288 MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY COLLECTIONS. 



raise wheat in the Bed Kiver Valley, that the land was too 

 cold and sour and wet, that it might do for grass but would 

 not do for wheat; and, after it was demonstrated that it would 

 raise the most bountiful crops of wheat and oats, it was then 

 settled that it would not raise corn. But, now, for the past 

 two seasons, I have seen corn growing in the Bed Biver Val- 

 ley, as far north as the Goose river, some forty miles north of 

 Fargo; and I can further tell you that the best field of corn 

 I ever saw was in the Bed Biver Valley and in the Goose river 

 country. It was the strongest, the most even in growth, that 

 I ever saw, and there is no reason why, with intelligent farm- 

 ing, we cannot raise corn as far north as Crookston ; I am cer- 

 tain that we can, and possibly as far north as the northern 

 limit of the state. Well, if we can do that, what is there to 

 prevent us from getting as much for our land in the market as 

 the sale value of the land in the states south of us? Is there 

 anything the matter with the land? I have not found it so; 

 the trouble must be in the way it is used. 



There are a great many small things that can be done 

 which will help the agricultural interests of the State of Min- 

 nesota. I know of none that will help them more than to 

 bring as many farmers as possible (not in the winter, but dur- 

 ing the summer, when the crops are growing) to the State Ex- 

 perimental Farm, and to show them what intelligent work will 

 do, how sixteen sheep can be fed on one acre of ground and 

 cannot eat the product of that acre; or five or six cows on one 

 acre, without eating down the forage on that acre. Yet that 

 is poor land; if you put a spade into it, before the spade is 

 driven home the edge of it is in the sand. I have some of the 

 same kind of land, and with care I know that I can get a crop 

 every year. 



I think for the past ten years I have averaged over 800 

 bushels of rutabaga turnips to an acre, and I plant some 

 twenty or twenty-five acres. An excellent good fodder they 

 make. This year I put sixty acres of corn into ensilage, about 

 300 tons of ensilage. Perhaps some of you may eat my "silver- 

 plated" butter, and it's good butter. I had an order the other 

 day from Montana, proposing to take it all at 28 and 30 cents a 

 pound. Any farmer who will be careful and try to do his 

 work intelligently, with diversity of crops, stock-raising, and 



