The Carbon County chronicle. [volume] (Red Lodge, Mont.) 1924-1924, 1924-08-20

of time than the recovery of farm dis
tricts where land investments are in
finitely higher and the burden of
debt much greater.
National Problem.
ut must be clearly understood
that Montana agricultural develop
ment depends to a great degree upon
forces that are national and world
wide in character and to a great ex-
tent beyond our control This state
is In fair way to solve its production
difficulties. We have ON the farms
of Montana today group of farmers
who are better adapted by experience
and training to operate successfully
under our conditions than any other
set of men and women we can secure
from the outside. We have been
passing through transition stage
which accompanies the development
of agriculture In every newland-a
period in which by process of evo-
luton men and their methods are
fitted to their environment. No high
er compliment could be paid to the
sturdy men and women who are on
Montana farms today pioneers of
1910 and 1920, who are just as truly
pioneers as those who came to the
state at much earlier day.-than to
recite to you their accomplishments
of the last few years summed up best,
perhaps, by the statement that after
these years of stress and trial these
farmers produced last year in Mon
tana the greatest gross tonnage of
valuable crop products ever grown in
the history of the state. Within the
last decade, Montana has achieved
position of national significance in
agriculture. To get a vision of what
crop in Montana is from the sale of
to take cross section Of our position
today and sight back along the path
of our development to the position we
occupied decade or so earlier.
Montana ranks third in area
among the states of the Union and
stands fifth in total area of land in
farms. OF the IL western states,
Montana leads all but California in
the area of land cropped and in the
value of our livestock production. Ac-
cording to the 1910 census Montana
then ranked 23rd among the states
Of the Union in production of wheat
with crop of 100000 bushels.
Last year Montana ranked fifth
among the states in the size OF its
wheat crop and a close second among
spring wheat states. Slightly more
favorable weather conditions in the
eastern half Of the state during the
late June OF 1928, and Montana
would have grown a crop that would
have placed this state second only to
Kansas in wheat production last
year. This year the probabilities are
that Montana may rank fourth among
the states with its wheat crop. If any
thing like the developments that have
taken place in the last 10 years, takes
place during the next ten or twenty
years, some Of US here will live to
see the day when Montana heads all
the states of the Union In wheat pro-
duction
Real Corn State.
I'm 1910 only three states of the
Union-Wyoming, Utah and Neva-
da--were lower than Montana with
WI ~ i@hnh ftAi SldAtS Hdu DctH
dropped behind in Montana's rapid
march upward as a corn state and we
are only at the beginning OF this de-
velopment. Montana's rank among
the states is third In wool; fourth in
flax; sixth or seventh in this new but
important crop of beans. We rank
ed in the upper ten in hay production
and are seventeenth In the value OF
livestock grown.
Wheat is and will con tinue to be
Montana's major cash farm crop for
a long time. Over 90 per cent OF our
wheat comes form non-irrigated land,
commercially better adapted to the
production OF wheat than OF butter
fat. Seventy per cent of the cash
can be accomplished 1t is necessary
wheat. Fifty-two per cent OF the to-
tai crop acreage in the state is wheat.
The wheat we grow, and particularly
our spring wheat, is superior to the
wheat grown elsewhere In the United
States in food and bread making
quality. A year ago the United
States department OF agriculture con-
a -