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WADENA, MINNESOTA. 
A splendid showing for a young town — 
Large business—Enterprising tradesmen, 
and a rapid growth. 
MESSRS. HOLMES AND SWEETLAND. 
[Special Correspondents of the Rxirai, New-Yorker.] 
No town of its size upon the Northern Pa¬ 
cific Railroad impressed us more favorably 
than Wadena, Wadena County, of which 
this little town is the county seat, is beauti¬ 
fully located within the great timber region 
of the Mississippi and its tributaries. It is 
really the “divide” between the pine region 
which lies to the north and east, and the hard¬ 
wood timber belt to the south, both being 
very eaiily accessible. Its principal popula¬ 
tion is from New York, New England, and 
the Western and Middle States. The County 
Agricultural Society has held two very cred¬ 
itable annual exhibitions. Being away from 
the main body of the timber to some extent, 
partially open spots are not an unusual thing. 
Often these fertile acres are covered with a 
growth of young trees, but they are not at all 
difficult to clear and subjugate to the plow. 
It is a well-known fact that such land, when 
once cleared and cultivated, is much more 
productive than prairie land in general. 
There is one point of special significance, 
viz., the near proximity of the hard-wood for¬ 
ests, and it suggests the feasibility of estab¬ 
lishing wagon and carriage factories, furni¬ 
ture factories, wood-paper mills or pulp mills; 
in fact, any of the numerous manufacturing 
industries dependent upon the nearness and 
cheapness of hard-wood timber, and here the 
refuse material would furnish all the fuel for 
power and the steam for bent-work at nom¬ 
inal cost. 
Wadena County has no bonded indebted¬ 
ness, and has a floating debt of only $4,000. 
The aggregate taxation is 18 mills, exclusive 
of school taxes. The assessed value of real 
estate in the county is $344,201; personal prop¬ 
erty, $147,577, on a basts of one third actual 
valuation. Many homesteads and railroad 
lands not taxed add to real estate values 
$54,514. 
The City of Wadena (you know western 
towns assume the title of cities early;, has 
now a population of 500 oivsvor, though in 
June, 18S0, there were only 310 inhabitants. 
One of the most important elements of growth 
is the excellent railway facilities. The North¬ 
ern Pacific Railway fur iishes means of trans¬ 
portation either south i>ira St. Paul; east, via 
Duluth and the great lakes; southwest, via. 
Wadena Branch of the Northern Pacific sys¬ 
tem ; west, to the mining regions of Montana. 
The advantages of cheap lake transportation 
for iron or grain are too well known to re¬ 
quire more than mere mention in this article, 
but the nearness of Lake Superior on the 
east would be an important factor in manu¬ 
facturing interests. There is a good Meth 
odist church, and a Congregationalist church 
will be built this year. We learn of Episco¬ 
pal and German Methodist organizations also. 
The public school has furnished 21 teachers to 
surrounding localities within the lust three 
years, and this fact alone is sufficient enco¬ 
mium upon its efficiency. There are lodges of 
A. O. U. W.; K. of P., and L O. O. F.; a well- 
supported good public hall (Peake's), with 
stage oil x (30, and dressing rooms, is seated 
with chairs, and conveniently located. 
The handsome local paper, The Northern 
Pacific Farmer, is a credit to town andcoimty. 
There are two banks here, viz., the Bank of 
Wadena and the City Bank, with an aggre¬ 
gate business of $027,811.86, in 18S1, exclusive 
of the deposits. 
The commercial business of the city for the 
past year exceeded $400,000. The permanent 
improvements for the same time have reached 
$35,000, among which are a church, a school- 
house, a plow-shop, and a jail. Property has 
appreciated during the year over 75 per cent. 
Business lots are now selling at $150 to $1,000; 
residence lots, $50 to $150. The wheat crop of 
this county is not as large as that of many 
others, but is fully up in average yield, and 
is being augmented each year. The wheat 
marketed in Wadena, from the crop of 1881 
to Dec. 81, is 129,000 bushels, 
Wadena has a good roller flouring mill, a 
planing mill, and a plow factory in process of 
erection. Thus the nucleus for a development 
in manufacturing interests already exists. The 
abundance and large yield of potatoes sug¬ 
gest this locality for a potato-starch factory. 
We are told that a brick yard is needed; also 
a merchant tailor, a livery stable, and a good 
hotel. The site of Wadena is quite attractive, 
lying, as it does, on the edge of the forests, 
partially surrounded by wooded undulations, 
and thus protected from severe winds and 
storms. The character of the business men is 
such that any legitimate enterprise for the 
benefit of the town and county would receive 
hearty co-operation and encouragement. 
