Yellowstone monitor. [volume] (Glendive, Mont.) 1905-1928, 1909-02-11
NEW POINTS ON
DRY FARMING
Custer County Experiences Elucidated for the
Benefit of Our Agricultural Readers.

r grow where it can find a piece of IN
occupied ground, generally a buffal
Wallow and probably the party tha
: made the wallow did the seeding.
We are also told that the sag
/ brush growing rank is Indicative o
} rich soil Not always. Sage brush ha
( the longest, largest and toughest tar
root Of anything in the vegetable
kingdom according to its size and i
its roots can strike water it will grow
rank. If there is no water to strike il
/ will only grow to one or two feet in
height no matter what the soil is.
The previously mentioned writer
claims it is worse than useless to try
to farm land with a feachy subsoil :
but we claim that it is worse than
useless to try to farm any other kind
without irrigation and we have had
twenty years of observation and
experience to back our opinion. From
what we have seen Of this country we
are OF the opinion that large portion
Of the country is q sandy soil with a
leachy subsoil, and we believe that in
the future this country will be known
as the northwest wheat country.
II winter wheat can be grown with
out Winterkilling, the problem Of the
arid northwest is solved. In raising
winter rye for feed for several years,
we found that if there was moisture
enough in the ground in the fall to
sprout the seed that it would make
grain even in the very dry years: but
the fall IS always the dry part Of the
year and in order to obtain the nee
essary moisture it will be necessary
to summer-falloW. The last eight
years have been wet enough to raise
grain without fallowing.
We made the discovery several
years ago that to make sure crop,
We must quit blowing.
There has been SO much said Of
late years about perfect seed bed,
intensive farming, and SO on, that the
majority Of farmers will look upon
the quitploWing idea as ''hot air.
We have found by experience that
ground scratched over just enough to
make a dust coat in wet years produc-
ed thirty per. cent more grain than
ground that had been ploWed; and in
dry years the difference was fair
crop and no crop. Difference in soil
and subsoil conditions will probably
demand different methods Of cultiva-
tion. Every farnerin this part Of the
country will have to experiment some
on his own account When we first
came to the country, we heard men
say that the first crop or sod crop
was the best, that one could nearly
always be sure Of d crop On sod; but
after that the prospects Of raising a
crop was poor.
In 1890 Of thereabout the spring op-
ened early and dry. We broke sod for
a few days buthad to stop It was 50
dry. About the 18th Of April We pre-
pared the ground for corn and planted
part Of i, but i was too dry for corn
to sprout. There was norain until the
fifth Of June, when il commenced and
rainea three days and nights without
ceasing. A row Of post holes on the
WindWard side showed that the rain had
wet down about twenty-five inches.
We finished planting and that was al /
the work performed on that piece Of |
ground, and that was the last drop Of
rain that fell that summer. The corn
"a dent grew to its normal size, 8 and
7 feet. There was not 4 stalk III the