The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1929-05-24
'MONTANA'S STURDY PROGRESS
AND SUBSTANTIAL PROSPERITY

-E-' ~ 49,
below normal, the farmers nov
are fully aware that the past fivI
, years, with three bumper crops
: have been equally above normal
, In any ten-year cycle they a ex
. pect just about what they have
had in the past ten years. AnC
that rule goes for all the dry-lant
West.
To M. L. Wilson more than tC
any other man the adoption of d
new method of farming in Mont
ana is due. 1t was in 1923 that
Wilson began to preach a new
system of business farming for
dry lands. He believed that much
of the failure was due to the fact
that Montana farmers were trying
to farm semi-arid land with the
same-sized farms and the same
sized equipment and the same
sized ideas they had used back in
the Corn Belt. He was convinced
that the quarter or half section
farm, operated with the two or four
horse team, was not suited to a
county of limited rainfall and
cheap land.
He began to urge farmers to
enlarge their units of land and in
crease the scale of their power
units and implements so that pro-
duction costs might be reduced
and sufficient acreage covered to
make the returns worth while.
He urged them to adopt strictly
the summer-fallow method of till
age as a moisture reserve against
a dry yea and to build up other
reserves either in cash or live
stock to tide them over a period
of low return.
And he longed fervently for the
opportunity and the funds to or
ganize the kind of farms he had
in mind, equip them with the
right kind of machinery and find
out for certain if wheat growing
could not be made safe and pro
ftable in Montana by the use of
modern methods on the farm.
The opportunity came in unex-
pected fashion. DR.. H. G. Taylor,
then chief of the Bureau of Agri-
cultural Economics at Washington,
had conceived a plan-which he
styled the Fairway Plan-for the
purchase and regeneration Of run
down or f%oreclosed farms, on
which tenants were to be placed
with the opportunity of working
into ownership under expert sup
ervision. In the summe of 1928
the Laura Spelman Rockefeller
Memorial was solicited from an
other source for funds to aid in
agricultural research, and Doctor
Taylor was called upon for the
suggestion Of a concrete project.
That fall Doctor Taylor went to
Montana to study the agricultural
situation there, and learned from
M. L. Wilson the plans for a re-
organized agriculture which the
latter had in mind. Doctor Tay-
lor then proposed to the Memorial
that a demonstration of the Fair
way principles be undertaken in
Montana under Wilson's direction.
The Memorial was unable to use
its funds in this way. but some
of the trustees persuaded Mr.. John
d. Rockefeller, Jr., to advance per-
sonallv 100000 for the project.
Later Mr.. Rockefeller contributed
an additional S25.OOO to the fund.
That was the beginning of the
Fairway Farms Corpor-
Wilson was to select a
number of foreclosed farms in diff
ferent sections of the state, en-
large them to the size desired.
equip them with all necessary
modern machinery and put tenants
to work out their salvation
under expert economic super.
A board Of directors was select
ID to administer the fund, serving
Without salary or profit. All pro
its made in farm operations were ]
be credited to the tenants and
to their indebtedness for l
and and equipment. Should any |
Profit accrue to the Fairway Cor {
,oration from transfer of land, it
vas to go to Montana State Col I
eye for educational purposes at
he end of the research period. 9
70 Mr.. Rockefeller was to be re-
urned only the money he advanc-
d, with 5 per cent interest, but c
With no obligation in case the
came to grief.
At nine widely distributed il
through purchase and {
ease, Professor Wilson acquired f
representative types of land, all of b
Which had been foreclosed. For e
he selected average men
f good character, some of them Il
on the farms. Most Of i
entered into contracts s
18th the Fairway Corporation to
ny the farms and equipment on il
ayorable terms Of payment.
Five of these farms are mainly a
heat farms, at Comanche in the p
outh central section. and at Hing c