The circle banner., 1920-03-05
Lieutenant Governor Mcdowell Pro-
duces Sunflower SIIage on
Farm

tenant Governor MCDOWELL s rancn IN
Western Montana recently appeared
in an issue OF the Country Gentle
man. 1t contains most interesting
discussion of sunf1ower silage, for
age that is said to be wonderfully
nutritive when fed to live stock, es-
pecially cattle:
The thoughless one, who has not
been there, thinks of Montana as a.
place where tie cowboy whoops and
Shoots, the placer minor grubs for
gold and copper and silver kings
make millions. There is truth in the
picture, but it's not complete. Out
there the dairy farmer is looking for
is turning his way.
The light finds this dairy farmer
experimenting on cattle feeds. He
wants the feed that the cattle like,
J that is best for the cattle and that
produces most milk. So he has been
trying his luck with sunflower silage
and the result is highly satisfactory.
Lieut.. Gov. w. w. Mcdowell, who
owns the Valley of the Moon ranch in
the heart of the Missoula National
Forset, twenty miles east of the town
of Missoula, by his own experiments
has found these were average figures
for production an acre in Montana:
Tons
Al1alfa 10
1lmothy
SunnoWer
For years the agricultural depart
ment of the Montana, had experiment.
ed and had officially announced that
sunfiower silage was splendid feed
for cattle--for dairy cattle in par
ticular; that it was good for the cat
tie. that it made cow give more
milk, and that the tonnage an acre
far exceeded anything that could be
expected of alfalfa or timothy.
Farmers began to think about it.
They heard, too that in the eastern
states corn produced the largest tom
mage for silos and that ten tons an
acre was the best average corn could
show in the most favored states.
Here, then, was sunfiower variety,
whose lowest average was Two and
half times as great and which had
been known to produce IS iligh as
forty tons an acre, growing freely in
the Montana climate and, on paper at
least, with everything 20 recommend
it
The writer asked the lieutenant
governor for some figures.
Take a day off," said Mr.. Nc
Dowell. "The men are harvesting
the sunfowernow." This was the
last few days of September. "See it
in the fields, watch them cut 1t and
haul it to the silo and note how it's
chopped and stored. You'll find a
fish pole and a gun on the place.
Make yourself at home.p
How the Crop Is Handled.
And the writer went. He found
five acres under sunfiower. 1t was
the Russian variety. The plants stood
from six to eight feet tall, as gen.
eral average. Some were ten feet
tall and here and there were a few
that stood fifteen feet.
From the foreman he learned that
1t cost five dollars an acre to plow
and harrow the ground. The seed for
the five acres. cost four dollars an
acre. The ground bad been prepared
in May and seeded in June. 1t was
really at least four weeks late. With
this handicap the yield on the strip
Of the Valley of the Moon ranch was
ip to the average.
The sunflower grew in rows thirty
inches apart and were about six inch
IS apart in the rows. During the
growing season the sunfiowers were
cultivated between the rows just as
,orn would be. The summer of 1919
vas unusually dry in Montana and a
title irrigation was used. Plenty of
water causes the sunflower to grow
arger but it is said that they can be
'aised on what is commonly known as
Try land.
On large acreage the cutting
would be done with machinery, but
Mr. Mcdowell used corn knife. The
,lants are cut as near thhe ground as
possible, because every bit of the
talk is valuable silage. The harvest
ng operation was very simple. Six
nen attended to the job. Two cut
he plants, two hauled the sunflowers
n wagons to the silo. enc fed the
Continued on page d