The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1928-07-20
Down and Out and Up Again

ms expenses, allowed 6 ner oon4 ;.
$780, ii' ana made
He raised his wheat on s,,v,
fallowed land. He sumn ne summer summer,
tIneaply 1y using large bitches One me
SiHIu u ms land was thus handled
, uGthg Il proved early and cultivated
W t5 the duckfoot cultivator: one one
tnlrd OF his farm in spring wheat fr o,,
clean summer fallow; one-third w Oh
IN winter rye drilled in wheat st,,bh1e
aIlo used Tor pasture, grain and bar
ms, IN the main is the snccaSsf;yyi
system of today. 'o0ceSSIul
IN the fall of 1927 banker from,
that old graveyard of bankers, boran
told the Montana State Bankers, 4 =
ISOLATION that the farmers of The r.;
ngle would go into 1928 in tba ~
financial condition of any farmers ' =,
the state. q iiieIS IN
ms region, containing four Of tbe
ten largest wheat-producing conn+ioe
contributed to the record of the etato
IN producing 100000 bushels noore
wheat than ever Montana barvortoJ
before, on 10000 fewer farms I 49,
there were in 1919. Produced ,,nJo e.
favorable weather conditions ~ -
sure, but set down a LOT If oreJi+ pe
better farming. i' ~
In 1921 the average wheat farmer
was farming two hundred acres on
tlfel! TOO small unit; now the aver
age is more than a section and on tba
real lOO per cent wheat farms tbe
acreage is much larger vet.
Puttng Machinery to Work
Professor M. L. Wilson of Mon
tana State College studied the econ co,,
omlcs of Montana wheat farnoiy.r
through and following its darIras+
days. One item is the rise in far,,1
machinery sales in Montana. Hero
they are: 1925, 400 tractors lo5 fioIJ
cultivators, and 1O3 combines. 1o2 lS
200 tractors, 500 field cuItivatorc -C ~
2 aV ~ combines; 1927, 3,073 tractors
bines. anu o00 cohl-
Montana offers natural conditions
Tor our farmers to compete with
nose closer to the markets. Then. as
! we lower our cost of production, We
increase our possible profit" sold
Professor Wilson. 's'iu
montana wheat is an unusno1Iv
hlgh protein wheat, usually Cow
nnandlng substantial premiums Tbis
wheat IS produced on drv-Iand aroas
Wnere yields are relatively low To
ocffset these yields the farmer now,
increases the quantity of land under
MS management, uses implements that
multiply his own labor and makes a
protlt on acre yields so low that
lands. n ceo
In our studies we have seen MANY
instances of farmers, deeply in debt
IN 1871 and 1922, who now have maid
up their obligations, own their land
and have accumulated reserves. This
building of reserves makes exceeding
~ improbable another situation such
as the one we passed through. Big
teams Tor few years were tremend-
ouSly favored and are still used ex-
tenslvely, but as farmers increased
their reserve, the smaller tractor
tended to replace these big teams.
In Roosevelt county, 12O new
tractors were sold to farmers during
1927. The use of combine harvesters
is reducing the production cost of
our grain. On wheat averaging six
teen bushels an acre a number of our
farmers have brought threshing costs
a fraction under fourteen cents"
"COst-accounting figures in this
wheat belt show that under these new
methods, many farmers required less
than four hours labor to raise an acre
of wheat. One Montana farmer pro-
duced nd harvested his wheat crop
with an expenditure of 2.7 hours an
acre."