The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1925-01-29
Minneapolis Tribunel

town." is to have one in January.
Great Falls put on a big corn and
livestock show for the second time
this fall, and even Whitetish, out
beyond Glacier National Park, had her
own dairy show too.
Nearly every county now is trying
to Guido all the others IN growing
'Ioway's" old standby, tall corn"
The northern Montana corn and
seed show has become an annual in
~stitution. Chinook, in Blaine county,
had it last year; while whole communi-
ties elsewhere united in staging seed
corn DAYS" Malta put it on first In
1922.
This fall it was held at Wolf Point,
in Roosevelt county, under the man.
agement of Dan B. Noble, the ener-
getic county agent there.
1t proved to be a complete success,
through the cooperation of County
Agents j. C. Paugh of Fit. Benton;
H. L. Lantz of Malta, A. w. Warden
of Scobey, Murray E. Stebbins OF
Glasgow, NJ. P. Ostby of Plentywood
and G.. w. Gustafson of Chinook.
Business Houses Aided
Business houses of the Twin Cities,
including Northrup King & Co., M. w.
Savage Factories and the First Ma
tional Bank of st. Paul joined with
those of northern Montana and the
First National Bank of Great Falls,
in furnishing premiums, both in cash
and merchandise.
Next years show is to be at Glas-
gov, in Valley County. 1t Is necessary
to rotate the location each year so
as to give every rancher within a
territory 300 miles long and so miles
wide an opportunity to see 1t.
The show admits entries from a
region larger than many states, IN
Guiding the counties of Chouteau, Hill,
Blaine. Phillips, Valley, Daniels, Sheri-
dan. Roosevelt and the northern parts
of Garfield, McCone and Richland.
The show this year included exhibits
of more than $4,000 ears of corn,
representing 100000 acres grown in
this region.
Indians Grew Corn
According to Mr.. Noble, practically
no corn was grown, except by the
Indians, in this whole realm up to
1920. In 1922 there were recorded
some forty thousand acres, and in
1928 about 10000. Only a few years
ago most persons would laugh long
and loud at the idea of anyone's being
able to grow corn in Montana on a
commercial basis. But the Indians
had grown their particular varieties
of "squaw corn" for many years; and
settlers began to ask why they could
not develop varieties that would sur
vive the natural handicap of dry-land
agriculture and frosts. The answer
to the problem is now to be found IN
the fact that nearly "everybody's
doing it."
Even in a year as u%nfavorable as
this one for corn growing the show
was a remarkable success.
at is not the intrinsic value of this
corn that is so important" declares
Mr.. Noble. "The real significance is
in its allied farm products. With
corn as our basic feed, We are finding
a home market for it in the form
of cattle, sheep, hogs and poultry
Dairying and the production of more
beef are developing, out there where
some folks still say the land is I'll
for only grazing, and range cattle
or wheat growing.
Sheep, Hogs Increasing
"'Sheep and especially hogs nave IN
creased on many farms and are the
sources of good income. We are be-
coming a diversified farming region
The necessity for spreading our risk
of farming is becoming realized more
and more every day"
Wolf Point, by the way, is built OF
the site of an old Indian village. II
frontier times, the Missouri river
steamers came up here to take the
pelts of the hunters and trappers dowr
stream to the st. Louis market. Here
these frontiersmen fathered theil
.spoils and also received their supplies
The whole region abounded in big
gray wolves, which were diligently
hunted for their pelts, hence the
name "Wolf Point"
Today it is a prosperous railroad
town of 1000 inhabitants with the
shops and yards of the Great North
ern railway, of which it is a division
point. 1t is also an important market
ing center for the Fort Peck reserva-
ton. This is a tract measuring sc
miles east and west and 80 miles
north and south, where some 1900
Yankton Sioux and Assinniboine In
dams are farming lands allotted them
by Uncle Sam.
Some of the Indians IN the reserva-
ton took part with old Sitting Bull
in the Custer massacre on the Little
Big Horn. The old chief himself
lived in Glasgow, a former famous
cowtown, for some years after his
return from Canada under the am
nesty granted him by the government
Indian Farmers Interested
One of the colorful and interesting
phases of the corr show was the active
participation of the Indian farmers
in the events. Three Yankton Sioux,
named Iron Bear, Alvin Warrior and
Chief Black Buck, exhibited the prin-
cipal Indian corn and growing i'm
plements; a hoe made from the Shout
der bone of a buffalo, a cultivator
made of the antlers of a deer tied to
a handle with a buckskin thong, and
a digging stick" the Indians near
oct annroaoh IN tho nlow with n h11ok-