The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1906-09-11
CROPS GOOD IN N. D.
PROF. THOMAS SHAW WRITES OF
CONDITIONS.
Spends Week in Southeastern Part Of
the State--Macaroni Wheat Is a
Good Yield-Promising Future for
North Dakota.

st. Paul, Sept. IL. Prof. Thomas
Shaw, who has charge of the ]. j..
Hill farm contest, writes from North
Dakota:
'The past week was spent in south
eastern North Dakota The crops in
these counties are good on the whole,
thoughg they have suffered from the
excessive wetness of the early part of
the season. Near the South Dakota
line much of the wheat grown is of
the macaroni type. This season it is
yielding eighteen to thirty bushels per
acre. The blue stem and red fife are
averaging fifteen and sixteen bushels.
The oat crop is only fair. Barley is
good and speltz is excellent.
ASK a farmer in these counties Of
Dakota as to whether macaroni or
the other kinds of wheat pay the best,
and he will quickly answer that the
maearoni does. This means that it is
going to be much grown in the near
future. 1t seems to have more inher-
ent vigor than the old-time varieties
1t suffers much less from rust. An
other good features about macaroni is
that the yields are usually such as to
justify growing it to provide food for
live stock.
From Havana westward speltz is
favorite. 1t is very hardy, is a very
sure crop and is a heavy yielder. The
yields frequently run between forty
and sixty bushels per acre. The straw
is of stiff growth, hence the grain does
not lodge readily. This quality is be-
ing turned to good account by growing
1t along with other grain weaker in
the straw, as, for instance, oats, when
say 3S per cent of the seed sown in
the mixture is oats and the remainder
speltz the crop seldom lodges, as oats
frequently do when sown alone. More
over, the mixed crop yields better
than if sown unmixed, and the grain
is blended in nice proportion to make
q grand food for horses. Farmers viii
do well to give much attention to
growing this mixture in areas where
speltz is an important crop.
SpeItz for Horses.
1T may not be generally known
that many farmers are feeding no 9TH
er grain than speltz to their horses
They claim that it is better than oats.
take issue with them on this ques-
ton. No grain has ever been grown
that will equal oats as an all-round
food for, horses. Nevertheless, the fact
that some have assigned such a place
to speltz in feeding horses is high
praise for it. The combination of oats
and speltz is undoubtedly excellent.
The farmers have given speltz a high
er place in feeding live stock general
ly than has been assigned to it by
the experiment stations, which means
that more experimentation is wanted
before this question is settled. The
farmers feed it to all kinds OF live
stock. The adaptation for such feed
ing along with the sureness Of the
yields make it favorite crop in these
counties.
THAT these counties are well adapt
ed to the growing of live stock is
easily argued. Macaroni wheat and
speltz both grow at their best. Fairly
good crops Of barley and oats are
grown. Broom corn Inillet yields from
thirty to forty bushels per acre. Such
mfllet when ground forms the compile
ment Of speltz or barley in feeding
cattle forGnilk or beef, sheep for NUT
ton, horses for work and swine for
growth and fattening, according as
these are blended. The native pastures
are good, but these in all tillable
areas, like the red men who once
roamed over these pastures, must be
regarded as vanishing quantity.
They cannot survive an advancing
civilization. Nor is this matter for re-
gret. The ground on which they grew
viii produce twice as much and more
OF blue grass and Russian bronze grass
when these come to be grown, and in.
the better days at hand they will pro-
duce still higher yields of alfalfa and
the clovers. That the farmers have
not grown these long ago is a strik-
ing illustration Of the extent to which
they were welded to the wheat grow
ing era. We saw but one clover field
In the trip through Sargent county.
The crop in 1t was grand, good one.
Corn in North Dakota.
1.-THE corn IN these counties was
near maturity. 1t was we'll cared.
There was not more than one acre
grown for every fifty acres that viii
be grown In the better days that are.
coming, but the fact that 1t can be
grown with entire success is the all.
important fact ait. the present time.
we talk about the corn belt as hav-
ing special adaptation for growing live
stock do not want to say one word