Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1905-03-14
a':9a'D
GREAT WORK OF AGRICULTURAL
DEPARTM EMIT.

1HEAl WOhN Of A0ntSOII OnAL
DEPARTMENT.
The work being done through the
scientific bureau of the department
of agriculture at, Washington is OF
great moment to the agricuIturists OF
the west. A recent Washington dis
patch says: s
"A great inland conquest is being
waged by the department of agricul
ture, which Is completely overturnine
the time honored theory that the vast
areas in the west which cannot be
irrigated can never be made to pro
dsSce anything but scant natural
growth OF grass. The engineer and
the ditch builder win bring under cul.
tivation many millions of highly pro.
ductive acres, but the water supply
Of the west is limited, and there will
remain perhaps half billion acres OF
the arid region for which there is no
water.
The aggressive work of Secretary
Wilson's department, however, prom
ises fair to make a large proportion
of this land, heretofore supposed to
be entirely unfit for agriculture, into
farms through scientific methods of
soil culture and the Introduction Of
exceedingly >drouth resisting plants.
. There are no bad acres,'" said
Secretary Wilson. We have no use
less American acres. We win make
them all productive. We have agri-
cultural explorers in every far corner
of the world, and they are finding
crops which have become so ac-
climated to dry conditions similar to
our own in the west that we will in
time have plants thriving upon all
our so-called desert lands. We will
cover this arid area with plants of
various sorts which will yield hum
dreds of millions of tons of additional
forage and grain for western fiocks
and herds. Our farmers will grow
this upon land now considered practi-
cally worthless !"
David G. Fairchild, an agricultural
explorer and in charge of the work
of introduction of new seeds and
plants, says that the greatest sur
prises will be in the utilization of
what are now considered desert lands,
for the growing of special arid land
crops requiring but a fraction of the
moisture necessary for the growth of
ORDINARY plants such as corn and
wheat. ya
We are finding new plants he
said, from the far table lands OF
Turkestan and the steppes of Russia
and Siberia, which, grow luxuriantly
under such conditions of aridity that
the crops of the Mississippi valley
farms would wither and die as though
scorched by a sirocco.'
"Macaroni wheat affords good in
stance of a crop which is capable OF
revolutionizing the values Of tens Of
millions of acres Of arid land. ..
THE macaroni wheat belt, said
Mark A. Carleton, cereal specialist Of
the bureau Of plant industry, extends,
on an average, the width Of the United
States, and from the twenty-eight to
well beyond the one hundred and sec
ond meridian, with general yield
ing capacity for half OF this vast
area Of thirty bushels per acre and of
the other half Of fifteen bushels
Tt Is matter OF millions Of acres,
then, for this CROP .#9
Millions i should say 80. The
macarond wheat country would in
GUIDE large fraction Of a million
square miles. Our people are but be.
ginning TO realize dimly the utterly
vast agricultural wealth which lies
latent In this enormous area
Macaronl wheat will grow with
ten inches Of rainfall and yield fifteen
bushels TO the acre where ordinary
wheat is an absolute failure. This Il
two bushels more than the average
wheat yield for the United States.
There are many other crops witf, az
great possibilities and which thrive
on but slight moisture, including
splendid forage plants. / might men
ton kadr corn the sorghums, millets.
bronze grass, as well as new kinds IT
! oats and barleys Of wonderfM drought
resisting powers, the em1ner or
spelrz. and . long line Of Others
We ere constantly finding new