The circle banner. [volume] (Circle, Mont.) 1914-1939, 1924-09-05
N EW MACHINES
SLASH The COST OF
WHEAT HARVEST
CHEAP MECHANICAL METHODS
OF HARVESTING ARE BEING
STUDIED BY COLLEGE
Former Outlay of 20 Cents BusheI
Now Cut Down to A and 5; Exam
pie of Operation Shows Success In
South State District.

Cheaper mechanical harvesting
methods are being studied by stu
dents of agriculture as one of the
factors to save Montana wheat
growing on large scale as a single
crop, in the present costs crisis
which threatens to drive some
wheat areas out of production for
lack of profit.
The experts at Bozeman state col
| lege experiment station, also have
been studying the problem. They
are of the opinion that the greater
gluten content of Montana wheat
will have a tendency to keep the
state in the growing of wheat on a
large scale, but admit that the situa-
tion is fraught with alarm for the
states agriculture.
All over the world the problem of
costs is pressing upon the wheat in
dustry with the menace of extinction
in spots. A great agricultural evolu-
tion is seen under way. Montana is
vitality effected, as it is best fitted
by distance from markets, character
of its grain and of its lands for large
scale wheat production as the back
bone of its agriculture.
The success of the Campbell farms
in the adoption of their processes to
farm machinery has shed some light
on the possible solution of the prob
lem in that way.
R. D. Sarver, nine miles west of
Broadview, is making his ranch
demonstration of the same solution.
Last week party of machinery and
farming experts went out from here
to witness the operation of combine,
one of the few in the state so far.
Use of this machine has enabled Mr..
Sarver to harvest his wheat at a
reduction in costs from 25 cents a
bushel to four and five cents bushel.
The machine which Sarver uses har-
vests 80 acres a day and threshes it
at the same time. 1t requires two
men to operate it
Last year Sarver harvested 500
acres of wheat, producing 10,700
bushels. The cost was four cents
bushel. He saved more than half of
the cost of the combine and tractor
that operated it in the reduced cost of
over that for the year be-
fore by old methods.
In addition he removed 1876 bushels
Of weed seed in the course of the dual
operation of cutting and threshing
the grain, the loss of just that much
in dockage at the elevator terminal
being avoided by the cleaning process
on the field. Besides he had the
weed seed and Clipped grain for live
stock and poultry feed, which gave
he dockage a potential value in it.
self, instead of saddling loss on him
Another gain will come later. His
seed will be cleaner and there will
De a reduction in the quantity of
weeds sown with the seed grain. Each
rear the machine thus will operate
o keep the weeds down in his harvest
fields. So far this year Sarver has
harvested and threshed 100 acres of
wheat, marketing 1000 bushels, or
10 bushels to the acre. He says his
,osts have been reduced Is cents a
,ushel this season on the three OPP
,rations. And he adds that he thinks
t is the only way to preserve wheat
growing on a profitable scale in Mon
ana.
Two other advantages enumerated
" Sarver are the fact that the ground
s at once ready for blowing for fall
eeding when the grain has been re-
moved. And the dispatch with which
operations are conducted by smaller
rev of harvesters means less work
or the ranch women.
The combine on the Sarver farm is
'perated by A. e. Rogers, while Mr..
'arver operates the tractor that drags
t.
The party that studied the opera
ions of the machine was headed by
,ounty Agent w. P. Stapleton, now
gricultural expert for the Northern
'acific railroad. 1t included James
secretary of the CONNER
ial club, and number of harvester
Machinery experts from here and Chi
ago.