Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-10-22
Corn Bell Moves North
When Farmers F0resdke
One Crop Farming Idea
Phillips County Fair Reveals Many Successful
Growers; Unbelieving Middle Westerner
Leaves Exhibit With Eyes Wide Open.

express rates from the corn belt
are pretty high these days." remarked
a newcomer from Illinois as his eye
danced over the exhibits of NorLl.
western Dent, Dakota White Flint,
and Brown County Dent corn COM
prisipg a part of the seed show held
in connection with the annual Phillips
county fair at Dodson recently. You
fellows might be able to raise grain
in this country when you get a wet
year, but your imported exhibit of
corn is too bold to pass unnotlced by
a farmer from the corn belt"
Express rates are high" repled
a Phillips county farmer and corn
booster who overheard the remark,
but the corn belt has moved lar
enough north to make US Independent
of express companies and that exhlo-
it of Northwestern Dent OF mine
over there on the end was shipped
hare overland exactly eighteen and
one-half miles behind a team of Mis-
souri, mules. I'll admit my mules
came from Missouri but the corn i
nave here on exhibit was raised ID
Phillips county as was all the corn
you see here. IF you don't believe the
corn belt has moved north, I'll get
some booster to take you for a trip
over some Of our dry land plains. and
introduce you to a few northern Mon
tana farmers who have demonstrated
by hard experience that northern Mon
tana is in the corn belt and is there
to stay.
A Practical Demonstration
'"For instance take Frank Schempp
of Freewater, a Phillips county corn
grower since 1912. Fol- the last SIX
wears he has maintained an average
90 L-l,al1 of aorn 0Hrn
and during his 10 years experience he
has never failed to produce q ripe
crop. Of course, Schempp does not
grow the kind of corn that you fellows
grow in Illinois. We have a good many
fellows in this territory who have tried
to use Illinois methods on Montana
dry land, but when you get on their
farms it takes only a split second to
see that they have the wrong system.
1t might be that virtually everything
else that Schempp uses on his farm is
made somewhere outside OF Montana,
hut YOU can be sure that his farming
methods are home made. He uses a
home made Dakota White Flint corn
that has been bred up in this country
through a long series of years. With
a 800 acre farm of which 200 acres
are under cultivation he seldom puts
in more than 20 or 80 acres of wheat
and this on clean corn ground. he
has found winter rye and corn to be
dependable feed crops but places more
confidence in corn than he does IN
rye. Last year 40 acres OF corn net
ted him 1000 bushels besides fodder
and the wear before 40 head OF hogs
harvested his crop of 40 acres and
when marketed through the farmers
shipping association they brought In
tba ~neirhhorhood of $1,000.
Iowa Seed Gives Poor Results
Then take the case of G.. 0. VIII
hanson, one of the pioneer farmers
Of fine South Dodson bench. He
check-rows in an average of 20 acres
of corn each year, and although he
depends more on corn for fodder than
anything else, last year he husked
800 bushels of ripe corn from 20
acres. Williamson came from Iowa
and his first experience with corn IN
this country was in 1911. when he
used Iowa seed that failed to get MIN
anywhere. He's the kind of man that
usually figures things out pretty care
fully, and naturally he came to the
Conclusion that lows corn and north
ern Montana soil and climate were a
moor combination. The next year he
got some good homegrown seed and
since then has produced feed every
wear. Wheat following corn has Civ
en- him slightly better yields than
wheat following summer fallow.
One Crop System No Good.
."Look at the experience of f.. A.
Kronschnabel of Saco who was v1rtu-
ally driven to the wall by the straight
one-crop farming system. He tired
corn, and practical experience has
made him a corn booster. Last year
twenty five acres of Dakota Whlte
Flint produced him 600 bushels OF ripe
corn. During the year 1870, Is acres
900 bushels and during the three preyl-
Gus years he produced an average OF
81 bushels per acre on an average acre
age of 20. And here's the exhibit OF j.
n Mangis of Bennett Lake, formerly ar
Illinois farmer himself. His 55 acres
of corn were completely hammered to
the ground by hail on July 4 and both
his corn and small grain looked like an
absolute blank the day after; The corr
came back but the grain didn't. ne
corr is producing him at the rate OIL xe
of three to four. This man Is curing
under special conditions, o bushels OF
Northwestern Dent seed that will be
certified by the Montana Seed Growers
association.
"And how about Fred Primeau Of
Malta, who has raised from 50 to ISt
acres of corn every year for the las
four years, and has successfully devel
oped the practice Of selling every year
a carload of hogs or more that are fat
tened on Montana corn? / wish tina
you could tlak with Primeau and asl
him what he thinks of this corn bust
ness. He knows how to-" but her,
the conversation was interrupted by Il
C. Bentley Of Dodsop, who drove up t.
the front door with a load Of corn OF
the stalk and, coming In, inquired of tn
secretary where he wanted the hog fee
put up.
Our Illinois friend caught sight 0
the load and made straight for it I'll
looked it over carefully and found tina
it consisted of about 20 stalks, eac
having on It from one to two good-size
ears of ripe Brown County Dent.
II give up" was his remark, "Fv
read q good many newspaper stories o
what corn is doing in this norther
country but the evidence you fellow
have here today bewilders me. If thi
corn has been produced in norther
Montana, then 1 am fully convinced tha
the corn belt has moved north and
it has, you fellows, mark my. word