The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1929-03-22
500 Line Special Showing
Farmers There Is No Real
Gain Except All Aid
ONE CAR IN TEN is WASTE
Demonstration at Town Visited
Got IS Bushels Of Dockags
Out Of so Of Grain

In one town, as demonstration, and
getting only Is bushels of clean grain
out Of 1t, the 500 Line special seed
cars came to Bismarck, Thursday eve
ming, to impress on farmers here the
magnitude Of the dockage and smut
evils In the state.
They came in from Kintyre at 7:30
In the evening and were kept open
as long as anybody appeared to sec
the exhibit, which was along toward
midnight. In charge were H. A. Nc
Mutt, the lines agricultural agent,
and Jens Uhrenholdt, the roads po-
tato expert. They left for Under
wood this morning for q day In
demonstration there.
Not SO many persons appeared to
look the outfit Of seeds, seed. clean
ing machinery and plant disease
sterilizers over. One car was devoted
to the seed display. Wheat, oats,
flax, rye, corn and other grain sam
piles, potatoes, and pit silo displays
were on exhibition. Each was ex-
planned by a large lettered placard In
a panel along the car wall. The
freight phase of the impure and in
fected seed was demonstrated by q
toy train display set out on q toy
railroad with 500 station and tele-
graph lines to add naturalness to the
scene.
In the other car were seed fans and
steri1izing devices for Kidding the grain
Of its weed dockage and its smut in
lection or rendering the spores in
nocuous. At each stop wheat brought
in by farmers is cleaned as a demon
stration, free of charge, In the added
hope that the farmers will use such
grain for spring seeding operations.
However, at one of the towns q
truckload of wheat was cleaned for a
farmer and it looked so fine after the
wild oats and other dockage had been
eliminated, that the grower was
tempted to sell 1t and went over to
the elevator and disposed of 1t. Thus
the cause Of pure seed was betrayed
where it had an excellent opportun-
ity to score.
The various organizations behind
the pure seed drive, as the Northwest
Seed improvement association, the
Greater North Dakota association, the
500 Line and other roads and the
ninth federal reserve bank are aiming
ut cooperation in this matter. There
is no real gain when communities do
not function as unit in the effort to
get rid Of impure and infected grain.
Individual adherence to pure grain
seed Is too liable to be swamped
through the indifference of neighbor
grain growers. and the whole move
nent Is pulled back.
These phases are driven home in
the talks given by McNutt and Uhren-
holdt. They strive to impress on the
communities that every grower must
fall In with the movement to rescue
North Dakota's grain prestige from
the growing misfortune Of smut and
weed dockage.
This increasing disqualification of
North Dakota grain is costing grow
crs Of the state at least 100000 a
year, it is calculated. A study Of con-
ditions at Kintyre. the last stop be-
fore coming to Bismarck, indicated a
probable annual loss to grain grow
ers and shippers there Of $4,000.
The display in the car shows that
one car In ten Of North Dakota grain
shipments is equivalent to dockage.
The freight on that is q waste of good
money to the grower. The dockage is
made into poultry and other feeds at
Minneapolis and is sold, which is
another loss to the farmer. For, il he
cleaned his grain thoroughly. he could
keep this at home and feed it without
paying for 1t as he does when he buys