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About The Hardin Tribune-Herald (Hardin, Mont.) 1925-1973 | View This Issue
The Hardin Tribune-Herald (Hardin, Mont.), 25 Dec. 1925, located at <http://montananewspapers.org/lccn/sn86075229/1925-12-25/ed-1/seq-5/>, image provided by MONTANA NEWSPAPERS, Montana Historical Society, Helena, Montana.
Friday, December 25, 1925 11.=1111•0 THE HARDIN TRIBUNE -HERALD Page Five II tAsiesissaiiieistar ar- if iiII/1==1:1 II MONTANA'S AGRICULTURAL OPPORTUNITY AND OBLIGATION; TREASURE STATE PRODUCES $352,284,000 NEW WEALTH IN 1925 I It CIL_ The Next Push of American Population Can Not Take Free Home-/ -- i the answer to this query lies the story of Montana's future agricul- tural and industrial opportunity. To Make The Desert Bloom Let us pause to look at the general situation and to consider the regions into which population still can flow. In the eight states listed as mountain Must Co-operate with the Settler who has Capital and Experience, states, there is todey 29 per cent of the nation's area and litle more than steads of West, but It Will Cultivate Intensively the Present Dry Land Areas, Says Dr. Alfred Atkinson. Montana's Agricultural Problem Today Is To Develop a \Montana Type\ of Farming, which Will Provide a Method for Successful Cultivation of the \Dry Lands.\ No More Inexperienced and Unprepared Farmers for Montana. State By DR. ALFRED ATKINSON President of Montana State College, Bozeman, Montana A N OLD order has changed in Montana and has passed away. The plains Indian unconscious- ly visualized the white race when he made the sign of \pale face\ by pass- ing the hand before the face, as if wiping away the very countenance of the red man. Almost with one sweep of pioneer people the tides of white population overflowed into the Indian hunting lands of the West, and in a period of time remarkably short in history' relegated the disap- pearing Indian into the backwaters of reseravtion life. This change in Montana, from the \wilderness\ of 1860 to the industrially and agricul- turally important state of 1925, is something that we can hardly un- derstand—it came about so sudden- ly. ,We hardly grasp the significance of the fact that today there are liv- ing amongst us men and women who came to Montana along the pioneer trails, contesting with the Indian for right of wsy, and that there are still living on our reservations Indians who used the primitive bow and ar- row less than three score years ago in their battle against this flood of white population. We see history more clearly as its events recede into the years. By the end of another century our histories will give notice to the great change that marks Montana's history from 1860 NI the present, and the mo- mentous years that are just ahead of us. Today we are. too -near to these events to comprehend the full im- portance they carry. Yet, in order to look .into the future we must try in this article to contrast the American West of 1860-7$ to the American West of today) these lines of pro - press of the past must be extended with various modifications into the future, that they may isidicate the way ahead. Naturally we start with a study of population in America and in Montana, since it is the spread of population which carries the first in- dication of Montana's future both in industry and in agriculture. At a time one hundred years ago the popnlation of the United States was,roughly, nine,million. This pop- ulation was cenfOred along the At- lantic coast, with only nine lines of settlement in the river valleys of Kentucky, Tennessee and that other territory between the Appalachian mountains and the Mississippi river. The fur trader and trapper were in the mountainous West, but in a West not yet considered as having \popu- lation.\ There were buffalo and elk east of the Mississippi river and a part of our present West was still Spanish dominion. Major Long, at the end of a trip of exploration west of the Mississippi river, reported that the territory betwenh the meridian at the mouth of the Platte and the Rocky mountains would never be fit for agriculture - Of any sort . In a day 40 years after the close of the, fur trading period of Mon- tana's history we find the intermin- able lines of covered wagons reach- ing across the Oregon and Bozeman trails to carry an overflow of Am- aelean population into Montana and other western states. Within 30 years following these lines of cover- ed wagons we see the iron bands of railroad steel binding us more defin- itely to the East, and bringing to the West another great wave of popu- lation. That first flow of population after 1860 is often believed to have been caused by the gold discoveries of the West, and this is, in part, true, yet it is noted by historians that the plow was tied behind hundreds of those westward moving wagons—a. certain sign of the agricultural home builder. Last of the Free Land 8 per cent of the nation's population. 'past. Where, then, will America's There are in these states millions of steadily growing population spread? acres of level farming land now in In the past hundred years we have private ownership but either unoc- gone from our poulation of nine mil- cupied or not utilized at anything lion to a poulation of one hundred like their productive capacity. It is and sixteen million, and we are still not difficult to conceive that popula- increasing our poualtion at the rath- tion pressure soon will force more in- ' er definite rate of one million three tensive use of the lands, which means hundred thousand per year.) in turn, that we shall see a movement Men and women who have read of population into these less crowd - fairly widely will remember that a ed areas. Immediately rises the question of productive power of these lands. It is useless to expect a spread of popu- . allion to arid or semi -arid lands which will not now support profita- ble agriculture, some people aegue. Yet we are reminded that some of the most important agricultural re- gions of these mountain states were. not more than a few decades ago, sage brush land, or desert. The Mor- mon pioneers changed the Salt Lake valley from a desert into a veritable garden. Some of the outstanding agricultural regions of Arizona and New Mexico are reclaimed desert lands. It is certain that as the de- mand for additional crop -producing lands is felt, man will reclaim yet other regions that at present are sage brush flat or desert plain. Fine farming areas in Kansas, Nebraska and the Dakotas were only a few de- cades ago, called unfit for agricul- ture. DR. ALFRED ATKINSON President of the Montana State (tollege certain Englishman by the name of Malthus, more than a century ago, predicted that the world was rapidly aproaching a day when population in- crease would outrun increase in pro- duction of foodstuffs, and that inevi- tably a part of the world must starve. This Mauthuisian doctrine, like sim- ilar predictions being Made in our day, failed to take into consideration the changing conditions under which population increases, and the various factors which govern production of foodstuffs. 