The weekly times-record. (Valley City, N.D.) 1912-1922, 1914-02-05
A BETTER FARMING STORY.

A BETTER FARMING STORY.
(ey Scott N. swisher, City Editor
WiIIiston Graphic.)
Note The following is a paper sub
mitted in the Valley City Chautauqua
Newspaper Mems prize contest.
Prizes aggregating $4,000 have been
offered for the best articles on better
farming by the Chautauqua manage.
ment. This story was awarded third
prize.
A prominent writer tells us that
it took Noah four hundred years to
learn how to build an ark, and ad-
monishes us not to loose our nerve.
It will not take that long to learn
and practice better farming in North
Dakota, so there is little need for
encouragement.
You will find many people who
will say that when newspaper man
writes about better farming he does
not know what he is talking about.
Personally disagree, and hope to
prove this to you.
The principles of better farming
are, of course, rotation, diversified.
ton, cultivation and live stoc::- In
this connection l must tell you some
thing that will be surprise, as much
so to you as it was to me, and in
telling you this it will be necessary
to recite little history and person
al experience. and show you just what
has been going on in other states
for many years.
Not New After All.
am not native of North Dako.
ia, that is have not lived here all
my life. During the time that l have
been resident of the state l have
learned much. When l came to the
state in newspaper work one of the
first things heard was Better Farm
ing. To tell the truth l had little
conception of what it meant, at least
thought did not know. While
supposed knew nothing about bet
ter farming l was much surprised
to know upon investigation that Bet
ter Farming was the very thing we
practiced many years ago when was
youngster upon a farm in an east
ern state, and that we practiced the
very thing upon the old home farm
which the North Dakota Better
Farming Association is trying to
teach you. My father practiced bet
ter farming n.ethods, my grandfather
did the same, and it must have gone
back even farther than this on the
old farm because three or four gen.
erations Of the family have been rails.
ed on this farm and it still produces
good crops, while large amount of
land in this country has been aband.
oned as mo good" and the former
owners have moved to greener fields
with heavier soil and places where
they could raise crop of some sort
with less effort for the time being
at least. Many of these people went
to Illinois, Indiana and Iowa.
corned to Death.
The first time that really learned
what the better farming movement
amounted to in this state was when
l heard one of the Better Farming
men talk at meeting arranged for
the extension of the work to another
county. Then I realized fully, much
to my surprise also, that was rath-
er familiar, through personal expert
ence, with what they are trying to
accomplish and are accomplishing.
I was more surprised to learn it was
necessary to teach better farming in
state with so rich soil as North
Dakota.
Now hope to tell you here some
thing about rotation. About the
year 1885 my father moved to an old
farm of $50 acres which he had pur-
chased in the heart of the Allegheny
mountains. About one-half of this
land could be farmed, and the tillable
portion was river valley. The PEG.
pie around the adjoining country who
were mostly all as poor as the Bible
mans turkey-due to their own meth.
ods-laughed at my father for buy
ing that old worn out farm" He
had come from another part Of the
state where the land was no better
but where they farmed "closer" as
they will tell you there today. The
farm which he purchased was at one
time what was known as "black wal
nut" land. That is it was at one time
covered with an immense forest Of
black walnut trees. It had been
cleared and farmed for more than a
h HlSsr<1 L -