There are many of the younger farmers of 
the East, as well as business men, who are de¬ 
termined to try their fortunes in the North¬ 
west, and as there are also many opportuni¬ 
ties for investment of capital in this region, 
the outlook for an early development and a 
consequent rapid growth is very flattering. 
R,at Exterminator. —ThoN. Y. Sun editor 
is responsible for the following: H aving been 
considerably annoyed by rats in our cellar, 
we tried various devices to get rid of them. 
We put red pepper, glass, and all sorts of 
things in their holes. We fed them on phos¬ 
phorus, but to no appreciable extent were the 
numbers lessened. We were about closing the 
house for the Summer, and feared lest we 
should return to find the rats in complete pos¬ 
session. Then occurred a happy thought, or 
recollectiou, rather. We had seen in an Eng¬ 
lish paper a statement of an experiment for 
the destruction of field mice, and concluded 
to try it on the rats. We cut coarse sponge 
in pieces about half an inch cube. These we 
had fried in drippings until they wore browned 
and hard, and laid them where the rats could 
conveniently get them. We have not seen a 
rat or a sign of one in our cellar from that 
day till now—nearly a year and a-lial£. The 
theory is that the rats eat the sponge for the 
grease. The small particles of sponge they 
swallow swell and kill them. One experiment 
is not sufficient to establish a rule. Will not 
some others try it and report ? 
The well-known farmer and farm writer, 
Joseph Harris, says that in his garden the 
children have rhubarb, and peas, and straw¬ 
berries, and beans, and cabbage, and cauli¬ 
flower, and radish, and lettuce, and beets, and 
turnips, and mustard, and cress, and melons, 
and cucumbers, and squash, and potatoes, and 
onions, and tomatoes, and corn. Some of 
them occasionally are pulled up to make room 
for others. But what of it ? It is not “gard¬ 
ening for profit ” that we want to teach the 
children. If they get healthy recreation and 
some knowledge of vegetable growth—if they 
grow up to love flowers and take an interest 
in the garden—if they have something to think 
about besides dolls, dresses and dancing pa rties, 
we can well afford to let them waste a little 
seed and a little land. In fact, it is far from 
being a waste. It will pay teu times over. 
Give the children a bit of the very best land 
in the garden—loose, light, warm, mellow and 
easily worked— make it rich, and help them 
to do the hard work of digging, hoeing, etc. 
Again Mr. Harris suggests that three or four 
Lima Beans be put in a pot and covered an 
inch deep. It is real fun to see them come up. 
And if you take care of the plants and set them 
out, without disturbing the roots, as soon 
as the weather is warm, you will have 
Lima Beaus to eat before any one else. Of 
course, you must take them out of the pot 
when you set them out in the garden. The 
way to do this is to put your hand on top of 
the pot, with the plants between your fingers. 
Then turn the pot upside down and hit the 
rim against the spade or wheelbarrow, or 
anything convenient, and the soil and plants 
will come out of the pot without disturbing 
the roots. Water the plants thoroughly before 
taking them out of the pots. 
At a recent meeting of the Elmira Fanners’ 
Club, as reported in the Husbandman, Presi¬ 
dent McCann asked if the tobacco farms of 
Big Flats to day are in as high fertility as 
tbey were fifteen years ago. 
Joseph Bradshaw' replied that he could only 
answer for his own farm of thirty-three acres 
—it has improved. 
W, S. Carpenter answered, no, as he thinks 
tobacco robs the farm; it ta kes manure that 
should go to the production of other crops. A 
few days ago ho went qver a neighbor’s fields 
reduced by continued tillage, ahd was sur¬ 
prised that he should take the manure they 
needed and apply it to his tobacco land, for 
all the rest of his farm needed it. That is the 
trouble in tobacco farming; all the manure 
goes to that crop and the farm is impoverish¬ 
ed. 
Mr. Armstrong thinks that one-tenth of a 
farm or one-twentieth in tobacco through a 
long series of years, as a rule, will exhaust the 
whole. 
J. Bridgman remarked that his wheat field 
shows now precisely where tobacco ended, the 
remainder in corn last season is poor. It is 
true the seed was sown a little later, but from 
the stai't the wheat was better where tobacco 
had been raised. 
President McCann suggested it was because 
the tobacco land was heavily manured. 
W. S. Carpenter said that the trouble with 
tobacco fanning is, that it takes all the man¬ 
ure, and a large part of the care that should 
be given to other portions of the farm. Other 
crops are neglected, the land is neglected, and 
soon runs down. 
