Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-05-21
vond all expectations, was the report.
$500 Farmers Sign Up

~ aAA E'S NAS SROAk s
$500 Farmers Sign Up
This movement, originally organized
through the Development association, il
unique in character and has never be-
fore been undertaken by such an or
Iganization on so wide a basis. More
than $500 farmers have signed pledges
and agreed to undertake summer til
Ilage work according to the most ap-
jproyed plans as laid down by Hardy
w. Campbell and other dry farming ex-
perts in the employ of the association
in the Il communities where clubs have
been organized. This acreage now to-
tails 114.O45 acres and this ahead of
the final drive, which in many clubs will
double the acreage already obtained.
That middlewestern business men
and banking institutions see q new era
of development in Montana, is shown
in the business review recently pub
lished by the Northwestern National
bank of Minneapolis. Speaking of the
summer tillage campaign, the review
says in part:
influx of Drylanders
1.-THE influx of dry land farmers be-
gan as a result of the great railroad
campaigns and the promotion work of
development associations and chambers
of ommerce A dry farming congress
in Billings, where methods of cultiva-
ton suitable to the climate were stres-
sed, together with the great pOssibili-
ties of the state if these methods are
used, was followed by many new set
tiers. many of them homesteaders ig-
|norant of any kind of farming, let
alone the unaccustomed methods advo-
Gated. Almost giving the lie to these
weather-wiSe teachings were the Won
derful crops that were produced during
that period. BY the merest superficial
methods crop after crop was produced.
says a report. Up to 1914 there had
never been a failure. Then came the
bountecus rains and the cool growing
summer of 1915, and Montana outstrip-
ped the world. We bundled up the
products, sent them to San Francisco.
They won the grand prize for cereals.
73 gold medals, 236 silver medals. 1875
bronze medals and 100 honorable men
tons. more of zach than any other state
or any foreign country. The state
produced 80, 100000 bushels of wheat.
81, 600, 900 bushels of oats: yields
greater than 60 bushels of wheat per
acre. and 100 bushels Of oats on dry
land being recorded
Montana Soil Wonderful
This tropical abundance came from
lands described in government surveys
as semi arid With the succeeding
years of scanty rainfall and the de-
vastating heat from which all our north
western fields suffered, farmers who
used methods common in sections of
much greater average rainfall. or meth
DDS that were crude for any district.
defeat. The cattIemen who
had seen their ranges cut up into farms
to say that good grazing land
had been ruinously manhandled and
that the Creator had other plans for
The western plains.
'To a casual observer this might
have seemed true, vet even so there
would have been the inspiring recollec-
tion of former production. the tesri-
mony of luxuriant irrigated land. and
the record of fair returns from
some of the parched fields. In other
words, although the semi arid stigma
f the old government maps might seem
o have been based on facts as to the
average rainfall, there could be no
1oubt that the soil was potentially
wonderful. 1t has not been the Mon
ana land that has given disappoint-
ng results. as many of our Montana
have pointed out. but the meth
IDS commonly used in working it.
But we cannot make rain. or at least
We haven't yet hit upon the secret. If
are to reach any approximation
# a guaranteed production in these
critic dry land regions. methods must
se used which hold in the soil q suffi-
o serve as a hidden reservoir in time
e naol'