Blackfoot news. (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1891-1902, 1897-10-02

In all or the wool CeulSAS
of America. And last in or
der of development. but by no
means least in Importance, our dairy
products have established name LOT
themselves among the very best on
this continent. All of these acnlese-
ments have been won almost ehtire4s
without the aid OF cultivated grains
and grasses. Our native prairie grasses
have, in nearly all cases, been the prin-
cipal, and in many instances, the only
food of our stock.
In some parts of our state the system
which has produced such satisfactory
results in the past can be continued ioi
o considerable time to come, with but
slight notifications, while in otner pof-
lions, particularly in the older anu
more thickly settled districts, condl-
lions have so changed, and are sun
changing, that a very different system
must eventually be instituted. In these
localities our native grasses, Wnlcn
have been the basis of nearly all OF
our success in the past, are fast disap-
pearing and being replaced by inferior
introduced grasses and worthless
weeds. The causes which have brought
about this undesirable, but inevitable
result are not hard to discover. over
stocking and tramping, which seem al
most unavoidable during some portions
of the season, If enough stock be kept
to utilize the feed during flush times,
is one of the most potent, and also the
= -. IL
such an amount of stock is kept during
flush feed as can subsist upon the pas
ture, without oyerstocking during the
dry parts of the season, the grass viii
make such \ rank growth during the
spring and carly summer that STOCK
will not eat il during the dry periods.
Another, only slightly less potent, but
more universal factor, and one still less
amenable to any known methods of
prevention, is the gradual migration OF
hardy, wor thjess. weedy grasses and
plants from tie older to the newer set
tied portions o. the country. 1t is true
that some OF our farmers claim that
our native grasses are so much sup >
rior to the cultivated grasses of the
east that we can successfully compete
with eastern dairymen without the aid
Of forage, roots or silage. And these
claims are not without foundation. II
is a well known fact that our native
grasses cure upon the ground as soor
as the dry weather of August and Sep
TENDER sets in, and before they have
been injured by frosts; and that fine
quality of well cured hay, superior tc
the average meadow hay of eastern
states, can be cut upon our prairie:
at any time after August before this
ground Is covered with snow. AS Il
frequently happens that we do mo-
have enough snow at any one time
during the winter to prevent stool
from grazing, 1t ought not to be diff
cult to understand why we can truth
fully say that our stock can range thu
year round and we can cut hay upoI
our prairies from August until March.
There are, however, some years, an,
especially this year. when this state
ment cannot be substantiated. Will
1t Ia unquestionably true that we hay
the advantage Of our eastern competi
tors in the quality of our native grasse
1t is also true that they have the ad
vantage of US in the length Of tim
during which stock can obtain succu
lent food. Such being the case, 1t seem
that it is even more important tina
we should supply forage, roots and 81
lage for the late summer. fall and win
ter feeding, than 1t is for the EASTER
dairyman or stockman to make sim
liar proyision.-E. G. Chilcott.