Price comparisons - 1913 and 1922

The Sutton News and other county newspapers carried this story in January 1922 describing wholesale and retail price trends between 1913 and 1922. The story was a grim one for area farmers. 

1946 Expansion of Phone Service to Farmers

This item in the February 14, 1946 issue of The Sutton News announced the expansion of phone services to Clay County farms.

 

1910 Manure Spreader Ad

A valuable farm implement, this. It was refreshing to get out in the field, going upwind after being cooped up in the barn throwing product out the door into the machine.

Or did you have the misfortune of missing this experience.

Or, as my Pappy used to say, "This is the one product that neither the manufacturer nor the distributor will stand behind."

1918 County Poultry Show in Fairfield

Poultry was a big part of the economic stability of the early area farms. There was an annual poultry show in Clay County. Fairfield hosted the early 1919 version.

1943 -The Wartime Farmer - Milk & Cream Production

Advice about wartime food production was almost an industry of its own. The October 21, 1943 issue of the Sutton News carried this eight-page supplement about milk and cream production.

Winning WWI with Chickens

This Harvard business aimed to win the war with chickens.

The major incubator business in Clay County was the Old Trusty Company in Clay Center where M. M. Johnson employed more than 200 people sending incubators and other poultry products across the country.

Emil Ochsner manufactured a smaller number of incubators in Sutton and we've found evidence that the wife of Sutton tavern owner Tim Hartnett made a few of them.

And we found a newspaper item that the B & H Incubator Company in Fairfield had shipped a 120-egg incubator to Greece. B & H were fellows named Bayles and Hayes.

Here we have the ad of Higgins Hardware in Harvard though there is no indication that this product was also manufactured in Clay County.