The investigations of the Club seem to show 
that a heavy two-horse plow will last to turn 
not more than 150 acres, while of course new 
points and other repairs will be needed during 
the time. This should be considered in lend¬ 
ing plows. One member mentioned that he 
had accommodated a neighbor at an expense 
of $16 for which there was no recovery, yet 
similar losses must be met again and again, 
for many preferred to run such risks rather 
than bluntly refuse. 
Greatly as human knowledge has increased 
we are still far from knowing well some of 
the commonest things. The air, for example, 
still holds many things that are yet puzzling 
problems to the foi'emost philosophers. The 
most costly and necessary element of manure 
is nitrogen. We have learned that it is so 
abundant in the air that we inhale a cupful at 
avery breath; but the acutest chemists have 
not yet been able to tell decidedly how or why 
it is still so scantily obtained by plants. Salt 
is anothei- very common and valuable yet 
very incompletely understood article. We do 
not know just whywo use it with our food, or 
why, in some cases or places, it immensely 
improves both the straw and the grain. Here 
is what Science for AH says of salt:—Common 
salt keeps our bodies in health, and the ocean 
clean and pure; it helps to bixild up our conti¬ 
nents, and to water the surface of the earth 
with refreshing and invigorating showers; it 
pi-events decay and drives away disease; split 
up into its constituent elements it provides 
wox-k for thousands; it cleans and beautifies 
our fabrics of tine linen and cotton; it gives 
us our snow-white paper, and provides soap 
for cleansing, and glass for beautifying, and 
thus enters into every department of human 
life, carrying cleanliness, health and wealth 
wherever it goes. 
The Golden Wax Bean is nearly or quite as 
tender and delicious, and more productive 
than the Black Wax or Butter Bean. . . 
. . For succotash, or for shelling green or 
dry, the best bush bean is the White Kidney 
or Royal Dwarf. .... For cold-fi’ames 
a ml hot-beds—sre the catalogues announced 
in our adveitising columns.We 
cannot supply back numbers of the Rural 
New-Yorker .Hens scratch up 
flower beds only when they are barefooted. 
That’s why women run out and “shoo” the 
hens to keep them from doing damage.—New 
(Means Picayune. ..... If a man 
knew as much about himself as he does about 
his neighbor be would never speak to himself 
—Whitehall Times.Despise the 
man who is willing to ti'ust you. He’s the fel¬ 
low who gets you into debt.Of 
all shares, plowshares are the most reliable.— 
Herald. 
Mr. James Vick says that the Early Gem 
Potato is the earliest he has ever grown and it 
is of exceUent quality. Among second eax-ly 
Vick's Prize is said to be white, smooth, with 
few eyes set almost even wdth the surface, 
large tubers, unifoi'm in size. Mr. Vick pre. 
sents an excellent list of the new kinds with 
portraits of each. ...... Mr. Dreer, 
(Philadelphia) offei’s the Telephone Pea which 
the Rural, fii’st sent to subscribers several 
years ago. It is of the first quality. Mr. 
Dreer also offers the new potatoes Mammoth 
Pearl, White Elephant, and Clark’s No. 1. . 
.The Rural has had a hundred 
inquiries as to where Pyrethrum seeds can be 
purchased. This is the plant from which the 
very valuable so-called Persian Insect Powder 
is made. We now see the seeds advertised in 
Ferry & Co’s (Detroit, Mich.) Catalogue, on 
the last page. A supplement of this catalogue 
presents some startling reports as to the yield 
of the Rxxssian White Oats..W. 
Atlee Burpee (Philauelphia) praises his Climax 
Tomato as the handsomest and most pro¬ 
ductive in cultivation, and recommends the 
Essex Early Hybrid (1) and Livingston’s Per¬ 
fection next and next. We are getting to 
have a geat many “best” tomatoes. Mr. Bur¬ 
pee’s Cuban Queen Watermelon has certahily 
been a great success.Speaking 
of peas, Laudieth’s (Phila.) Extra Early ai'e 
probably as early as any in cultivation. Mr. 
Landreth pronounces them the earliest., hard . 
iest and purest of any in cultivation. Besides 
many of the latest kinds we shall test this pea 
the coming season.Hii*am Sibley, 
of Rochester, N. Y. and Chicago, III., offers 
among potatoes the American Mngntxm 
Bonuxn, Burbank’s Seedling (which we should 
like to hear more about), the Chicago Market, 
Exrly Ohio and Mammoth Pearl—this in 
answer to many queries. He also offers a 
good list of oats and wheats; also the Pres. 
Garfield Tomato.Mr. R. D. Haw¬ 
ley (Hartford, Ct.,) offex-s a vei-y large variety 
of Lima Bean which he says is extra-early 
and remarkably prolific. ..... Mr. 
