The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1925-01-20
Declares That it Can Con.
tinue Most Profitable Crop
Only if the Actual Facts of
the Situation are COnsid-
cred - Cannot Compete
with Leading Wheat Grow.
ing Countries, He Says

ing Countries, He Says
Fargo, N. D., Jan. 90. Under the
present farming methods of this sec.
ton where wheat is the principal
crop year after year, North Dakota
cannot compete with other leading
wheat growing countries in yield
per- acre, declared DR.. John Lee
Coulter, president of the North Da-
kota Agricultural college, in an ad-
dress here.
"For the last Is years the average
yield Of wheat per acre for North
Dakota was only 1896 bushels" the
president said. "The world average
for this crop is more than IS bush
els, and it should be remembered
that the average of the other coun-
tries excluding the United States is
even higher than that, for our lower
average yield reduces the average
of the other countries when the
world averages are considered.
"Canada on new land gets an aver
age of Is bushels per acre Or better
over period Of 10 or Is years, Aus
tralia gets the same average on fall
low land, the japanese Empire has
an average of 1872 bushels and Eur
ope an average of 1876 bushels per
acre. These old countries over a
series of years secure better than
lS bushels per acre on rs million
acres of wheat land. North Dakota's
yield is lower than averages even in
India where the most primitive
methods are used.
Other Yields Better
"The other countries then are
having better yields than we are
hc&. That applies to the new lands
Of the new countries as we'll as to
the better-farmed lands of the old
or countries. Our average yield
over period of years has fallen so
low that we can no longer hope to
compete successfully in the world
market under present farming meth
DDS.
ut is not that North Dakota farm
ers cannot still produce these good
Yields" the speaker explained, "be-
cause during the past Is years we
have had yields of 13 bushels, IA
bushels and even as high as Is bush
els. These good yields are still
possible in exceptionally good years
or on individual farms where we'll
planned diversified farming is car
ried on. On some of these farms
average yields of 10 bushels per acre
of
evidence of what good farming sys-
TENS can do"
The fault, according to DR.. Coul-
ter, lies in the fact that nearly two
thirds of the land actually in crop
is devoted to wheat and oats. The
remedy, he declares, is to reduce the
acreage in wheat and to adopt a ro-
tated system of farming which will
provide for good yields of wheat.
The better yield per acre plus a
better price secured because Of less
acreage and consequently less ex-
portable wheat to glut the world
market, will bring the farmers of
the spring wheat area into an en-
viable position as they will have in
addition to wheat as a cash crop,
shch forage crops as sweet clover,
alfalfa and other legumes, corn, oats,
and other grains, and the livestock
that must be included in every we'll
planned system Of farming. 1t is
unnecessary, he showed, to go to
the Japanese empire or the countries
nj Europe to find system Of farm
ing in which wheat may be grown
in rotation with cultivated crops,
pasture and hay crops.
Not New Land
"Most of our state" DR.. Coulter
said, "is no longer in the new, rich.
cheap, clean land period; much of
the land in this state has now been
farmed fifty years. Land values
have gone beyond that in new coun-
tries. Weeds and plant diseases
have crept in. High cost Of labor
and other items such as interest
rates, taxes and transportation have
found their place. And as a result
we have neither the high yield found
in the newer countries nor the low
production cost per bushel or per
acre found there.
"Also, North Dakota has not yet
gotten over to the rotation system
Of wheat in system with cultivated
crops, hay lands and pastures such
as is found in the older countries,
the Japanese empire and Europe.
Figures show that over 15-year
period states such as Ohio, Indiana,
Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and
Iowa have yield Of approximately
49, bushels per acre. These states
continue to produce from 8 to. 10
million acres of wheat, but they have
settled down to system of crop
rotation.
"The trouble has been only in the
Great Spring Wheat Belt and the
Great Plains area where wrong
methods have been pursued over too
long a time. States like Ohio, In
diana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin
and Iowa, which years ago abandon
ed wheat because the yield had fall
en- so low, have during the last Is
years re-established themselves and
year after year reap harvests with
an average of Is bushels to the acre.
This is one of the lessons for North
Dakota in 1925 and later years.
Can't Expand a.,r
"We cannot too rapidly expand our
acreage of corn and barley and 9TH
er feed grains, nor can we too rapid
ly expand our acreage of sweet
clover and other pasture grasses, nor
can we too rapidly expand our acre
600 If 0nod hav crons such as alfal-