The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1920-11-11
FORMER VIDA MAN
IS CORN BOOSTER

, j. L. Green, who moved to the
Vida country last spring from Ore
gon, has written an interesting ar
: ticle about his experiences in corn
raising which we print below. Mr..
Green is an enthusiastic booster for
corn and cattle and believes that the
two might be of material benefit to
the prosperity of the country.
ITO the readers of The Herald:
Although have spent but one sea-
son farming in the Vida country, yet
! feel much interest in the welfare
of the good, Industrious people of
that country And am somewhat
optimistic about the possibilities of
much better crops and results with
less labor and expense than the aver
age farmer is expending.
Having had number. of years
farming in Kansas and Nebraska,
with corn as our principal crop and
lister as our best method of plant
ing, | have become a real friend of
the same. And for various reasons
which | will afterwards mention, this
is especially good in dry season.
/ did not get to our farm near
Vida till late in April, and with moth
ing but our bed and clothing. found
my ranch had been poorly tended and
was covered heavily with thistles. By
the time | had collected horses, tools
and everything nesessary to work |
with it was late, and i could not |
do justice to my crop. Nevertheless
/ secured a lister and listed in about |
35 acres of corn which helps to JUS
tify the use of the lister for grow
ing corn in dry country. In fact,
on my trip from Vida to Billings this
fall, | did not see as good corn any
Vida country till struck the Yellow
stone valley at Myers where they IL
rigae. Yet | felt all during the sea-
son | was not able to do justice to my ]
corn crop although l went over it
nine times by way of tending. I,
First | followed the planting with
a float, then a harrow, three times
each way. After that / cultivated it {
,hree times and should have followed {
Up with hoe to get what weeds |
here were left. Had l not sold my q
'anch | am confident that | could a
lave demonstrated in another year n
he true value of the lister.
My method is this: l would have
all listed the stubble ground that |
to plant to corn next spring, :
hus covering all the weeds, etc., :
nd let that serve in part as fall y
lowing, leaving the heavy ridges y
nd deep burrows to catch the snow
nd retain the moisture during win "
ar and spring. This would also get :,
ne soil exposed to the air. Then in =. u
ne spring | might run over it with u
harrow before planting so as to =
atten the ridges a little for conven- N
nee. l would then burst out those "
enters or ridges with the lister,
anting my corn at the same time.
! this way practically all the ground
stirred, the moisture is covered
,ep and the soil is put in excellent ch
ape for cultivation. Corn dropped m
the fresh, moist ground will come ch
, much quicker than in dry surface ba
owing, and gets more moisture sh
ON the light rains for a while as the
ickles down the side of the ridge Wa
rectly to the corn in the gutter. to-
,sides no weeds begin to grow down tn,
tn the corn until the seeds are roll sa,
l in by cultivation, and if the prop in
course of cultivation is kept up,
e weeds can absolutely be kept out. sui
sted corn is very easily tended, but bit
must be tended we'll or it will be un
failure. Don't list an acre you thi
MT intend to thoroughly cultivate. she
e the float and harrow extensively hol
the corn is quite high and the res