The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1917-05-04
HORRIBLE
EXAMPLE,

Wealth and poverty stand side by
ide in Bingham county as we'll as
n the big cities. Within few miles
II Blackfoot is 4O-acre farm where
he man and his family took up their
residence seven years ago and were
heavily in debt. The farm has been
run down with successive grain crops
and yielded only about five bushels
per acre. In the seven years they
have been farming it it has increased
the yield to only about seven bushels
according to their own statements,
about eight tons of beets per acre
and rs sacks Of potatoes. They have
20 head of cattle and about rs head
of sheep on the place and say they
are building up the soil as fast as
they can, in order to raise better
crops. They do not haul manure
from any of their netghbors nor from
the factory feeding grounds. the
man gave as the reason for not haul
ing it from these places the fact
that they have as much fertilizer OF
their own as they can use. The
writer looked. around the premises
and saw no shelter for the stock ex-
cepting an old brush stable banked
up with manure, which had settled
and blown out until the wind
whistled thru. 1t afforded no shelter
from the wind excepting when the
wind is in the south and west. 1t
had an old straw roof and a plank
floor on part of it. In every direc-
ton from the stable there was ma
nure ranging in depth from a few
inches to a foot and a half, and
wretched calves and colts stood
bumped up in various places shlVer-
ing. 1t was rainy, blustry snowy
day on the first of May and mother
pig lay on the cold side of the stable.
on the wet ground, with the wind
whistling thru the boards and cracks
of the pen and litter of baby pigs
lust a few days old were shiverlng
their lives away by her side. In her
attempt to protect them she had
rooted out place few inches deep,
but the dirt was wet and cold and
she simply reclined in such position
as to break the rain and cold as
much as she could. The baby pigs
moaned and cried and she responded
in doleful tones. She was fenced
in so she could not get out to take
them elsewhere, yet the fence was
not tight enough to break the wind
or protect them from the storm. we
asked the man how he could stand
it to see them suffer so, but he re-
piled, ooh, they'll come thru al
right" We asked him why he did
not haul out the fertilizer and spread
II on his poor land, and his reply
was that the spring was SO back
ward they would not have time. They
had done very little blowing up to
the first day of May and said they
had been waiting for the land to
get dry. We asked why he did not
take the little fresno scraper, that
Law in the barn yard, and clean up
and get the manure piled where II
could drain so he could put 1t on
the field when the field was dry
enough He said he wanted to haul
II out with a manure spreader and
the one he expected to get the use
of had been in use so much ne mac
not been able to get 1t. When We
suggested that he could haul manure
on a wagon when other people were
able to haul it with spreader he
said he had had the promise of the
spreader. There was large pile o.
old lumber in the barn yard ant
we asked why he did not build
shelter for the pigs and he replied
that he had only had the lumber fo1
a month or so. There was a flint
horse tied up in the stable and OF
this cold stormy morning the hors'