The Glasgow courier. [volume] (Glasgow, Mont.) 1913-current, 1915-01-29

paration for the growth Of the main
wheat crop in Montana that is the
winter wheat, should begin in May
or June of 1915, that is, it should be-
gin. on summer fallow land or on
land that had been devoted mainly
to the growth of a crop of corn
grown either for the production of
fodder or for the grain that it would
furnish when it was to be harvested
by swine.
It is now coming to be generally
considered that that winter wheat
crop is the chief money crop of Mon
tana, but it is not generally under
stood that there are limitations as
to the area within which the crop may
be grown in the absence of some
form of protection. 1t is not gen.
orally known that east from Glas-
low the winter wheat is hazardous
when grown in the absence of pro-
lection and that westward of Glasgow
gov such protection is not so nec-
essary or important. Now, what does
this mean to the men who grow win
ter wheat east of Glasgow? Does it
not mean that these men who grow
winter wheat should aim to furnish
protection for the same. In what
form can such protection be furnish
ed so surely or so effectively as by
growing squaw corn that is to be
harvested by the swine? Winter
wheat is to be sown between the
rows. The squaw corn stalks fur
nish the necessary protection. In
this way winter wheat may be u e
cessfully grown westward from Glas-
gov and eastward far into Dakota.
But westward from Glasgow the
growing of winter wheat is much
less precarious.
Actual practice has shown that
westward from Glasgow good crops
have been grown on stubble land
disked previously to the sowing of
even not disked, but what have these
instances proved? That when all the
conditions are favorable those me-
thods succeeded, and that when they
were not, often times they signally
failed. The results tended to show
that if good crops of wheat are to be
grown in Montana, normally they
must be grown on rational lines.
If a good crop of winter wheat is
to be grown in Montana in 1916, it
is now practically a forecasted con-
clusion that it must come first from
summer fallowed land, or second
from land that has been worked on
some plan that has been regarded as
the equivalent of the summer fallow,
such as land that has been devoted to
the sowing of squaw corr or of some
other kind of corn that will mature
early. Maturing is the great matter
whether this corn shall be of white
flint squaw corn, the genu or the
Rustler white dent. The great matter
is the maturing of corn, and the
kind that will certainly mature and
that will certainly produce the larg-
est number of bushels is the kind to
grow.
If the farmers who live eastward
from Glasgow can grow n Or the
other of these kinds of corn and
usually they can, they can usually
grow good crops of wheat. They do
this by hogging off the corn. They
then take a single wheat drill and
drill in winter wheat between the
rows of corn. The corn meanwhile
has been harvested by the swine. The
stalks have been left upon the land.
These stalks hold the snow that falls
and protect the wheat. When they
are groken down they act as a mulch
on the land. In this way good crops
of wheat may be grown from Glas-
gov eastward, whereas such crops
could not be depended upon in the
absence of protective measures.
Westward from Glasgow the Win
ter wheat crops are measurably sure,
but on the condition that they are
sown or properly prepared ground.
Now, what is properly prepared
ground? 1t is ground that has been
summer fallowed or that has grown
a crop of potatoes of some other Gull
tivated crop, as corn. When winter
wheat is grown or such land it is
~measurably sure, no matter what the
character of the season may be. But
many of the farmers drill in the
wheat on stubble. If a wet year fol-
lows they may get a reasonably good
crop. Should the following year
prove dry, they may get nothing, and
yet they run the risk of getting
nothing in the hope of getting
something. 1t is not true that the
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