The Glasgow courier., 1921-04-29
SAFE FARMING METHODS
By j. G. HANEY
Agricultural Extension Dept international Harvester Co.
BY j. G.. HANEY

Western farmers are optimistic a
to the future and are preparing {
come back strong. The desire an
advice to grow wheat, and lack @
cooperation on the part of the cll
mate, has put many honest, hard
working farmers in bad circumstance
financially. In many instances bot
large and small farmers listened I
the "call of the wheat" and plunge
sold their cattle, broke up pastures
bought more land and machinery, an
maid high wages. The world know
what happened.
COMING BACK
After spending two months attend
ing farmers short course and othe
farm meetings. from the Red Rive
to Flat Head Lake, there is no ques
t;on in our minds as to the outcome
The most hopeful sign is the fact tina
there is no real uncertainty as TO WI!
conditions are so bad. A past middle
400 farmer in Rosebud County, Mon
tana. who has farmed there for twelve
years, said that when he homestead
cd he soon got a few cows, hogs, ant
a flock of chickens, and that they al
ways made their living expenses b!
selling butter and eggs. He had
half section, well improved, ana "aS
out of debt. About 1916 another nan
section was added to the farm, par'
of the stock sold and small gran
planted. No crops have been ralseo
since. The home farm had to be
mortgaged to buy the other halt sec
ton; as it has not been possible 10
pay taxes and interest he is in danger
of losing all. If his creditors, Will
give him half chance he Will get
back to his half section and cows
chickens and hogs. We heard many
such stories.
MAKING GOOD-LIV-
ING ON THE FARM
A hustling young farmer SAID ne
came from eastern South Dakota
eleven years ago, and brought only
one COW as he expected to get rlch
raising wheat. AS he rasied very ut
tie the second year, he saw that ne
could not depend on small gram, ana
so got three more cows. he IS now
milking fourteen and has not felt
the pinch of the bad years. In prac-
tically every instance where the far
mer of average resources, on half to
a section, has made good, he has first
seen to it that the farm produced his
living. He has had few good cows,
hogs, chickens and a garden. The
present low prices for farm products
and the relatively high prices for
what is bought, make it doubly es-
sential that as much as possible of
4lo Ex,,n,r hn tho fa This
is done on many farms and does not
interfere with growing large acreage
of small grain or other cash crops.
But play safe, and grow living first.
LIVESTOCK ON EVERY FARM
1t has nat been fuond possible to
farm our great areas very long with
out keeping some livestock, so that
crops can be rotated, and part of
the crops fed on the farm, and the
fertility returned to the soil. Live
stock farming is not popular with
some farmers, because it means work
nearly every day in the year. Grain
farming requires only few months
work-a short period of seeding in
the spring, harvesting in the fall, and
the years work is done. In some sec
tions where they have practiced this
for twenty years or more, the system
is getting even more simplified, as
about all they do is to seed-they sell
dom have any harvest to bother with.
Live stock means that feed must be
grown and stored for winter feeding,
as we'll as providing pasture for sum-
mer. A great many farmers seem to
hesitate at this program because they
think there would be great outlay of
of cash necessary. 1t would be posi-
BILE, and probably desirable, to spend
a large sum on silos, barns and pure
bred stock, but if they had the money
obuy all this they would not need to
engage in farming. Usually those
who succeed in making the change be-
gin with what they have and grow
into live stock, rather than go into this
line of farming. Make the change
gradually.
GROW FEED-ROTATE CROPS
The pit silo, or trench silo, can
be constructed with very little or no
cash outlay, and will save all the
feed. Corn or sunflowers, alfalfa or
sweet clover, can be grown on any
land that is fit to attempt growing
any other crops on. When these crops
fail, there is always a crop of Russian
thistle that may be put up as hay
or ensilage. We would prefer crops,
but stock can be, and are being fed
Russian thistle hay and silage, and do
remarkably well on it. There is little
or no excuse for not having feed
1t is generally conceded that corn is
preferable to sunflowers for silage,
and can be grown when given a reas-
enable chance, in many localities where
at present little or no attempt is
made to grow it. Carefully selected
and tested, home grown seed of an
acclimated variety, gives best results.
Get seed from your own fields or from
a neighbor; don't send long ways
from home for seed. Plant on good
land, well plowed; plant early and
top dress. Use a check-row planter.
cultivate frequently both ways and
very shallow, after the corn gets start
ed. Don't plow the corn and cut ali
the roots.
Corn land will usually produce as
good crops of small grain as sum-
mer fallow. A farmer in central Mon
tana grew forty acre field of Flint in
1920. He cut it with mower, raked
it and ran it through his threshing
machine, blew the fodder into his
barn and wintered his horses on the
fodder. He got eight hundred bush
els of shelled corn to feed his hogs
and other stock, besides having forty
acres summer falloWed for small