The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1911-11-29

tribute the labor throughout the year.
1T also will insure sufficient diversity
of income to make financial failure a
practical impossibility.
The Real Booster.
"The rear booster is the man who
would advertise the country to foreign
investors on the basis of actual per-
Torrance. When our farmers clear
their fields OF weeds and practice a
system of tillage that will conserve
sufficient moisture to insure a crop
every year-and this can be done;
when our scrub livestock gives way to
thoroughbred sires; when the soil is
given back annually the elements with
drawn by the growing crop; in short
when each farmer cultivates only as
much land as he can cultivate
thoroughly and scientifically, sowing
only the best and most prolific seed
then the actual prosperity realized by
our farmers will be an advertisement
for our state which cannot be ques-
toned. For general prosperity is the
best advertisement any agricultural
country can enjoy.
'"The way to advance the price of
land permanently is to increase the
products of the land and by methods
that insure both permanence and cer-
tainty OF crop results. Land is worth
just as much money as 1t can be made
to pay a dividend on, be that $50 per
acre or 800 per acre.
Exhibits in themselves are valuable
and tend to demonstrate the value IF
lands A fine collection of grains and
root crops is not a difficult matter
where large areas can be drawn upon
for making such exhibits. but when
every farm can put up a creditable
exhibit, the price of land will advance
by leaps and bounds. The boosting
that will bring about these visible re-
suits is more desirable than all the
boastful literature that can be scatter
ed over the country.
Personally, have the greatest
confidence in the soils Of our state.
1 am equally confident that nature has
supplied North Dakota with ample
moisture to produce an abundant crop
every year. Fortunately--and use
the term advisedly--we do not have an
excess of moisture. This fact alone
accounts for the wonderful fertility Of
the soil. BY conserving the moisture
that Is precipitated during the entire
year and by cuItivating the soil with
this end in view, there will seldom,
perhaps never, be a scarcity Of mois-
ture. Moreover, moisture will be To-
Gated where it viii be available to
nourish the growing plant every hour
that intervenes between termination
of seed and the harvest. But first IF
all we must exterminate the weeds.
am confident that the state enter
tains weeds which consume moisture
sufficient to create a loss OF $4,000. :
600 annually. If weeds alone were
wholly eliminated or reduced to neglig-
ible quantities, crops would rarely suf-
fer from drought.
by actual experiment 1t has been
ascertained that where even less than
four pounds of dry matter in the form
OF weeds grow upon a square yard of
ground, these weeds sap the soil of
sufficient moisture to make crop Of
twenty five bushels of wheat per acre.
Even should these figures be discount
ed and only one-fifth OF the soil water
be permitted to produce weeds instead
of grain, they would still. upon our
wheat fields alone, spell a waste OF
more than $4O,000,00O annually. except
| in seasons of superabundant rainfall