Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1909-10-29

that he would have two hundred
bushels or more of it if he could get
time to musk it from the shock. His
letter was written late in December,
and l thought there was no POSSIBLE
ity of his grain having reasonable
strength after having stood in the
shock until that date. Upon making
a trial of it, however, 1 found that it
had good growing strength and it
evidently dried out so thoroughly in
the shock as to be able to withstand
our winter weather without injury
to the germ.
Our dry land farmers are not in
clined to neglect their live stock in
terests and usually keep either beef
cattle or dairy cows. Many of them
have a small flock of sheep and a
few hogs are to be found in almost
every farm yard. The most pros
porous creamery in the state of North
Dakota, think, is in the dry. farm
ing district in the vicinity of New
Salem. remember that the farmers
in that community told me last fall
that they counted very heartily on
their COWS. That they would not
think of such thing as attempting
to farm without them. l noticed
that something over two dozen man
ure spreaders were sold in that COM
munity last season and I saw from
that how humus was incorporated in,
the soil, the moisture preserved and
successful yields obtained.
The demonstration farm in that
community has shown these people
that growing peas and oats on their
land, manuring it, doing good plow-
ing and working the seed bed thor
oughly has given them a material
increase Of yield and they are chang
ing to a more intense form of cult
walton, seeing that it is resulting in
more profit.
There is doubtless a problem to be
worked out all through the dry land
semi-dry land and super-dry land
farm. I believe, that here as else.
where, the tendency is to crop too
large an acreage, and spend too lit
tie time in leading up by rotation,
manuring and soil preparation for
the crop before it is put in.
One of the encouraging features in
the opening up Of dry land districts,
Is that it makes land ownership pos
sible. Statistics Indicate that Ameri-
ca is Enthusiastically drifting toward a
tenant system of farming. Econo-
mists all look upon this trend with
disfavor. The population Of Ameri-
ca has doubled every twenty-five
years throughout its entire history.
Now that the population has grown
to upward of eighty million and the
humid land has been practically all
put under cultivation, this fact be-
comes interesting to all and alarm
Ing to some, when we contemplate
that in 1910, date when our young
men will still be actively engaged in
productive pursuits, our population
Will be two hundred million, If his
tory repeats itself. We are thus
brought face to face with the fact
that we will need all Of the dry land
available. Even now, our export of
grain Is greatly reduced and econom-
lists see the day in The near future
when it must cease entirely. When
that time comes every acre of dry
land will be made to produce its
maximum and represent values which
we do not now generally realize.
Labor must then become very
cheap as compared with the present
price of it and dry land work can be
better and more economically carried
on. The fact that the dry lands do
not lose fertility by 1eacning like the
humid districts and that it is neces-
sary to incorporate humus in them
to retain the moisture, will, in my
opinion, cause them to be held up in
fertility and productive power much
better than the lands lying to the
east of them. Cheap intelligent labor
will be the one thing that they will
require for, greater production
and the increase in popula-
ton will Certainly bring about this
result.
Dry land farmers in North Dakota
do not set out with as little capital
as formerly, which I believe is an
item which augurs well for its flu.
ture. The farmer who must abso-
lutely have hearty crop the first
season or at latest the second to be
able to stay In the country is not
equipped as one should be for setting
up in dry land district. .s.. <..
The fact that dry land farmers
L. L.