The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1928-07-20
...., Of the Agricultural Reviv-
The 9Io'iN Montana Since Debacle OF
1920.

1871.
-"Down and Out and Up
Hel5Hii !. the title Of an article IN the
Again = ;ssIe of the Country Gentle
curfeL Ibi l deyotes over a column to
man "lrIir of MOntana'S agricul-
the SUI onJ which seems to be an at
tuI5' o." On the part of the Curtis Pub
temp % company to make amends to
ISnla UTE for publishing in another of
the St@1;;odicaIs a few years ago the
its P }sl Nv Garet Garrett dealing with
aI'lr atIIo5rcntable condition" in the ag-
the ,+, l If Montana and particularly
IL 1.-THE the north central Triangle" sec
non 45,rtana and Idaho are presented
+ba author, Frank Llewellyn Ball
py -" % the two states in the Union
an, the greatest progress with
md l,,nd agricultural programs. The al
S 81 NAYS particular attention to the
T15riongl9 country which was under
five IN the Garrett articles.
Readers Of the Country Gentleman,
40 farm paper with the largest cir
u. .,Iotion Of any in America, are told
tEat Treasure State agriculture to-
, Jo,. i Chased upon new and substan-
t tiai snpDorts' and that sound agri-
ccrihrai programs are in force in
every section
70 Montana as it appears in the July
Corntrv Gentleman follows:
montana, rival of Idaho in sound
moss and speed of rehabilitation, came
op from 1921 with a steadily mount
mo annual production, attaining its
banner year in 1927 with a $150,OOO,-
00O total. The Treasure State bases
ifs farming business today upon some
new and substantial economic sup
pOrts. New tillage practices in which
summer fallOw, motorized outfits and
big-scale machinery are important
parts; the dairy cow, crop Standard
cation and corn loom up among them
like tall trees in the brush.
"In the Triangle in 1921 was found
the lowest ebb of Montana's agricul-
tural grief. On a drive along the
utted and dust-ridden road from
bingham to Shelby, 43 per cent of
the farms by actual count were aban-
dOned and growing up to weeds. Along
another road in central Hill county,
out of 100 farms, sirty-seven were
abandoned. HOmesteaders had flocked
TO the Triangle region in particular,
but to Montana's plains generally,
from 1909 to 1911, and a series of
particularly favorable years brought
splendid crops to almost any kind of
farming methods on through the sea-
son of 1916. Then came a series of
fOu rdry years and ruin. No reserves
had accumulated. No suitable sys-
tenn of dry farming had been evolved.
In one township the farmers" prior
to settling had included twenty-three
with actual farming experience and
twenty-seven drawn from all manner
Of other occupations.
while the days of grim account
ing were passing, there was here and
there farmer making good.
Building a Successful System
There was, for example, Thomas
J. McFarlane, in Liberty county,
farming one of the driest areas of
the Triangle. He owned a section
and rented 900 acres for range and
pasture. During the dry year when
the farmers aound him quit one by
one, he harvested ten bushels of
spring wheat an acre, ten bushels of
oats, ton Of corn fodder an acre,
sold from his farm flock of sheep
and dairy cows more than $1,000
worth of produce. And so that year,
in spite the difficulties, he paid
that favor high quality of product
that commands market premiums in
many quarters and makes it possible