Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1915-05-26
BY Borton w. Currie in Country Gentle
man.

by Borton w. Currie in Country Gentle
West of the rich soils of Nebraska
there are bad lands and some $4,000
square miles OF sand hills. In these Sane
hill valleys there are possibilities for po-
tato production that future economic
needs are certain to develop. The Bad
Lands proper are in the northwestern
corner of the state and occupy a com
paratiVely insignificant area.
eohiionw However much poor soil and rough
certain western segments OF Nebraska.
there is within the whole state enough
rich fat to place her among the first
cultural production, Moreover. Nebras-
ka is the most purely agricultural of them
an. There is not a commercial forest or
mine within her borders. Not one acre
IN three has ever known the pillow, but
2nly half the nnutilized two-,hirds IS class
jtied as untillable. There are in the state
land, and according to some surveys the
land under tillage has not begun to do
more than half of what it easily can do.
so much wheat to boast of. but consid-
srably more in the way of golden re.
s corn e room ram ane to corn more "as than rs an 600 1906 90
bushels-75, 0oO. 900 bushels better than
the IL, e 1913 crop. And though puny in com.
total of 1914 was the best and biggest
Nebraska had ever produced-63, "a, SIG
bushels, was told, against 6o,4s5, 472
bushels in 1913.
100000 Acres of Alfalfa.
1t was Of the new alfalfa crop and the
building OF $500 silos hat the Lincoln
st Az were most proud, More than
iooo.o 600 Nebraska acres have been
painted to the legume-an Increase of
noo, 600 acres in the last seven years.
with tn Yields now running to $500 900 tons.
OHon vast of whnf io oo11nl tho c,,,
cropping" area of Nebraska. and the dry
weather of the past few years has dem
onstrated the immense value of the crop
are learning every year how to work al
falfa into their farm management
theem casn,, AS , N every ss Other ther section sect H., Of
needless planting on the recommended
ton OF so-called experts who know how
y plant and to crop alfalfa but are hope
!.ssly deficient when 1t comes to fitting
Z into a farm management scheme that
viii make it a profit crop and not merely
| a verdant decoration.
What is called the sure-cropping area
OF Nebraska lies In that irregular wedge
between the River Platte and the Mis-
souri, river. out as far as the boundaries
and Buffalo counties in South Da-
kota You find a still narrower strip Of
?f thai great prairie state.
South Dakota is really just beginning
w Jackie tne fundamental problem Of
putting her agriculture on Il permanent
farming basis. 1t will take her a good
many years to match the stride of Kan
sas NJ Nebraska in turning the state
into one big farming school and cut
ting out the waste of wheat orgies and
straw stack burning.
South Dakota Is Wasteful.
I dropped off in South Dakota at a lit
lie junction point about 100 miles west
Of Bookings and as / looked round
l saw stacks burning on all sides. Not
q great many years g you might have
seen the same thing commonly i'm Iowa
and Illinois. 1t is just one of many
features of waste and slipshod farming
that the new forces at Bookings hone to
overcome, and it is more than likely that
2 few years hence YOU will see as little
3f this sort of thing in South Dakota as
you see to the south and east of her
sure cropping region. or over the line in
the south central counties of Minnesota.
South Dakota and North Dakota di-
vide their farming problems into two
Instinct ~sections-one set of problems east
of the Missouri river and another set
west. In both states the better farming
program has gathered fine Roadway.
North Dakota has had a good deal the
better of !. in making Roadway because
of the aid that has come from Minne-
apolis and st. Pau The agricultural col