Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1910-09-15

Minot, N. D., Sept. 1--we do not
need to gamble in North Dakota,
says Ross r. Martin OF Powers Lake
Mr.. Martin has just raised bumper
crop of grain; two hundred and fifty
acres of it. Grain which is grown on
land no better than any other land
in the northwestern part of the state
although at that, it is of the best land
in the world.
The only difference between the
method of raising the crop on the
Martin land and raising the crop on
the lands adjoining him, upon which
the grain yields all the way from
fifteen to twenty bushels per acre
lies in knowing how to do the right
thing at the right time.
1t does not take much more work
to raise grain according to the Camp
bell system of farming, than it does
to raise it according to the system
which is ordinarily used by the farm
ers of Ward county.
We have come into a new country
and have started to raise grain upon
land which the Almighty laid out for
that particular purpose. We have
spent some ten or twelve years here.
learning how to do it. Mr. Martin
has gotten ahead of us, and the farm
crs of North Dakota generally should
take notice of his methods and learn
how he grows IS bushels Of wheat to
the acre while his neighbors only got
six
Upon the Ross Martin farm today
there is growing winter wheat which
he sows at the rate of 10 pounds to
the acre. The wheat is up and green
and is looking we'll. He is taking
advantage of every bit of moisture
that falls. The late rains which up
on the ordinary field are left to dry
out and disappear in vaDors blown by
the breezes into the southern states.
are by his system, conserved and kept
in the ground. He follows the binder
with disc, cutting up the field and
then dragging the surface, so that he
makes dust blanket over the entire
field. This blanket retains the mOis-
ture and after each rain he drags it
again. The moisture then, instead of
drying up, soaks down, and he has
mud under the blanket all the time.
The Campbell system of farming,
which Mr.. Martin follows, consists in
first blowing the land deep, then pack
ing Immediately after the blowing; !
each days blowing should be packed
the same day it is plowed. He uses
4 regular packer. though some farm
ers use float. that is. planks loaded
with stone. After the land is packed.
t is quickly dragged, so that the
lust blanket may retain all the mOis.
ure. One-third of his land is cult
,ated without crop every summer. 1t
s more than summer-fallowed; it is
bowed in the spring. and then the
ground is dragged after each rain.
Not so soon after the rain that the
oil is converted into Jumps of mud,
tut it is dragged as soon as it will
tand dragging and before it cakes
his makes the dust blanket, and it
hould be maintained all the time.
Many farmers tried dragging their ]
elds this year after it was so dry
hat the dragging did more harm than j
God. 1t does no good to drag the {
round simply for the purpose Of it. {
o use simple illustration, ut is I
seless to lock the barn after the
ony is stolen" The dragging to S
eep the moisture in the ground can i
My be effective when the moisture c
J in the ground to be kent there. That
the reason why the dragging must q
e done qqickly and Immediately after a
ach rain.
For the farmer who desires to COM F
fence to work into this system, it is a
that he begin fall plow- il
IL at once, dragging the land imme- ii
lately after the blowing. Then for T
le next years crop. leave certain II
mount of the land for next springs t
lowing. Drag the land both this fall b
nd drag 1t again in the spring as Z
non as the frost is out of the ground. A
fter the seed is sown, and as to the n