Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1911-09-30

today in that building exhibits Of
what the soil of North Dakota will
do; what it will produce, what it has
produced, and what has been done
can be done again, and the past sea
son certainly was not favorable one
l talked with a gentleman in their
from the other side of the river and
he told me that they raised over 300
bushels of potatoes, and as fine as
man ever saw saw samples OF
them-but he says We have no mar
ket for them. Now the Great North
ern railway in the last year, the
last crop, carried. over 5000 carloads
of potatoes and most Of them went
to Texas for seed. There is no reason
why you can't get market. Show
your potatoes, show what they will
yield per acre. Let the men who are
buying the potatoes know what they
will yield and what 1t will cost them
to lay them down and the problem is
solved.
saw the evidence of the greatest
wealth. saw an exhibit of corn that
would be a credit to corn state.
anu 1 ga" "AoL UCAACSO " UG- tAO
most valuable Of all plants raised on
the farm. I saw an exhibit of al
falfa-many of them. There was one
in particular, and l want to take off
my hat to the man who raised it,
somewhere up in McHenry county. l
say to you that the land that will
grow four tons of alfalfa to the acre
is worth 800 to the acre OF any mans
money, and the man who knows this
cannot afford to sell this at that price
because he cannot get it anywhere
else again. Alfalfa on the farm
not to take a bushel off the farm is
worth SO a bushel to feed stock.
Now a great many farmers think
when they have fed the forage to
stock and sold the stock that 1t Is
all they get out OF it. There is one
important consideration they have
overlooked, tho value of the fertil-
izer. The value of the manure which
is put back on the land is always
worth one-third the value Of the for.
age consumed by the stock and
don't care whether the price of the
forage is put up or down, It IL al.
ways worth one-third. 1t will increase
the yield one third.
Now the farmers of North Dakota
had pretty easy time for while. 1t
seemed to be profitable not to run a
farm but wheat factory. Along in
1S83-maybe some Of you were not
here then, but I was-there was a
dry season. There was no rain from
seed time until the night of the Sec
ond of July. The crop did not die
but did not grow at all. It remained
green on the surface, but only about
eight inches high. After the rain
came then they got two-thirds of
crop. We had large interest at that
in proportion, although
not as large as it is now.
thought that violin with one
string would not make very good
music and l thought I would help the
farmers to raise more than one crop.
l commenced distributing cattle and
hogs. A great many of the people
killed the hogs for Christmas pork
and sold the cattle to the people who
knew more of the value of cattle than
they did. They thought 1 was trying
to ruin the northwest; that the north
west never would be livestock cour
try; that it would never be a dairy |
country; that it would never be any
thing more than a No. I hard wheat |
country. They thought I was trying |
to ruin its reputation and that I ought |
to be driven out of the country.
When they got IS, 20, Is and sc
bushels of wheat to the acre they
thought that was all right, but con-
tinuous cropping of the wheat will
bring the land to the position where
it's yield may be compared practically
to putting the grain in their elevators.
You take all the wheat making quail
tiles out of the soil and you can't
raise wheat any more than you can
1raw money out of the bank without
making any deposit. or take grain out
If the elevator without putting grain
IN. Your account will be- overdrawn
sometime and your draft won't be
honored. You must keep fertilizing
he soil as it ought to be fertilized
That is not the reason for raising al
'alfa. In talking with the man who
had such good exhibit in here, he
showed me a plant that had been
beaten down by a hailstorm and
where it started to grow again. He
said in two weeks he had a fair start
On another crop. Now suppose he
had field of wheat there, or oats or
barley or corn. And this man and
his wife spent the days and long win
ter nights in discussing this field or
hat field, and he gets up early and
works late to put his crop in and it
ooks promising and everything is
'air. A hailstorm comes along and
wipes him out. His hopes are gone
and he has to start agan, and depend
IN his friends or someone to carry
him over another year.
Alfalfa is not a loss. It is a val.
liable crop, hail or no hail. I don't
van+ to take away a feathers weight
rom the value of your wheat or corn,
out want to say to you here in
North Dakota don't rush into the cul-
ivation of alfalfa. Get acquainted
With it first. Try to grow and learn
o cultivate It and know it and how
@ deal with II before YOU introduce