Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-09-21
belt FAIR DRAWS EXHIBITS
FROM DIVERSIFIED RANCHES
Community Has First Affair of Kind Since 1916;
Plan Placing As Displays at Helena
Next Week.

at Cascade. the Belt community fair
Wednesday. in the opinion of County
Agent f. +. MacSpadden and others
who attended both fairs. had better
exhibits in sheaf and threshed grain
and stock roots from dry land farms
than Cascade had from either dry land
or irrigated. The Belt fair, which was
the first to be held since 1916, was
NOT as large as it would nave been had
plans for it been made earlier in the
wear. X. z. Oertli, in charge of the
agricultural department OF the high
school, was in charge OF the fair and
had less than 80 days to get the farm
ers of the locality lined up for it.
F~orty-five exhibits will be taken to the
state fair.
The principal cash prizes were
awarded on the basis of the best gen
eral farm exhibits, this plan being used
TO encourage farmers TO enter more
than one class, as well as many va
~rieties in each class.
Jude Huber o the special pre-
MUM for the best general display from
one farm. Huber has bottom land,
which is intensively farmed and thor
oughly diversified. On his $50 acres,
he raises garden truck of all kinds, as
well as wheat. oats and barley. He
milks 40 head of p%ure-bred Holsteins,
has between 80 and 100 phre-bred
Poland China hogs raises Light Brahma
chickens and Bronze turkeys.
In the Huber exhibit at the fair
were five varieties of beans, three va
~rieties of corn. two varieties of wheat,
/ cantaloupes. watermelons, tomatoes.
carrots, cabbage, three varieties of
of beets, squash. pumpkins. turnips,
cauliflower. two varieties of potatoes,
onions. cucumbers, oats. barley. rye,
timothy seed and alfalfa seed.
Raises White Dent Corn
Huber is a firm believer in the wis
dom of raising White Dent corn. He
says that it natures as early as the
flint and produces more fodder.
Another farm exhibit that attracted
considerable attention was that of Da-
vid Graham. Though proud of his
showing. Mr.. Graham is more proud of
Mrs. Graham's record as a prize win
ner for butter making at the state fair.
She has entered butter in statewide
competition 10 times in the last 20
years and has won IS first premiums
in that period. Graham has a 16O-acre
farm, on which he has 10 cows. He
! specializeS in raising corn and pota-
! toes.
In Graham's exhibit were five yarie-
| ties of potatoes, two varieties of corn,
three varieties of squash. two varieties
of beetS. mangelwurtZels, rutabagas.
watermelons. cabbage, carrots. parsley.
tomatoes. cucumbers. parsnips. pump
kins. alfalfa and sunflowers.
Grays Have Two Exhibits
The Gray family had two exhibits.
| w. II. Gray, the father. had a very
creditable showing. and his 1S-year-old
sons display proved that being a mem
Der of a boys garden club is worth
while. Their farm is 500 acres. 70
acres of which they had in wheat,
which yielded them 1000 bushels. Some
Of this wheat runs GA lbs to the
bushel. They have - head of Holstein
cattle. Much of their effort is spent
on their vegetables, of which they raise
a large volume to sell in Belt and
Great Falls during the vegetable sea-
son.
The Gray exhibit included Golden
Bantam corn. four varieties of squash.
beets, turnips. carrots. pumpkins, cab
bage, cucumbers. string beans. peppers.
tomatoes, parsnips, onions, Watermel-
ons and citrons.
The Fred Burrows farm, located two
miles southeast of Fife, was represent
ed with three varieties of corn and
Pink Eye potatoes. Burrows major
operations are in wheat, though he
mllkS nine Holstein cows and keeps
a numer of chickens. His spring wheat.
of which he had 115 acres, averaged p
bushels to the acre.
One of the best Yields of wheat re-
ported from the Belt district was that
of win Bratley's Turkey red, which av-
eraged 43 bushels to the acre. This
was on dry land, some of which vas
summer fallowed and some stubbled.
Other Than Mining Interests
Belt, in the minds of many is only
a mining camp, but recent years have
proved to the satisfaction of its busl-
ness men that agriculture is the back
bone of it's existence. Though all of
the farms are dry land there have been
no complete crop failures during the
last few years of drOuth. Even in 1919,
which was the ~communlty'S worst
year, many farmers got 20 bushels of
wheat to the acre.
Belt sprung into existence as a coal
mining town in 1894 and by 1895 had
a population of 5000. From the first,
many of the miners located on home
steads in the vicinity and worked their
land as a sideline during the frequent
periods that they voluntarily laid off
work in the mines.
Cattle and sheep-raising became the
principal industry, however. as the
country was settled, and continued to
outrank farming until the Burlington
was built through the Belt valley IN
1910-11. There are some well estab-
lished cattlemcn in the community, yet
among them being David Pimperton,
Frank Shirley, the Beaudry brothers,
Hans Johnson and Pete Johnson.
Among the sheepmen still left are the
F. Armstrong sons and Harry Arm
strong.
Several farmers have developed in
the large operating class in that vlcin-
ity. They are John Baumgarner. John
Sweeney, Joe Bognar. Charles Holm
berg. Nils Roman and James I. Bough.
All of these farmers are established IN
divcrsification.
There are between 300 and 400 farm
ers in the Belt trading area, very few
of whom operate less than 800 acres.
1t is estimated that between 100000
and 225.000 bushels of wheat will be
marketed there this fall and winter.
Farmers there have a good income
from their cows, too. between 5000
and $4,000 being received from cream
cries and restaurants in Belt and
$50 IT,11z T. 81 .xI nrnaro