At present, although still in embryo, there is in the Stillwater
penitentiary a factory devoted exclusively to the manufacture of rakes,
mowers and binders, but this branch is just emerging from the experimental
stage and may require a year or two to reach a scale large enough to
supply the needs of the Minnesota farmers.
This factory is in charge of Supt. Downing, an experienced machine man,
with years of experience in this kind of work. At present all preliminary
work is being carried out and field tasks made with the machines. These
machines had to be constructed along entirely new lines so as not to
infringe patent rights controlled by the harvester trust. An appropriate
name has been chosen for the binders,—“The Minnesota.”
The legislature of this state has been very liberal in supplying the
farmers with cheap twine, rakes, mowers and binders, and, it is presumed
that as soon as some trust controls the price of wagons these, too, will
be made by convict labor at greatly reduced prices.