American Falls press. [volume] (American Falls, Idaho) 1907-1937, 1911-06-15

the subject, and would not make ex-
tended notice of it were it not for
the wrong impressions that might
prevail were not Mr.. Radke's arti-
Gle answered. Mr. Radke writes as
follows:
FROM IDAHO.
Land Conditions at American Falls
Idaho.
BY Martin Radke
In my last letter l knew. at a rough
farm harvest, and today am continuing
the same with facts. We Germans here
must drive through this big dry farm
with going to town, and thue we had
the opportunity of noting the growth Of
the crops from week to week up to har-
vest. As our Gremans worked there dur
Ing the harvest we also know what the
| harvest was The production of the sec
tion through which / drive was II BUSH
els, and further south it is said to have
yielded 20 bushels. which, however. 1
doubt Many readers will possibly re-
member at that time l wrote about
this farm Il am glad that this wheat
does not belong to me, as it wou.i an
ger me, because 1t was so badly sown. ~
/ And now the Cominerci Club at Amer
lean Falls, is BILE to bring forth sixty
bushels per acre by photography. That
Is called American lying. and yet, fool
lshly, for had the club written 6OA
the tale might have been more believ-
able. / believe that if such harvests per
acre were possible here a Rockefeller
would send his agents here and buy
up the land while it is yet cheap. For
| with crops of so bushels and even 20
buhsels per acre the land at 500 an
acre would be half given away.
What, however, does experience teach?
This association. even with such a rich
harvest, went bankrupt and was dis
solved. How was that possible? Don't
We all live in this land of ssibilities2
Two miles south of me was still another
community farm, which was worked with
a steam plow This one also was dis
solved.
On the literature 1 mentioned is illus
trated a large half-naked man-figure.
large hammer is in his hand 1t is sup
posed to represent the electric power.
When l saw this the first time 1 asked
the people what the man with the big
hammer represented2 Ant as | received
no answer, I said: He shall. with
the big hammer smash the lies printed
in the pamphlet, which would require
electric power to do.
And now 1 will describe more defi-
nitely a place where one might raise
will not say 70 bushels. but 40 bushels,
and possibly, under favorable conditions
more. There are here valleys, also de-
prcssiOns, into which rich fertilizlng soil
has been washed and deposited for ages
Here the soil is black. /, also. have
depression on my land Of about two
acres; my son, Robert has a little more
We were highly pleased over this patch
of soil as we believed we could raise
good orchard here Into this soil one
one can dig as deep as desired, even IN
+, the late fall and the deeper one digs the
more moisture the soil contains. Last
winter, however, even this hope was TAX
l en- from US, as the depression became
filled with water. which froze. Had
there been trees here they would have
been crushed by the ice. The previ-
Gus year there was. even with much
, snow no water in them. AS already
stated, in such places the product will
be greater than elsewhere but such
one of five acres in an entire sectlon'
or on 100 acres, with which to coax peo-
! pie, that is a swindle.
For the past two years 1 have written.
2 ITO present only the bright side of an
! unknown section and hush up the dark
side is also lie. '-German Herold'
Sioux Falls. 5. D.
! There is one charge in Mr.. Rad
/ ke's arraignment that can not be de-
MED. and that is that the best cul-
. tivation was not always given to the
crops on the farm. This charge can
be made with equal force, however
against almost every settler. for the
reason that they found it expedieni
to slight their work in order to gel
! in an acreage sufficient to be remu-
: nerative.
The dry farm was operated fol
+ three seasons. When work was be-
4 gun the success Of dry farming re-
+ NAMED to be proven. but the results
the first year set all doubts at rest
The first year 800 acres We're seed
: ed TO spring grain, on land not
II furrow on which was turned oeioI'
s the 18th of March, and some OF 7
e late in May. notwithstanding lh'
d fact that the late seeding was very
q moor the 800 acres threshed lllll
t better than 200 bushels. some O
a the grain yielded about fifteen brsn
q als nor acre which is three bushels
+ nar acre better than THE best aF
fer the state of South Dakota. to
n starter. ard all spring gram, ever
sir. Radke must admit chat tlis WA
not SO bad. The average for tae en-
tive farm that year was A.t-e pei
. tar than ten bushels Let us com
l. nare this with South Dakota
. where the German Herold
~ pubiiseh From 1856 to 1913 ln
Il hichost average for South Dakota
II according to the year book Of tAe q
-. partment OF agriculture was lou
Il bushels For the ten year perio
: from 1856 to 1895 the average wa
. III bushels: for the next ten yea
/ period ending with 1905, the aver
y age ives III bushels an acre. IN
= Weld by wears since then has been
!. 1899, 1911; 1900, 6.sS 1901, ~.
~ 1902. 1872; 1908, l3.S; 1904, >. .
- - oO5. 1877; 1906. 1874; 1907, z
. 1908. 1913; 19O9-10, not available
- From this it will appear that IN
- farmers of South Dakota could nc
~ harm themselves much If they cam
- to Idaho in a body. taking their oel
" ~ Yields and com airing them with ou
% poorest. ,..
Ie But let us follow the history
1.-THE dry farm little further IN
second year 1,400 acres We're seee
N ed. Seeding was continued up
tho 18th of November, the weatne