Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1899-03-30

nately in the Three States Rep
resented.
The interstate grain growers convention
opened aaspiciously at Fargo Tuesday
| morning at the opera house, with large
| attendance OF farmers and grain men
| from all paris of the state. and with a
! goodly representation from Minnesota and
South Dakota. The keynote of the con-
| vention's work was sounded by President
Worst, OF the North Dakota agricultural
| college, in an address covering the sub
| jects of better methods of tillage, proven
| ton Of weeds, elimination OF smut, inn
| provement of grade and prevention of de-
terioraton of the quality of wheat and
| increase of yield. President Worst spoke
on invitation of Prof. Hays of Minnesota,
and welcomed the convention to the city
and to the agricultural college and state.
The convention organized at 10 a. m.
| DR.. Dudley offered The invocation. Mayor
Johnson of Fargo was elected president;
| Supt. o. c. Gregg of Minnesota, vice
president; J. H. Worst. secretary; Prof.
Waldron, assistant secretary: committee
on programme. Professors Gregg and Wal
dron, Budd Reeve and Prof. Hays.
| Budd Reeve was introduced as the orig
| inator, promoter and father Of the con-
ye!ltion. and on invitation of Prof. Hays
outlined the work for the convention to
| do. indicating the benefits to result to
the agricultural and business interests of
| the Northwestern states. By a vote of
the convention, an invitation was extend
| ed to President Hill, of the Great North
ern, to attend the convention and to give
| an address. The proceedings are much
| of the nature of a farmers institute, in
Guiding Il question box feature. Evening
sessions will be held and all proceedings
| printed in full in pamphlet form and
| widely circulated
Whent-Live Stock Combination.
| When the convention assembled in the
afternoon Vice President Gregg was in
| troduced as the presiding officer of the
meeting. He introduced Col. Power. of
the Helendale farm, and formerly land
| commissioner of the Northern Pacific. as
the first speaker of the afternoon on the
| subject of Combination of Wheat and
Live Stock" Mr.. Power has been work
| ing on these lines for a number of years
and his investigation shows that the cry
of the farmer against the better inspec-
| ton of wheat and excessive freight rates
| was hardly fair, as the blame lies largely
with the wheat growers themselves for
failure to clean their wheat properly be-
fore shipment and for sending tons of
| good cattle feed to Eastern terminals. for
which they received no pay, but in addi-
ton paid high freight rates. His investi-
cations had shown that there were thou
sands of tons of feed shipped into this
country annually and paid for at a high
rate. He advocated feeding refuse grain
to the cattle and shipping cattle at ) per
cent OF the cost rather than cheap wheat
| at 20 per cent Of the value. His figures
on live stock showed a decrease for the
last six years in number with "a CORE
spending increase in price and foretold a
future of prosperity for the farmer who
| invested in cattle and combined the in
dustry intelligently with wheat raising
Vice President Gregg spoke on cattle
feeding and the relative values of corn
in the shock and cat hay.
Prof Hayes, of the Minnesota expert
ment station, followed on the subject of
Crop Rotation This Interesting sub
Ject was handled in a mastery manner
and evoked much discussion from the
participants in the convention.
Fodder Corn.
Tonight the first address was by E. C.
Chiles of Croukston, who is a very well
known dairyn an ard farmer He gave
an interesting f.alf-hour's lecture on god
Ger Corn and his experiences and COM
PARSONS in fielding dry corn and e.silaga.
His experiments had been carried on in a
scientific manner and were of much value
Prof. Waldron, of the North Dakota ag-
ricultural college, followed on What it
Costs to Raise Weeds in North Dakota"
He presented a startling array of facts in
this connection and showed that the loss
to the farmers of the state amounted to
millions OF dollars. the actual amount Of
weed seed being the smallest item The
loss to grades in deckage the damage to
the plant in consumption of moisture
plant, food and light and other causes
was of great Importance. He went into
the methods of prevention and extermina-
ton.
The last speaker was Charles Braith-
waite, superintendent of noxious weeds in
Manitoba, who was sent to the conven-
ton a special commissioner of the PROV
ince by Premier Greenway. His address
was along the same lines as that of Mr..
Waldron and brought out points sllg-
gested in the former.
Wednesdays Session.
Supt. Gregg, vice president, presid-.
ed during the morning session of the
grain growers convention. The enthusi-
asm of the farmers in attendance wholly
crowded off the latter part of the pro-
gra,nnae arranged by the committee. The
most practical feature of the session
looking to permanent results was reso-
railroad commissioner for the appoint
ment of a committee of nine members
to report permanent organization of the
grain growers of the Northwest to secure
improvement in methods Of cultivation
and better methods of handling grain
products, and to insure producers the full
value for their grain products in the
markets.
Thomas Harrison spoke on barley hay
as feed for work horses. Papers for a
s25 prize on How to Make the Farm
Pay were read by c. A. Fuller of War
rem Mimi, and w. F. House Of Richland
county.
Prof J. H. shepperd. cs the North
Dakota agricultural college. discussed
''Heredity in Wheat Growing for Seed"
OBSTRUCTION of Weeds was the title Of
q paper by Prof. Braithwaite. of the Mani
toba experiment station, who followed
Prof. Waldron on the topic, "What it
Costs to Grow Weeds"
In the afternoon Prof. Ladd discussed
''soil Humus in Relation to Wheat" e.
s. Barnes, a leading business man and
capitalist of Fargo and large farmer,
gave his Twenty Years Experience in
Farming" Prof. Rolley. of the North Da-
kota experiment station, discussed "Po-
81