Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-06-23

You can draw your own conclusions
lish these things and we must remem'
Der that the evolution 10 perfectly nor
NAL and that it takes time to accomp'
fish hese things and we must remem'
Der that summer tillage is essentia
and works in closely with all of these
things.
''The last two issues of the North
western National Bank Review, pub
lished by the Northwestern Nationa
Bank of Minneapolis, contains excel
lent articles on the work of the Mon
tana Development association. One Oh
two extracts from the last issue nigh
be interesting.
Need for Dry Farming
Twenty-Five per cent of the
entire earth's surface receives less
than 10 inches Of rain annually;
so per cent receives from 10 to 20
inches, and 20 per cent receives 20
to 40 inches; or, in other words.
more than one-half of the entire
surface of the globe must either
be irrigated or dry farmed.
1.-THE first record we have In
the United States. other than the
foregoing, was in California. about
1S49, when gold was first discov-
cred. This was followed closely
by dry farming in Utah; in fact,
the people of Utah who cannot
secure irrigation. have practiced
dry farming for 60 years with much
success. The rainfall in that state
is under Is inches.
1.-THE dry farming system has
spread rapidly, until today it is
estimated that we have approx
imately 80 million acres either in
upland pasture, or cultivated ac-
cording to the dry land system.
You will probably be surprised
wehn l tell you that of the 1903
million acres of land in the United
States. 600 million acres do not
have sufficient rainfall to produce
profitable crops of any kind under
any system of farming. and pos
sess no possibilities of irrigation.
No Fast Rules
".No fast rules can be laid down
to govern dry land farming for the
reason that there is such a wide
variation in the character of soil.
winds. and temperature. / have
made a reasonably thorough sur
vey of all arid and semi-arid sec
tons of the United States, and /
do not know of any section where
summer tillage can be carried on
more profitably than in the state
of Montana. You know that dry
farming according to the latest
word is carried on most success
fully in the Palouse section of the
state of Washington. l am sat
isfied that the farmers in the
western part of North Dakota and
possibly in sections of western
South Dakota will in time ap-
preciate the value of summer till
age to such a degree that will
cause them 70 practise intensive
summer cultivation and produce a
crop alternate years
Canada has made considerable pro.
gress in summer tillage, in fact. they
are several years ahead Of us. With
out a question of a doubt, the reaso
for this is because of the propaganda
work which has been done. The set
tier has been able to get information
on tillage methods from the Canadian
government. from the banks. railroad
companies. and private institutions.
Montana is just getting into the swing.
A quotation from a pamphlet entitled
THE Summerfallow in Southern AL
berta" by James Murray, district agent,
Agricultural department., Medicine Hat,
may be interesting, taking into con-
sideration the fact that these people
Are quite conservative in their state
ments:
Much of the success that has