The weekly tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1891-1894, 1893-01-20

ious neighbors would descry a new means
for booming a town which needs the eff
forts of no boomer. Nor would it be fair
to the business men of this place to lay
upon themselves such a burden. of time
and Of money, as would render these
meetings a success.
The state at large would be the gamer
and as such ought to bear the expense.
At the present time each agricultural
state of prominence is supporting by
state aid a farmers institute board,
whose duty it is to hold in each agricul-
tural county in the state at least one in
stitute during the year.
In Minnesota where there are eighty
odd counties, two-thirds of which are in
the agricultural sections of Il o state,
$500 per year is annually appropriated,
this sum being expended for the en-
ployment and expenses of a corps of in
structors, whose duty it is to conduct an
institute in each county that desires
such a session and is willing to supply a
suitable place for holding such a session.
to warm and light the building and to
properly advertise the meeting. As a
rule three days sessions are held, three
sessions each day. 1t is the universal
experience that no such interest has
been shown IN any publ: gatherings as
in these meetings, and tine only difficulty
experienced is to find accommodations
equal to the entertainment of those in
attendance.
1t has been the custom to employ
plain. practical, experienced men who
could talk intelligently on such topics as
horses. cattle, swine, sheep, dairying.
fruit growing. bee keeping. veterinary
science, touching upon the common
Of horses and cattle. together
with instructions in horseshoeing. etc,
some instructors being qualified to treat
on more subjects than one.
Dairying has been perhaps the most
important branch that has been handled
and has resulted in the employment of
upward of 10000 COWS in the manu-
f~acture of butter and cheese.
The improvement in the quality Of
butter and cheese is by far more notice
able than the increase in quantity. Mon
tana offers exceptional advantages to the
.dairyman. pure spring water in album
dance in all valleys and the most nutri-
tlous Of grasses, together with the most
bountiful crops Of grain and roofs, all of
prime Importance in this industry be
cause woe bctide the ranchers who I'M
dertakc to produce butter on grass and
hay alone, rs the coarse mill feeds or
otfal from flour mills is of the very best
as milk and butter producers.
The dairymen of Wisconsin taught the
great northwest that wheat bran is the
feed that can be given a dairy COW.
and that SO long as they could get 90
cents per pound for butter they could
afford to pay Sli per ton for bran. When
the flour industry was first started in
Minneapolis the millers for lack of a
bran, along with the sawdust. over st.
..Anthony's falls. but when the farmers
educated up to IA proper apprecia-
ton OF its value as a feed material or
derS had to be placed beforehand to in
sure acceptance. There is not ii crop
that is proiitably grown in the Dakotds.
or Wisconsin that cannot be
as profitably produced in some section of
In an experience covering
thrce-fourths of the union nowhere has
the writer seen Il region so capable of
the expansion Of agricultural interests as
in the irrigable sections of Montana.
For example, grain can be sown in the
months of February. March. April. May
or June. Harvesting may be accom-
plished in August. September, October
and November. while the mower has
been proiitably while the snow was
on the ground on Indian contracts.
The scheme Of the farmers institute
docs not deal solely with out of door
problems. but domestic ono is
taught as well. a competent woman be
ing employed to cycmplIfy plain cookery,
and none are more deeply Interested
than are farmers wives and daughters.
Lectures upon travel and kindred sub
jocts are often included aud local glec
clubs are always to he found ready and
TO brighten the sessions With
music.
\. plain and simple form Of farm ac-
counts is also taught and the farmer is
in reach of the means to advise
himself as to his standing with the
world, also to place Il correct estimate of
the cost and the profit or loss of such
lines OF farming rs are understood by
him.
At the end Of the institute year. a
pamphlet 81 book containing perhaps
300 pages. in which is embodied all the
valuable papers of the years sessions, is
printed and distributed gratuitously to
those desiring il. the cost Of this being
betrayed by d judicious use of IA few
pages of advertisements, Thus the
years work is pcrpetuated and its re-
read by thousands who have been
to be IN attendance. Such d plan
as this can be taken up by this body and
committees appointed, whose duty it
shall be to mpmOrialiZc the lppislature.