The Ward County independent. [volume] (Minot, Ward County, N.D.) 1902-1965, 1914-02-12
FARMERS ARE URGED
TO form A union
LONE TREE FARMER SENDS IN.
TERESTlNG COMMUNICATIONS
TELLING OF PITFALLS FOR
FARMERS AND DAIRYMEN.
GOSH.

The chinch bug eats the farmers
grain,
The bee moth spoils his honey;
The bed bug fills him full of pain.
The humbug gets his money.
B. GOSH.
Just to call attention to the many
forms of hum-buggery practiced upoa
farmers we append here a few ex-
tracts from U. S. Dept. of Agriculture
Weekly News Letters to Crop Cor
respondents, issued within the last few
weeks:
Dairying in the Northwest.
The dairy industry is growing rap
idly in the Northwest because Of
many natural advantages. The rapid
development of farming in that sec
ton during recent years has resulted
in the production of large quantities
of feedstuffs, particularly hay. This
material must be shipped long dis
tances before it can reach market,
and the high freight rates prevent the
producer from realizing any profits.
This feed can be converted into dairy
products. however, which can be
cheaply shipped to market, and for
which the market is often close at
hand. Dairying should therefore be a
great boon to this region, especially
in localities where corn and alfalfa
can be grown.
A large percent of the people who
have taken up farms in the North
west, however, are from cities or from
other sections of the country, unused
to local conditions, and ignorant of the
best methods of farm management in
this region. Hence they fall an easy
prey to INSCRIPTIONS dealers in live
stock who sell scrub cattle for pure
breds. The creamery promoter also
has found it good field for his labors,
and has done much harm by inducing
people to erect creameries in locali-
ties where there were not enough
cows to operate creamery economi-
cally. Wherever creamery promoters
have been there is trail of dead
creameries and discouraged dairymen,
and it will take several years before
our field men can overcome the evil
effects Of the creamery sharks and Of
the cattle traders who have unloaded
inferior cows at high prices on unsns-
pecting farmers, who saw the posi-
bilities of dairying in the Northwest
but were not sufficiently posted as to
details.
$3.50 Fine is Imposed on Shipper of
Adulterated Feed Meal.
A notice of judgment just issued by
the United States Department of Ag-
riculture states that the Guy G. Ma
jor Co., of Toledo, Ohio, has been fined
$3.50 for the shipment of feed meal in
violation of the Food and Drugs Act.
Adulteration of. the product was al
legged because cottonseed meal had
been mixed and packed with the pro-
duct so as to reduce, lower, and injur-
iously affect it's quality and strength,
and because cottonseed meal had been
substituted in part therefor.
Warning Against Spurious Grimm
and Dry-Land Alfalfa Seed.
Recent Investigations by the De-
partment of Agriculture have reveal,
ed the fact that large quantities of
ordinary alfalfa seed are being offered
for sale under the name of Grimm. 1t
has also been found that large quan-sS
titles of alfalfa seed raised under ia
rigation are being sold as northern.
grown dry-land seed.
In the case of some Of this seed it
was found that it was not even domes-
tic seed, but was wholly or in part
Turkestan seed This practice of sell
ing other seed for Grimm results in
the farmer paying from 40 cents to
$1.O0 more per pound for seed which
would otherwise sell for from IL to
20 cents a pound, and inasmuch as the
ordinary seed is not as hardy as the
Grimm, the first severe winter may
kill the entire crop.
The original Grimm alfalfa sown in
1858 in Carver County, Mimi, has un-G
dergone natural cross with the COM
mon variety which, together with it's
exposure to numerous severe winters
which have eliminated the weaker
plants, has made it one of the hardest
of our commercial strains. The seed
was produced originally entirely in
Minnesota, but tests Of the true var
iety since grown in Dakota, Montana,
and Idaho, indicate that these lots are
of equal value and are quite as hardy
as those grown in Minnesota.
AS it is difficult to detect substitutes
for Grimm in the seed, the farmers
are urged to buy Grimm only from
reliable dealers and, as far as possible,
to trace the seed back to It's source.
In many cases the retailers are not
deliberately perpetrating a fraud, as
they have purchased this seed for
Grimm and sell it in the belief that it
is Grimm.
This seed has become very popular
in regions of cold winters and is now
used not only in the Northwest but
in the East, particularly in northern
New York and New England.
Similarly it is found that in the dry
land regions where the winters are
severe and there is little snow fall
and comparatively little moisture the
northern alfalfa seed grown in cold
regions on dry land is especially use
full. Much Of this seed comes from
Montana. and it is found that un-
scrupulous dealers have been taking
seed raised under irrigation in that
State and selling it as Montana dry