Glacier County chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1931-1940, 1939-01-13

manned and began blowing up the soil
and sowing wheat. They were ridiculed
by old-t1merS. Crops wouldn't grow in
this country of short summers and
long, cold winters. This was a cattle
land. 1t was a crime, almost sacrilege,
to break range sod and destroy cattle
grazing. But few persisted, and to
the amazement of all. wheat sprouted
and rooted and stooled, and gave, to
the stubborn ones, at least livelihood
And so, finally, there seeped to the
awakening ears Of the overcrowded
east, word of vast fields of golden
wheat in Montana.
Government land was opened I'D for
settlement and another influx of ad-
venturers began to pour into Montana.
Land! The word held almost as much
magic as gold. Men came with their
families and little else, to file on claims
and begin the work that ended the
range cattle industry Few of them
were experienced farmers, and they
had little capital, but they were coura-
geous, determined and industrious.
Now the eternal stiffness of dry land
areas was broken by new sounds-click
OF hammers as shacks were hastily
erected; crack of axes as pine trees
were cut for fenceposts; thud of horses
feet, as sod. the fruit of centuries, was
plowed up and sowed to wheat
Newcomers Hit It Right
For time nature appeared to be
in league with these homesteaders.
Rain fell when it was needed. spring
after spring, and fields of gold check
cred the brown range. Virgin soil, dur
ing the banner years of the home
steaders, yielded as high as 60 bushels
per acre on so-called dry land. 1t was
the turn OF the pioneer farmer of
Montana to laugh. And he did laugh,
as he harvested his rich crops and
hauled them with teams and wagon to
the nearest grain elevators, often 80
or more miles distant One eXuberant
farmer. out in Lake basin, in the fall
of 1916, was offered $50 per acre, cash,
for his half section of wheat land. With
Justtfiable scorn he rejected the offer.
That fall his 800 acres had Welded
10000 bushels of wheat, and wheat.
during the World war, was selling at 50
per bushel. So, instead of selling, he,
like countless other optimists, bought
more land, fencing and breaking it.
They were not genuine farmers,
those adventurous homesteaders They
were landowners, hungry for more
part, their undoing. With sections to
put into crop they could not work their
land properly. They drilled wheat into
last years stubble. They neglected fer
tilization and crop rotation. Very few
invested in milk cows or pigs They
staked their all in wheat, gambling
with nature on rain.
Then Came Dry Years
The year 1918 brought the first
drouth for many years to various sec
tons. After that came another dry
year and another. Homesteaders were
caught fast in a trap of their own
making. Deeply in debt for machinery
and seed wheat they continued to put
in crops, each heavily mortgaged, and
prayed for rain and watched tender
wheat sprouts shrivel under dry, hot
suns.
Whatever else they were, however
they were brave and persistent. They
struggled grimly on, under hardships
as grueling as any the earliest pioneers
may have suffered. Many, the first
years, could not afford wells In some
cases, families subsisted on water
hauled in barrels, covered with tarp
set on the shady side Of the shack
Two barrels Of water per week, fol
drinking, cooking, bathing. In summer
the sun beat down hot on tiny shackl
set on treeless plains. In winter SNOW
oo9ed between crevices Of their single-
board walls and cold stung The feet o,
woman. IN mont At many shAch1 Wsrg