The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1917-01-18

diversified farming and stock
farming, but all of them have
failed to suggest a plan on which
stock raising could be carried on
to any extent on rented farms.
In other words, they have
omitted to invite cooperation
between the farm owner and the
renter. Undoubtedly there are
many renters that would like to
keep as many head of stock on
the farm as could possibly be
fed through the winter on the
straw that is raised on the farm
each year and the renters share
of the feed grain if there was
stable room and water on the
farm. But there are very few
rented farms in North Dakota
where there is any more stable
room than just enough for the
number of work horses required
to work the farm, and the man
who rents the farm for only a
short period, say three years,
does not consider it pays him to
buy lumber and build barns or
go to the expense of digging
wells on a farm not his own.
AS far as pasture for the stock
is concerned, the renter as a rule
has to pay from $500 to $3.50
per acre for what pasture there
is on the farm he rents, so it
would make no difference if he
rents a pasture from his neigh
Dor or keeps his stock some
where else during the summer.
We only have reference to the
number of stock the renter could
keep over winter on the farm.
We will presume that a farm of
800 acres in any ordinary season
will produce straw enough as
roughage to keep fifty head of
stock through the winter months
and if the renter was allowed
to put $50 acres into oats and
barley, the one half of which
would also in any ordinary sea-
son produce feed grain enough
to keep those fifty head of stock
through the winter. But the
majority of farm owners want
nothing but wheat raised on
their farms. Neither do they
want to go to any expense of
building barns and digging wells
on the farm and let the other fell
low have the use and benefit of
it. But if he would only consider
the benefit those fifty head of
stock would be to his land he
would arrive at the conclusion
that he would be making those
improvements mentioned above,
not for the other fellow, but for
himself.
Fifty head of horses and cat
tie will produce one big load of
stable manure each day during
the winter, say six months, and
during the other six months
they will at least average two
loads per week, because there al
ways will be some horses kept
in the barn all summer. And if
there was a pasture on the farm
for a few mich COWS and a cow
barn, the COWS would be MIXED
in the barn and the renter would
find it necessary to use straw for
bedding in order to keep the
COWS clean, and it would not take
many days until a load of ma
nure would be accumulated in
the barn.
Now these loads of manure
will make a total of PA per year,
and if we take it for granted
that James j. Hill was right
when he said that a load of ma
nure was worth $3.50, the value
of the manure from the fifty
head of stock would amount to
$6O8 for the year. And if the
farm is rented for three years
to the same party, this party
would at these figures improve
the other fellows land to the
amount of $1,824.
Which one would he making
the most out of this transa :tion,
the farm owner or the renter?
-1ncot;.ito.