in
this country, and if each of these
farm require four horses, the total
power required is 100000 H. P.
AS soon as an appreciate part of
this farm power load can be made
available, many perplexing problems
of rural electric service will dis
appear, for as a farmer increases
the use or electricity, the cost to
him per kilowatt hour decreases
rapidly.
"The twenty farmers voted the
appoin<ment of sub committee
consisting Of John B. Gislason Of
Minneota, F. e. hammers of Lake
Vile, Isaac Emerson OF West Con-
cord, liver j. Lee Of Glenwood and
w. J. Darby of Wrenshall. his
sub Committee met with us on April
IL, and it was decided to build a
trial rural line from West Concord
to Mr.. Emerson's farm, a distance
Of four and one half miles. Mr..
Emerson is now canvassing the
farmers between him and town, and
as soon as he gives the word, this
company will send engineers to
prepare cost estimates, and then
this joint committee of farmers and
power men will meet again, and
decide on a fair apportionment OF
the cost and the best method OF
Operating such line, which line
will be OF special interest to every
farmer in Minnesota.
"Of course, none OF us knows
how much of success we can
make of this venture until we try,
but the only way to accomplish is
to try. Success will mean a tre-
mendous tightening of the labor
burden to the farmer, and 1T will
spell emancipation from household
drudgery for the farm housewife
when electric household appliances
do her work for her as they are
now doing it for her sisters in the
city"
REPORTS SUCCESS GROWING
| CABBAGES AT ALASKA.
The growing of cabbages in guam
tity from seed matured at a neigh
boring experiment station is report
ed to the United States Department
Il II Nh ~ns