The Bottineau courant., 1910-08-19
Official Newspaper Of Bottlneau County.
Official Newspaper Of City Of Botfineau.
CORN, CATTLE AND HOGS.
From the Dakota Farmer.

f01SndICk lIlUuIC Illlllho, lS
the gospel to preach through
out the weedy, wheat wasted
west. 1t says:
I'VE think the bankers who
are interested in the future
growth and prosperity of the
western part of North Dakota,
the business men, whose pros
perity is inseparably linked
with that of the farmers, the
agricultural college staff. whose
knowledge should enable them
to carry the message of plenty
and prosperity to the farmers,
and the press, which is always
a potent factor in development,
should unite in preaching the
doctrine of corn, cattle and
hogs.
Small grain farming, in
whatever section it is exclusive
ly practiced, is uncertain. In
some years there are abnormal
profits. In other years there
are short crops. The customs
and practices which go with
small grain farming are not
productive of good farmers.
Fields get dirty. There is little
rotation of crops. Soil is plow
ed to little depth or not plowed
at all. Grain is seeded in on
stubble. Every thing is to a
large extent trusted to chance.
The raising of corn means
we'll cultivated soil. The earth
is thoroughly pulverized and
broken. The fields are in
better shape for the crop next
year. and proper rotation may
be practiced with every chance
for success inttead of a large
chance for crop failure.
Hogs are not difficult to
raise. They are prolific of off
spring. The price of them will
not greatly decrease in the
future. Armour, the big pack
er, predicts So to SO as about
the normal price for hogs.
And we may see $40 hogs
again in the not distant future.
Farmers this year have dis
posed of hogs that brought $35
to $50. There is money in that.
The big cattle ranges are
gone. The raising of feed and
the stocking of farms with
good cattle means steady and
sure profit. Beef will be high
because the area for it's pro-
duction is limited.
I'VE think it is a mistake for
the press and those who should
be the teachers of farming to
lay too much stress upon the
quick profits of small grain
farming. The farmer and the
new settler should learn the
lesson that the old settler has
learned-that the way to pros
perity is slow and steady, with
plenty of hard work, and needs
an Intelligent understanding of
average conditions. We need
to urge the production of more
dairy cattle, more poultry and
eggs, more butter, beef and the
like.
We need to take this coun-
try, not at it's best or it's worst,
but at it's average. SO taken
and treated, the North Dakota
farmer of the western part of
the state has a steady income,
valuable farm, and future of
comfort and competence. -
This is excellent; but the
money from a grain crop comes,
when it comes at all, so much
quicker, with comparatively so
much less expense of time and
labor, and at first with SO little
investment beyond the tools
to grow and gather it with,
that no farmer turns readily to
stock until almost compelled
to; he never did, he never will.
Stock means investment; stock
means fences, sheds and barns.
Stock means danger of loss
from disease; stock means
chores twice a day, three hun
dred and sixty-five days in the
year. It means, too, that some
times our finished animals will
be wanted at a fair price, now
and then, as now with hogs, at
away up prices, but often at
very unsatisfactory returns for
all our work and waiting. The
stock business has to be learn
ed, like anything else. and if
the man in the office does not
know what that means let him
get out and begin to make the
mistakes, and pay for them,