The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1922-08-24

THE IDAHO
fail, what lands would be settled and
what would never be settled. That
part Of the country on the west side
of the river north of Firth was de-
scribed as country that would
never be settled. About twenty
years ago some Swedish families
undertook to make living on some
of that rolling land that had strips
of sand and lots Of lava rock and
they succeeded. Twelve or fifteen
years ago a good many Swedish set
tiers took land there or bought it,
raised wheat, potatoes and alfalfa,
hauled their products thru the great
belts of loose sand to the Shelley
bridge and across to Shelley, stead
lily improved their farms and now
the most of that country is in a good
state Of cultivation. Nearly all the
settlers are Swedes, some OF them
have unusually good houses and
barns and raise alfalfa, wheat and
potatoes for their main crops.
Nearly all of them have big barns
painted red with white trim;
some Of them have good houses,
some of them modern houses with
Delco electric lights, lighting, house
barn, potato cellar and everything
and this year when they have very
large acreage of potatoes, nearly all
of them have facilities to store the
entire crop. Most of them have
woven wire fencing around their
farms so that when the crops are
harvested they can turn the hogs
into the fields and fatten them on
the fields. Until the Firth bridge
was built they were long way from
market, had perhaps the worst roads
in the county, they claim they have
received but very little county aid in
building roads and they now have a
very good road system. Every year
they have put straw on the roads
and graded them some and they
have gradually developed very
good set of roads.
Some EARLY Settlers
G. w. Cedarberg was one of the
first settlers on the tract we have
been discussing and has a large
farm at the west end of the Firth
bridge. The report of his farm has
already been published in a pre-
vious issue.
Anil Steele was another one of
the early settlers on the tract re-
ferred to, having 100 acres about
three miles north of the Firth
bridge. This year he has twenty
acres OF potatoes and storage for
about 5000 sacks in three different
cellars, he has twenty-three acres Of
grain, thirty-fve acres of hay and
some pasture. He raises about
thirty-five head of hogs, has his
whole farm Enclosed with woven
wire fencing and says he finds lot
of satisfaction and profit in the use
of this woven wire fence. He says
that he went in debt for it, paid in
terest on his notes and had the sat
isfaction Of knowing where his hogs
were all the time, knowing that they
were not bothering his neighbors,
knowing that the neighbors' hogs
were not bohering him and eating
his crops or destroying his potatoes
and never has to do any running
after them. Mr.. Steele says that one
of the poorest investments that peo-
pie can make in a new country is to
have poor fences and have the stock
on the different farms bothering the
neighbors and making bad feeling,
where the best of feelings can pre-
vail. He says that when a person
once gets a crouch at neighbor
over tresspassing of hogs or other
stock, it is one of the worst things
in the world to cure; people seem
never to forget such things. In the
year 1920 Mr.. Steele built barn
4Ox6O feet in size with capacity of
sixty tons of hay; he has two good
sized chicken houses, a garage, a
wash house, three large potato eel
lars and a modern house that he
built six years ago. He has Delco
lighting plant that furnishes light
for all the buildings, including the
barn and potato cellar. Whenever
he erects a building he gives it a
good coat OF paint, everything but
the house being painted red with a
white trim.
Mr.. Steele says he finds the best
crops are hay, potatoes and grain
with some hogs and cows. He says
he raises just about the same
amount of potatoes every year and
does not vary it because there is a
poor year or an unusually good
year. He recommends that farm
be divided into about four parts and
the crops rotated, one-fourth to po-
tatoes, one-fourth to hay, one-fourth
to grain and one-fourth to pasture.
BY the careful rotation of crops the
soil is kept in good condition and
potatoes are not raised long enough
on one part of the farm to become
diseased. He has one tract that is
sowed to pasture and is sowed to a
variety of grasses including timothy,
alsike, alfalfa, blue grass and white
clover. No stock should be allowed
on the new pasture until it is one
year old. Mr.. Steele says it is neces-
sary to keep up fight against the
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