The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1919-12-23
Forest Bales Talks
of Farm Operations

Forest Bales of Riverside is feed
ing 100 sheep on beet silage at his
farm. He is short of alfalfa and has
tapered it off till they take the silage
straight, and seem to be doing we'll.
Mr.. Bales thinks he will have trouble
feeding them the silage when sloppy
weather comes.
f. T. Halverson is feeding forty
or fifty cattle on silage made of
small sugar beets. He had field
rented or contracted and whoever
had it in charge failed to do the
thinning and Mr.. Halyerson just let
them 60 without thinning and dug
them for silage.
In speaking of the sheep, Mr..
Bales said he bought them at bar
gain from a herd that was going
thru, and these were not in condi-
tion to travel. When they were
rested they were all right, and last
year he clipped about twelve and
one-half pounds of wool per head.
He sold the wool thru the farm
bureau at SO cents pound, netting
him over $500 apiece after paying
his proportion of the expense of do
ing the marketing. That price was
obtained when the open market
would have brought him only 40
cents pound, or $125 less on his
clip.
The bureau formed what is known
as a wool pool, and they did not
start early enough last year to get
all the current advantages. For the
1920 clip they expect to be organized
early and have sacks and tWine of
their own and thus make greater
saving.
Did Well on Hogs
Mr. Bales said he shipped a car
load Of hogs thru the, farm bureau,
and they netted him nearly a cent
a pound more than he was offered
by others. He thinks it will be
good thing for the farmers to sup
port the undertakings at the fair
grounds and make it possible to pool
more of their products or sell on
some cooperative. plan that simpli-
fies transactions and cuts down the
cost of marketing. He thinks there
are some cooperative plans that
have been played up in this valley
that have been Misrepresentation,
which farmers might better leave
alone. He has great faith in the
farm bureau; that is something they
can govern themselves, and not
leave in the hands of strangers.
Lost on Sugar Beets
In speaking of his 1919 operations
Mr.. Bales said he had not had
good year. He has been raising
sugar beets since the factory was
established, and he knows the crop
we'll. He had been getting his land
in condition to put it all into beets
for 1919 and by every analysis he
could make, he should have had
bumper crop of beets, but his aver
age was low. The beets simply
funked and refused to make tonnage
worth while. Some Of his ground
was fall plowed, some spring plowed,
some not plowed at all but disced
deep, some of it had been heavily
fertilized and some of it had had
choice rotation and summer .fallow,
and none of it was up to the mark
for beet production. He was afraid
the beet seed was faulty, but he was
not at all sure that this was true.
Anyhow he had poor year when by
all the rules Of farming he should
have done we'll.
For number Of years Mr.. Bales
has been raising beets, potatoes and
hogs. He considers potaotes and
hogs a little risky, but by making
this triangular combination he could
generally hit it on two risks out Of
three. If potatoes were low he
could feed some of them to the hogs
and save himself. When he gave up
his rule and put "all his eggs in one
basket" for 1919 he might have done
better. But by having some sheep
to consume the beet silage he still
RECEIVERS some of his loss.
-.s.-