The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1929-05-24

Gle Below is Reprinted, in Part
From The Country Gentleman
The Author is Malcolm G. Cutting
A Number of Excellent Engrav
ings From Photos of Machines il
Operation Illustrate the Article.)
Under the caption big Doings
In Montana, the May issue Of
The Country Gentlemen says il
the course of a most interesting
story of the up-to-the-minute agri
cultural methods now employed by
Montana grain farmers:
During the past five years Mon
tana has made greater progress in
agriculture than any other section
in America. 1t is doubtful if any
other region of the world ever made
equal progress in a like period of
time
Sounds like the ballyhoo of an
old-time r~eal-estate agent, before
the famous pain occurred in the
Northwest. But it is not. 1t is a
careful and studied statement,
given in the spring of 1929, by a
farm economist of national exper-
ience-Prof. M. l.. Wilson, head
of the Department of Agricultural
Economics at Montana State Col
lege. And a visit to Montana sup
ports the truth of even more eX-
travagant claims than these.
The minimum size of farm now
considered efficient for wheat pro-
duction-crop and summer fallow
lis 500 acres, and that to be oper-
ated by one man with a three
pillow tractor outfit. With a four
pillow tractor; and with imple-
ments scaled up to fit, it is 100
acres; and with a six-plow tractor
outfit it is 1900 acres. If a farm
er runs two or three such tractors
with all necessary mechanical
equipment, he simply buys or he
leases more land and doubles or
trebles these areas.
What they refer to as a three
pillow tractor in Montana has a
drawbar pull of Is horse power, a
four-plow has 20 horse power and
a six-plow 80 horse power. A
tractor outfit includes all neces-
sary implements, such as a gang
pillow, disk, drill, "duckfoot" cult
vator for summer fallow and COM
bine. Some of the bitches for cul-
tivating, seeding and harvesting
are nothing short of amazing. |
actually saw a 2S-foot seeder,
iointed in the middle, which they
are trying out this year. The 16-
to-20-foot combine is a common
sight on every specialized wheat
farm in the state.
There are a number of farms of
5000 to 1000 acres, operated with
a minimum of man labor and a
maximum of mechanical power to
reduce cost. On that scale of
farming, wheat is commonly pro-
duced at two and a half to three
hours of man labor an acre, in
Guiding one year of fallow and the
succeeding year in crop. With the
biggest outfits they are actually
getting this down toward two
man-hours an acre, when the aver
age in the entire spring-wheat re-
gion is about seven hours.
And the final proof of Professor
Wilson's statement is contained
in the fact that less than half of
the wheat farmers who were in
five to ten years ago
the other half moved out-are
farming more acres and producing
nearly twice as much wheat as the
caboodle did before. The
tell only a part Of the
story; it's bigger and better farm
operation that has turned the
rick.
Let us go back a few years and
review briefly the tragic history
which ushered this new era into
being. BY 1916 most of Montana's
rood homestead land had been set
led, and a series of good years
lad left a spirit of unbridled opti- !
nism in the air ,
The Comeback !
No one knew exactly how these +
emi-arid lands should be fdrmed ?
or permanence and security, but +
nv kind of scratch farming seem {
d to produce a crop. Then came '
GIT and the beginning of Mont :
purging in the refiner's
lame. Pass hurriedly over the r
Gene; the tragic details of unpre- |
edented drought, of high costs ?
nd falling prices have been so !,
ften told. +
Came then the miracle year of q
924, when Montana produced a >
crop and sold it at high +
rices because of a low world of v
heat. h
The next two years were not so f
.avorable, but they served to
beyond doubt the value of y
fallow. Only on clean 8
ummer-fallowed ground were fair h
produced. t;
In 1925 the modern medium ii
lied tractor came into use, to- f;
o+hnr Nth thn rridn adnnfinn Of