Bridgeman (876 B’way.) N. Y., offers the 
White Elephant Potato and Tailby’s “ Hybrid” 
Cucumber which the Rural insists is the 
very best variety for home use. 
James J. H. Gregory, of Marblehead, Mass, 
offers White Zealand Oats with which we have 
had no experience; Cranberry plants (about 
which we have had several inquiries); Bur¬ 
bank’s Seedling Potato which, he says, has 
yielded 500 bushels to the acre. Planted side 
by side with Early Rose, Labe Rose, Peerless 
and Brownell’s Beauty, it beat them all. The 
best results have been obtained from sandy 
loams. Mr. G. also offers tbo Late Ohio which 
is new to the Rural. J, M. Thorbum & 
Co., (New York) offer a fine collection of 
Winter wheats in small quantities, which may 
be tried without much cost. Also the genuine 
Blount’s White Prolific and Chester Co. 
Mammoth Corns. Rural Branching Sorghum, 
a [rare collection of tree and shrub seeds. 
They are headquarters for the White Elephant 
Potato.We hope to look carefully through 
the rest of our leading catalogues, making 
notes as to matters about which we are con 
stantly receiving inquiries.... 
The London Gardener’s Chronicle hears of 
an American currant named Fay’s New Pro¬ 
lific, with which it hopes to become better 
acquainted.Try Carter’s First 
Crop, McLean’s Little Gem, Laxton’s Alpha, 
and McLean’s Advancer for early Peas, and 
Telephone or Telegraph for intermediate, and 
Champion of England for latest. For a pro¬ 
fitable crop it is hest to sow these all at the 
same time. The Rural has never yet seen a 
good crop of peas sown late in the climate of 
Chicago and New York. Buf¬ 
falo Express: If you must dabble in shares, 
try plowsha res. No other kind pay such regu¬ 
lar dividends. ..... The milk of Bar- 
num’s mother elephant is, according to Prof. 
Doremus, not only extremely rich but also 
extremely delicate in flavor. 
Courier-Journal: Never cry over spilt milk. 
The milkman has already wasted enough wa¬ 
ter on it.Dr. Hoskins says:— 
1, A man on the farm who wants to work by 
the factory whistle, is a pei'fect nuisance. 
3. Farm work can not be adjusted to any 
system of whistle blowing. 
3. Farming can be made to pay on much 
smaller farms than is usuaUv believed. 
4. Skill in buying and selling is as import¬ 
ant to the farmer as to the manufacturer. 
5. Never mn in debt for land. Stick to 
that, and come hard or good times, you are 
safe. .... The great merchants of 
our large cities ought to learn by heart the 
px-ayer of Lord Ashley before the battle of 
Edge Hill:—“ O Lord! Thou knowest how 
busy I must be this day; if I foi'get Thee do 
not fox-get me.” .... The Boston Tran¬ 
script conveys some truths in the following 
ironical way: Never permit your son to have 
any amusement at home. This will induce 
him to seek it iu places where you will not be 
annoyed by his noise. 
There is no place like home. Impress this 
truth upon your children by making home as 
disagreeable and unlike any other place as 
possible. 
Talk slightingly of your husband to your 
boys and gilds. This wUl make them respect 
their father. 
Tell ycur child he shall not do a thing, and 
then let him tease you into giving your con¬ 
sent. This will teach him what to do on sub 
sequent occasions. 
Make promises to your children, and then 
neglect to keep them. This will lead your 
children not to place too much reliance upon 
your word, and shield them fx-om many dis¬ 
appointments. 
Tell your children they are the worst you 
ever saw, and they will no doubt endeavor to 
merit your appreciation. 
RURAL BRIEFLETS. 
The Golden Wax and the wax or butter 
beans generally are almost stringless. They 
ripen early and ai'e very tender. . . . Ref¬ 
ugee is the best for pickling. The French 
Flageolet beans should be shelled aud cooked 
the same as Limas. They yield heavily and 
our readers, fi*ora our own experience, are ad¬ 
vised to try them. Early Valentine and 
Early Mohawk are among the earliest and 
best for string beans... 
All should sow a few rows of the im¬ 
proved orauge-oolored mangels. W hen young 
they are as sweet and tender as sugar beets, 
and for daix y stock no roots are more valuable. 
We prefer the globe shape.... 
Swiss Guard is a beet the leaf stalks of 
which are quite tender. Thay are sometimes 
cooked and served the same as asparagus. 
Our readers may remember the “ ornamental” 
beets we sent them several years ago. These 
are caUed Swiss Chard. They do not form 
large'roots and are really beautiful for their 
highly colored leaves and stems. .... 
Sow the seeds of beets rather thickly so that 
they may be thinned out for greens. The 
