The Butte inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1901-1912, 1901-07-19
GRASSES FOR THE ARID LANDS
Experiment Station at Bozeman Pro-
viding Grass for Barren Ranges
State School Gossip,

THE State College of Montana is Sec
ond in the United States in its proper
ton of students to the total population
with it's land grant district" said DR..
James Reid, of Bozeman, president of
the Bozeman college. only one other
state is ahead, that one being Utah, and
it is a close race for the supremacy. Our
proportion of students to the total popu-
lation of the state is really remarkable,
and is growing yearly.
THE attendance of the Montana Col
lege of Agriculture and Mechanic arts
a ponderous name but one that tells the
whOlething is increasing yearly, and
may soon be expected to increase still
further the coming year. Last year it
was 266, good gain over the year be-
fore.
Just at present, there is little doing
in the college department proper, but
the experiment station is heels over head
in work connected with that branch.
There are thousands of growing tests
being made, on all kinds of crops, and
some of the results. made known to the
public through bulletins, have already
proven of great value to the state.
lone of the most notable works ever
taken up by the experiment station is
the introduction of arid land grasses. for
the ranges of Montana where rain Is in
too small quantity to insure a crop of
! ordinary grasses. The station has en-
listed the aid of ranchers and stockmen
| all over the state and giving them seed
from all of the varieties that seem to
promise WELL together with full instruc-
tons as to care and the making out of
accurate reports concerning compare
| tive growth. The introduction of new
9TH trto re- ~
| this country, grasses that will stand
grazing and double the value Of the
ranges, would pay the cost of the sta
| ton for a century to come. In some
parts of the world, where pasturing has
been reduced to fine art, such grasses
| are to be found, and the department Is
| leaving nothing untried that may bring
success The Introduction of Russian
and other northern European apples has
doubled the apple-producing area of the
| United States, with incalculable profit
to the country. Better grasses to sup
pant the sparse-growing grasses would
be Of equal value.
1.-THE experiment station is making a
| notable success of poultry this year, IN
der the able direction of Henry Gard
liner, a poultry enthusiast who has taken
charge of the department. Heretofore
the college farm hardly produced enough
eggs for it's own experiments. But now
poultry growing in Montana seems to be
taking a new lease of life. What the in
dustry needs is the knowhow, and then
every barnyard may be filled with dow
ny. clucking birdlings. while the market
will supply all the fat fowls that the
people can eat. and eggs be as common
as they are now uncommon. Really. II
is remarkable. the revolution that has
been worked in tn poultry department
IF the college station. 1t has advanced
to the dignity of a pronounced success
and the value of the stations work t.
the poultry growers of the state will b.
imense. 1t is beyond the range of or
binary amateurs to take tn time AM
. spend the money necessary to locate tn