190 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 



Free Informa- 

 tion Service 

 for the 

 Farmer 



get any land clearing information of value. The new fellows 

 coming into Wisconsin — there are five thousand a year — those 

 new fellows had no place to go where they could get any reliable 

 information on land clearing subjects. It was something like 

 the Dark Ages before arriving at the common method of pre- 

 serving ideas. Already we have in Wisconsin, this spring, great- • 

 er activities than they have ever had heretofore; and that, we 

 believe, in a measure, is a direct result of our work and the Avork 

 that we caused to be swung into line. 



We gathered from all parts of the country the different ap- 

 pliances men have used — a piler from Georgia, a hand puller 

 here, a steam rigger from the Pacific Coast, a side trip from 

 Minnesota ; and if they are any good we say so, and if they are 

 bad we say so. 



As specific illustrations of what we have done in the way of 

 being a clearing house, I have brought these models along, and 

 will take a few minutes to show them to you as a specific illus- 

 tration that there are scattered throughout the country and the 

 whole earth a lot of perfectly good ideas, such as these, which 

 men have worked, that have helped them to solve their individual 

 problems; and those little ideas have remained right in their 

 communities and have never been given any publicity at all. 



(A demonstration of the models.) 



The way we get those before the public : We make blue- 

 prints of them and these can be had for a small price. We sent 

 them out free of charge for a while, until we began to get blanket 

 orders for six copies of each one. 



The materials that we have perfected ourselves, we do not 

 patent ; but we fix it so no one else can obtain it for private gain. 

 They can use it, but not patent it. 



Our largest single effort was to conduct two land clearing 

 demonstration trains over the northern part of the state. This 

 was a co-operative enterprise on the part of the railroads, who 

 furnished the cars and carried them all over their line free of 

 charge; the stump puller people, who gave us their men and 

 paid their expenses ; the explosive companies paid their part of 

 it and furnished the explosives; the man on whose farm we 

 stopped furnished the teams ; and the merchant usually gave a 

 free lunch or some other attraction. Each train had eight cars 

 in it. We carried a crew of eighteen men. We did the actual 



