The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1904-12-13

they have discouraged all settlement
and pursued horseback farming" and
If they have irrigated it has been
crudely and simply to raise enough
hay to winter over their stock.
The wheat yield in the Gallatin val
ley runs 80 and 40 bushels to the acre,
oats, so to 70 bushels, and alfalfa hay
four and five tons per acre, and clo-
yer four tons. A feature of these
Montana grains is their great weight.
Oats, which east weigh from 80 to IS
pounds per bushel, fill out under west
ern conditions to almost the plump
ness of wheat and weigh As and 30
pounds per bushel. A yield of 20
bushels to the acre, weighing AZ
pounds per bushel, is not uncommon.
Another interesting example of the
value OF what some farmers designate
as ~new-fangled farm science is evil
from one end of the great Gala
tain valley to the other. The farmers
when they first got their bitches in
operation raised the wild b%lue-joint
hay-one of the Poas, l think-but
the state experiment station is located
at Bozeman, and the director warned
the farmers that blue-joint would run
out" and he straigntway instituted a
vigorous campaign of education on the
value of rotation, and by practical
example induced the farmers to plant
red clover and rotate it with grain
and other crops, blowing under the
sod much after the name of the Or
binary eastern rotation, but some.
thing then practically unheard of out
there. And now clover can be seen
from one end of the valley to the other
and the land is being rather improved
than deteriorating.
Much progress has been made in
farming in the west, but much is yet
very crude and indicative of great
agricultural ignorance. But it must
be remembered that in many in
stances whole valleys have been set.
tied up and are being farmed by men
who never were farmers in the true
sense, have no ideas of crop rotations
and but little of cultivation and are
surprisingly oblivious to the great
productive capacity of this soil when
we'll handled. They are many of them
still pioneers truly.
The report of the chief of the bureau
of animal industry upon which Score
tary Wilson based that part of his
annual report relating to this subject
is an interesting document, but will.
not be published for a month or more
1t outlines the work of the year al.
over the country of an immense
bureau.
The necessity for the inspection O
meat is evidenced by the
fact that during the year 10000 cattle
carcasses were condemned, 500,
sheep carcasses, 1000 calf carcasse!
and $4,000 hog carcasses, besides
132, 600 parts of carcasses. A list i:
given of some 40 diseases with which
carcasses were found affected. Owe,
a million and a half quarters of bee
alone were inspected for export, ant
nearly a million and a half package
over those of 1908 was AZ, 200, co.
pounds. There vas also an increas'
in pork exports of 21, 200, 900 pounds
but a decrease in mutton exports O
1000, 900 pounos. This latter fact
explained through the decreased ez
ports from Australia in previous years
owing to drouth, causing an abnorma
American expectation in 1902-19O;
Over two vessels a day carrying cattl
were inspected by the department.
1t is stated that the Importation Q
pure bred cattle, sheep and swim
during the year has been extremel
light.
A bulletin treating of the natura
cause and remedy of foot rot in shee
is now in progress of printing. E,
periments have been carried on wit
a flock of West Virginia sheep,
large proportion of which was a
fected by this disease and the pre-:
ence of the bacillus necrophorus in a
OF the affected feet was established
The bureau of animal industry ha
been working on n question of tn
communicability of tuberculosis frol
mich cows to human beings. Th