The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1923-07-12
CORN SAVES PHILLIPS COUNTY
DURING DROUGHT YEARS

a little more tnan an acre., seemed
to convince the commissioners tina
money invested in seed corr would
be more beneficial than in wheat
AS a result of this conference, 7O(
bushels of the best Northwestern
Dent seed corn available was shipped
into Phillips county.
The season was dry again but
where wheat failed corn made a good
showing for itself. Since then the
corn acreage increased from $500
acres in 1919 to $4,000 in 1928. To-
day everybody is convinced that div
ersified farming can be successfully
carried on in Phillips county. AS the
corn increased, hogs increased from
a few brood sows to 1850 head this
year.
Farmers have succeeded in getting
from 20 to 40 bushels of corn an
acre since the corn experiment start
ed and on top of this have their land
prepared for wheat the following
year. Corn land is equal to summer
fallow for preparing a good seed
bed for small grains.
The question confronting many
farmers today is how to dispose of
the fodder, but this will soon be
solved for many farmers are going
into dairying on a small scale and
in a few years silos will be built and
the Montana drylander will be as
firmly established on the land as the
Kansas and Nebraska farmers today.
Every new agricultural community
passes through its experiment stage,
many of its first settlers fail and
move out of the country, others take
their places and soon prosperity is
reaped by those who conquer the diff
fieulties. Kansas, Nebraska the Da-
kotas and virtually every new farm
ing locality in the United States had
its crop failures before the farmers
became thoroughly familiar with the
soil and climatic conditions. All of
states had their wheat failures
and had to resort to Investigation.
Grain Farming Not to be Condemned
Grain farming is not to be con-
lemned for northern Motana because
t is the principal money-making crop
We have. From 80 to so bushels of :
Wheat, 80 to 100 bushels of oats, so
o 60 bushels of barley have been Sc
:ured in favorable seasons. Because
hese yields have been obtained caus-
ID many farmers to oYerdo small
farming. There are farmers
Who have lived in Phillips county for
3 years and have never had a COM
'lete failure with grain but they
ave had years when they only got
heir seed back.
IF q ctndu Of orr roipfa1T i- ,ooIo 1
can safely figure on getting
hree crops of small grain out of
we. When grain is sown on corn
round or summer fallow it is sure
} produce some. "Stubbled in"
rain yielded heavy for a few years, t
hitch has been a bigger detriment to ]
his locality than if no yields had
cen obtained at all. Much grain has t
cen sown this same way in hopes 1
nat those same good years would
9turn again. These fields have been {
xcellent breeding grounds for the t
r-asshoppers and this year when '
on summer fallow and corn =
round is looking fine the hoppers
cleaning up on many fields of l
Stubbled in" grain and are moving
' OOShOA LOCoAh5 54Ouh0O+
A number of experiments have !
cen conducted in sweet clover and !,
.falfa production with results that =
rove beyond a doubt that these .
ops can be produced on dry land =
rms. OF course, no four or six-ton =
elds per acre can be secured but Il
lat can't be expected on SIS an acre
nd. From one to two tons per
re have been secured where these :
crops have been planted inT
'ws and cultivated. Experiments
being made with other forage
ops and eventually this problem
i'll be solved.
Settlers who have lived in this re-
on for a number of years claim
ey have eve had a failure with
potato crop on dry land farms. In
cations r that seed potatoes will
grown here in large quantities for
ose sections that are not able to
oduce their own. The Irish Cob
and Bliss Triumphs produced in
county are hard to beat.
erald Dewitt, who lives a few miles
nth of Malta, stated he sold $500
0rth of peas, tomatoes, beets, cab
.ge and other vegetables from a
lall patch of ground.
Diversified Wins
Many dry land farmers have quite
few cattle for which they raise win
feed on their farms and pasture