The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1911-11-01
So DECLARES WORST
IN DISCUSSING
SYSTEM
Points Out That Small In
vestment of Additional La
Dor Yields Heavily

e4SS6V
A man has no more right to abuse
the soil than he has to abuse his team
OF horses or his family. And, fur
thermore. the farmer who insists up
on growing wheat. and only wheat, one
year after another, is entitled to fall
ure. and through such failure rid the
country Of the abuse of it's greatest
natural resource. Those are the views
of President ]. H. Worst of the North
Dakota agricultural college. express
ed In an article in the North Dakota
Farmer.
The systematic farmer is usually a
Worst. The man that farms with.
out system-just farms haphazard-
seldom makes a glowing success. The
all-wheat farmer has no system in
the accepted and will ultimate.
~ fail. He should fail. Not that any
one should predict or desire another's
misfortune. but the soil is abused by
the one-crop farmer and he should
fail In order to rid the country of the
A man has no more right to abuse
the soil than he has to abuse his team
or his family. Generations yet un-
born will depend as much upon the
soil for ~sustenance. as the man that
originally filed on it or that IL now
farming it.
THE systematic farmer works out
a system by which he may so diver.
SHY his crops as to employ his time
somewhat evenly throughout the year
that he may maintain, even increase
the fertility of his land; that he may
destroy weeds and otherwise conserve
moisture and, by thus using his mental
faculties as we'll as his hands, pre-
vent the many evils that befall the
haphazard farmer.
Moisture the Factor
In the long rum" he continues.
growing crop throughout the spring
and summer months is the determin.
Ing factor that governs the size and
certainty Of the harvest. One farmer
plows four inches deep, when he gets
ready and uses a drag Just enough
to smooth the surface. He sow the
remnant of wheat that Is left over att
er selling what a be spared, and
depends upon Providence to water his
fields as the crops may need 1t. His
neighbor plows eight inches deep, as
early as possible. following the pillow
with a subsurface packer and the
packer with the drag, the same day.
II 1t rains. the water all goes into the
soil because he has prepared a place
for its reception: then he drags the
heid again to hold the water in the
soil: He selects only plump. perfect
seed for sowing. having previously
During the early part of the growing
season. he uses the drag as often as
the dashtng rains form a crust over
the ground, and keeps wedding and
dragging the fields until the grain
eventually shades the soil.
Cost Is Small
All this extra wedding and dragging
requires work, plenty of it. but note
the systematic farmers The
extra work he gives his ground is to
insure sufficient moisture for the grow
ing crop. He does not depend upon
Providence to give him plenty Of mois.
ture to let &c to waste and in addi-
ton. plenty more when his crop must
have 1t or perish.
OF the two farmers described, will
1t require a hard guess as to the more
er. The bug-a-boo Of too much
work is sheer faliacy. The extra drag.
gings and the extra discing will not
cost to exceed 81 an acre. Farming
any u way costs, counting interest
on investment. seed and labor, ap-
proxtmately 81 al acre. BY applying
the additional 81 worth of labor to
each acre. the chances are as good for
getting q double profit as for getting
Of labor. Thus half the profits may
be credited to o~ne-seventh or one
eighth the total cost of production"
Need Not Blow
But says one, so much work will
U h land to blow Work the
land when it is quite damp and it is
not so likely to blow. But why permit
1t to be in condition to blow? The
systematic farmers land is rarely in a
condition to blow. He does not grow
small grain on his land year after
year. No good farmer does. The
systematic farmer keeps considerable
livestock. He grows corn and grass
as we'll as grain, and by maintaining
a systematic rotation. keeps the ground
SO full Of grass roots and manure
or humus. that 1t has but little chance
to blow.
Another thing. what with livestock.
dairytng, small grain and poultry, he
has many sources of income. several
of them very dependable. regardless
of weather conditions. The system
he employs not only insures a profit
able income every year but improves
the fertility of his farm and keeps IL
clear Of weeds.
"Of course. 1t will be impossible to
farm as many acres, but what Of that?
Isn't 1t better, with a fair degree Of
assurance. to clear five dollars an acre
on 160 acres than to take a slim
chance at clearing two dollars an
acre on a half section?
Let us no forget that farming. at
best. is a business that involves many
risks. This Is particularly true in a
state where the moisture that falls
during the growing season Is Outlines
limited. But I know of no section Of
the great northwest where the soil is
more responsive to proper tillage and
where the curse (?) of drought can
be more readily changed into the mer-
cy of an overruling Providence. And
I will venture the prophecy that,
within ten years, our enterprising real
men will be shouting the fact
Justify that the state is blessed with
just enough moisture, that is, When
properly conserved. there is always
for the crop with never any
to wash away and waste the fertility,
as now some of them are trying to de.
Jude the public into the belief that this
fs a humid country. The millions Of
dollars already sacrificed to this false
god should suffice, especially when the
fact remains that with proper tillage
and systematic management, such a
thing as loss Of crop from drought
be a very rare circumstance.