The Bozeman courier. (Bozeman, Mont.) 1919-1954, 1925-01-07

Great Falls farmer writes that a man
doesn't need anything here to get a
start-just 60 to work. This same
farmer is himself the best proof of
his theorem and of the soundness Of
his advice. He states that he started
on a ranch as a chore boy, becoming
foreman in n years time, and af-
ter eight years was able to buy the
home he now owns, consisting of $50
acres of land. This last year. which
was rather dry, he raised as high as
SO bushels of winter wheat to the
acre. He also raises almost any
kind Of vegetable that can be grown
any place, tomatoes ripening every
year. He planted apple trees three
years ago; he has gc~oseberries, cur
J rants and strawberries by the bushel,
and potatoes equal to or better than
those grown any other place. He de-
veloped prize winning White Dent
corn last year IN 81 days, and sowed
the land to winter wheat in the fall,
which is as good or better than sum-
mer fallow. This fall he Won at the
corn show at Great Falls $500 in the
corn department for the best 25 BUSH
els and the best so bushels raised on
land 1000 feet above sea-level. This
same farmer has a herd Of registered
Shorthorn cattle and raises bull calves
for breeding. He also raises about
200 hogs a year to consume the grain
he grows as he is II miles from the
railroad station and 80 miles south
west of Great Falls, so he tries to
market his crop on foot. Land in
his vicinity is worth $50 to SIS per
acre. Where it is irrigated it win
raise three crops of alfalfa and small
grain where it is not irrigated.
Real Workers Succeed
The experience of the farmer just
cited is not by any means an isolated
case. There are thousands of others,
but the point to be stressed is that
these are the results obtained by the
genuine workers-not the get-rich-
quick schemers, publicity 20 whose ac-
~tivities has contributed so largely to
the pessimism regarding Montana
, brcadcasted so widely in the recent
: past, and to offset and counterfeit
which the present effort is being made
| to present a picture of the state as 1t
is, and of the basic agricultural and
industrial resources upon which its
future will largely depend. No ef-
fort is being made to sell Montana
{ in brighter colors than actually ex-
l list. Of the immensely and variety
of its potential resources, and of their
2 ultimate utilization there can be ne
question. The call, however, is tt
: the pioneer, as clear as it was fifty
! years ago in the days of the gold dis
cOveries, the Indians and the trai
herds.
Il Montana offers some advantage
a that cannot be duplicated elsewhere
Among others favorable to genera
farming are low land values com
L bined with relatively high productive
le ness. An empire is in the maxim.
here, and Montana has every RICH
D. to be proud of its attainment:
g achieved on the development an
ne utilization Of only a fraction of il
ne resources. With scarcely a third G
~ it's agricultural lands improved,
ranks with other states in total Gro
value, thirty-first; with mineral pr,
u duction largely confined to Silv'
an Bow county, except for coal, und,
normal conditions it has ranked wit
other states from seventh to elevent
es It is the nations chief producer
ut manganese and precious stones, al
&c in 1920 the second leading produc
ny of copper, silver and zinc. 1t is Il
III largest user per capita of electricit
er, the possessor of the greatest natio
'ed al parks and the noblest mounts
scenery; the holder of ten per &c
Of the total water power in the Unit
zen States; the home Of the second Lar
csc est industrial corporation in Ameri
mo Big and prOdigal though she
10 Montana is scarcely yet aware Of !
own strength or her innate potent
ao- greatness. Her matchless scenery
not yet been capitalized in a tour
lDle way. Her irrigation possibilities hi
ned just been glimpsed. In the dry
'nIy year on record, 1918, official sire
aes. flow records show that enough wa
u flowed out of the state to irrig
ten million acres of land, or !
by
and women of pioneer spirit in
soNo d~evalanmept of itz a~Oricultfra1