Fergus County argus. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1886-1946, 1903-11-18
THE VALUE OF
BLUE JOINT
Thomas N. Everitt Reads an Interest.
ing Paper Before the Farmers
Institute in Helena.
MAKES A GOOD AND SURE CROP
Almost Impossible to Kill II and Has
Been Proven One Of the Most
Nutritious Grasses Grown.

The following article, read before
the Farmers Institute in Helena by
Thomas NJ. Everitt, will be of interest
to many of our readers. II was first
printed in the Bozeman Chronicle:
Mr.. Chairman, Ladies and Gentle
men of this Farmers Institute:
have been asked to address this
institute on Native Blue Joint, It's
Value as Grass and Hay and the Best
Market for It."
We have our alfalfa cranks; our
barley cranks; our bronze cranks and
our sugar beet cranks, but it seems
that | am the first blue joint crank
that the institute conductors have
been able to find. And now while we
may all be cranks to a certain extent
upon u pet crop, yet | find from ex-
perience that all of these pet farm
products, or nearly all of them, have
all of the merit claimed for them in
the localities in which they are best
adapted, and that they have much
more merit all over our state than
most farmers know. But IL does seem
strange to me that a grass native to
the state of Montana, scattered over
our broad expanse of valley and
bench land. making, as it does. the
very best hay that is known in the
whole world, should not have receiv.
ed, and should not now receive, more
attention by our scientific men. by
our experiment stations generally,
and by our farmers and stockmen in
particular. Blue joint is what is
known as a wheat grass. called by
botanists "Argopyron O%ccidentale."
1t is native to the valleys and lower
bench lands, especially in the coulees
and swails all over the state of Mon
tana, but without water ii does not
make a vigorous growth and in many
places never showing above the sur
face of the ground for years at a time,
yet living under the ground, creeping
about just below the surface waiting
for the life-giving water. when 1t i'm
mediately sends up a carpet of beau
tiful blue green, that has, to my
thinking, the most beautiful coloring
OF any grass that | have yer seen.
This grass is what is known as a re.
pent grass, that is ii has creeping
stems under ground, yet they are
stems of grass or in an incomplete
form. | have seen hundreds of acres
OF ground upon which not a single
spear of grass could be seen for five
years, the ground being as bare as
this floor and the wind blowing the
dirt about and yet the very first year
that water was applied to this land
the blue joint sprung up and covered
the ground to such an extent that II
made over a ton of fine hay to the
acre and the second year made four
tons to the acre. | have asked q
great many men why they do not
raise more blue joint hay and they
usually tell me that 1t Is the very best
hay, being almost equal to other hay
with grain thrown in, but that it does
not yield a sufficient quantity to pay
nc ualI nc otba, ,rono opd tbarafnra
they pillow 1t up and use the land fol-
something else.
Now, think they have not given
blue Joint a fair show. II is a well
known fact that any crop after long
years of growth on the same land
grow less and less and it becomes
necessary to rotate the crop. Yet
have found that in fifteen years OF
irrigating and cutting for hay, blue
joint has still made a good paying
crop and think for the labor expend'
1t still pays better than many other
crops that | could put in, but | dc
not think this Is true of every locality
But people do not give blue joint q
fair show. Did il W. occur to you
that timothy, after about three OF
four crops, begins TO grow less and
less, and that IL gets sod bound!
What do you do in that event; do you
say that timothy does not pay and
quit raising timothy? No, you pillow
up the ground. put in a crop of grain
or alfalfa. leave that for some n OIL
more years, and then re-seed to tim
othy. Now. blue joint requires the
same kind of treatment, but. perhaps
| oftener than timothy, for the reason
as | said before, that it has under
ground stems that run all about the
surface, sending up shoots at every
joint just like our old-fashioned witch
grass, and for that reason it becomes
other hay grass, but for that very
reason IL Is much easier renewed
when IL becomes sod-bound than any
other grass. In 1896 | plowed W
about sixty acres of blue joint sod and
put II in wheat. The next year, 1897
| also put 1t in wheat. In 1898 ant
1899. | sowed 1t in oats. Each year
| got a frst-class crop OF grain, max
ing four years that the land was In
grain crop. In 1900 Just irrigated
the land and did not SOW anything or
II. That year I cut about three-quar
tiers OF a ton OF blue joint hay pei
acre; last year and this I cut foul
tons per acre off from that land. Dur
ing all of the time that land was Ii
grain, the blue joint was living, and
being below pillow depth. root stemI
and all.
BY digging below the soil, turned
over by the pillow, you could see the
large white tender looking stems al
most as sharp On the end as a pir
and the ground was full OF them
while all of the land that had beer
turned by the pillow was mellow ant
without a sign of grass or roots in 1t
| have also found by experience tina
the blue joint seed is n of the mos
hardy seeds in existence; that Their
Is hardly a weed seed, and everybod.
knows how persistent in growing the.