The circle banner. [volume] (Circle, Mont.) 1914-1939, 1920-07-09
WHY THREE FORKS
BEATS MINNESOTA
HOW A FARMER WHO CAME TO
MONTANA HAS PROSPERED
IN DAIRY BUSINESS
Built Sunflower Silo at the Instance
of the Three Forks Chamber of
Commerce; Now He Is Getting

Frank Gaffke used to live at Gay
lord, Minnesota. Some one told hin
that Montana was the best state Il
the Union to raise big family II
and so he and his good wife, AM
their family of eleven children mi
grated to the Madison valley in Gala
tin county, Montana, in 1917.
Gaffke Is a worker and a mana
ger. He bought farm that seemed
in his mind adapted to dairy indus
try, so with little lost time he start
ed into the dairy business, planting
his low land to alfalfa and his up
lands to wheat. He bought a hero
of Holstein cows and found there was
nothing left for him to do but put uI
a silo If he wanted all there was IN
the milking game. Oen day he read
an announcement in his weekly that
If he would guarantee to put up a
silo, that the chamber of commerce
of Three Forks would furnish him
free, enough sunflower seed to plant
sufficient acres to fill the silo.
Gaffke came to town full of the
idea and the result was that he took
the proposition. Today he has all
his plans laid to build a second silo,
and is planting double the acreage in
order to properly fill it. He has sew
enty cows. His cream check month
1y amounts to $500, and while there
are times that he is not milking all
his cows, there are no times when
he is not independent of the banks
when it comes to borrowing money
for current expenses.
Who profited by this? Well, many
profited indirectly, though, perhaps,
Gaffke first, while some of his neigh
bors who followed suit were next in
line. Then came the storekeepers
who cashed his and his neighbors'
checks all winter when there was lit
tie cash in the community, due to
the result of drought and exporting
of money for hay and other feed. The
banks next came in for their share,
for without these monthly checks
coming in, there would have been
little else from the farmer frater-
nifty. This was outside money, too,
for the product of Gaffke's and his
neighbors' milk cows was sold to
the Milwaukee dining department
and was consumed by their patrons.
Part of it went into Butte and some
to Bozeman and some of the cream
was made into ice cream and shipped
to Harlowton and White Sulphur
Springs and Whitehall. Some of it |
was made into cottage cheese and |
was eagerly asked for and enjoyed by
the men and women who ride the
through trains of the Milwaukee
lines.
Outside money keeps up the camp
and how to get your natural re-
sources turned into outside money is
the great problem of every commun-
ity of Montana. In no better man
ner can a banker help to do his part
than by financing some such scheme
as was financed by the bankers and
business men of Three Forks when
they bought tons of sunflower seed
and started several men off in the /
dairy business. 1t is only right at ,
this time to say that every one of the /
men who built silos as result of his /
experiment., are still going strong and Ii
heir accounts at the banks are /
worth while to both themselves and E
he banks, to say nothing of the store
keepers who cash the checks. What q
saffke has done you can do. Read {
his again. It's full of food for |
bought. IL