'According to the doc- trine of Malthus we should today be starving, yet curiously enough, we in America are in a temporary period of overproeuct ion of foodstuffs. The main value in the work of Malthus lies in the fact that he called the at- tention of the world to this plain fact that population is increasing at a tremendous rate and that, theoreti- cally, at least, we are nearing the point where available land will no longer prneture the required of foodstuffs. Some scientists who have grown uneasy when they read the popula- tion figures in comparison to the land available for future food pro- duction have sounded an alarm. Some have said that the pinch of food shortage will be felt in the coming generation, while still others see an inrease in poulation until standing room on the earth becomes a prob- lem more pressing than food supply. A careful summary of the opinions of various estimators would lead us to believe that the time when the world will starve is still far in the fu - The Jest wave of poulation which ture, and we are willing to give a the railroads brought to Montana in future generation of .men credit for the period from 1907 to about 1920 enough wisdom and knowledge to caused a new era in the history of handle their own peculiar problems America. This population practically as they arise. • exhausted the \free land\ that had This question of population spread been traditional in the history of our coupled with the exhaustion of i. free nation. \Free land and a home in land areas, is however, causing con - the West\ had become so much a cern to the leading economists of our part and parcel of our American tra- present generation. It is generally ditions that we today cannot yet re- agreed that our American (that is, alize that our free land is gone for- ever. We have low-priced farm lands in -Montana today --in fact, the lowest priced farming lands in Am- .. erica—but thees lands are not free lands; they are in private ownership. The next push of American popula- tion cannot overflow into homestead lands of the West, for that wonder - United States) population cannot in- crease beyond 200.000,000 or 220,- 000.040, which is held to about_ our saturation point in population. Ac- cording to our present rate of in- crease we will be \saturated\ with people about the year 2,000, the pop- ulation to be about double that of today How then, they ask, are we ful phase of American settlement iSf to feed this increased population? In eastern and middle western farmer of small capial must look now to low priced, rather than free land. This means that his attention will turn to- ward Montana, the state of the lowest priced farming lands, and that our present unocckpied lands will be filled by farmers practicing a profit- able and successful Montana type of agriculture . Here lie both our op- portunity and our obligation; an op- portunity in this inevitable flow of land -hungry settlers; an obligation in the providing of the means wheerby these new settlers can be assured of moderate success. Our greatest danger in this new period of settle- ment—which, by the way, will begin to be manifested in the coming de- cade—is in the tendency of certain land -selling motive, there will we unseen\ to settlers. Wherever the sale of land, rather than the success of the settler, is made the primary land -selling motive, theer will we find a region where farm failures will continue to mock and retard our agricultural growth. This new period, of population growth in Montana may bring to the remaining pioneers something of a pull for the heartstrings. The ad- venturous spirits of other days grow sad when they contrast the herds of countless buffalo of yesterday with the practically extinct buffalo of to- day; they look with regret upon the formerly Wild areas of the forest - clad mountains which today are be- come the vacation lands of thousands of tourists. Cattlemen of the period of 20 years ago gave up slowly the idea that the \honyocker\ could be induced to leave the wide prairies unfenced and' untilled. The onward sweeping population holds no area in- violate when the number of mouths The Montana Type of Farming to feed demands new crop-producing Here in Montana we know that areas and more intensive land use. much of our level plains region, the Romance has little influence against so-called \dry -land region,\ can pro- the rigors of economic necessity. duce crops to support successful , For Rediscovery of Treasure State farms. In spite of the stories of It is certain that the level plains wide-spred failure from 1917 to 1921 area of Montana will, in the time of we know that in the typical dry land this present new generation, become areas there were farmers who made an agricultural area contributing to a profit in even the worst of the dry the suport of a state population of years. An answer to the frequent 1,000,000. In that time our Indus - statement that this land is untillable, trial life will have grown tremendous - is one farmer of Hill county who, in ly, for in a nation rapidly nearing the the driest of those years,., showed a exhaustion point in coal, timber, ag- net labor income of more than $100 ricultral land, oil, and metals, Mon - per month when farms all about him tana stands with a still tremendous were being abandoned to we'eds. supply of all these raw materials. There are other instances of similar Montanans have hardly begun to re - successes. Our problem in Montana's alize the important position they will dry land agriculture today is to de- occupy in the America of another velop that type of farming which is generation, when the eyes of the na- not a type transplanted from some tion, nearing the saturation point in other agricultural state, but a defin- population, and nearing the point of ite \Montana type\ which will pro- exhaustion of many of its natural vide the method for our successful resources, rediscovers the Treasure dry land agriculture, and this know- _state of the West with its millions of ledge has been spread into every cor- acres of available food-producing tier of the state by our extension ser- lands, with mountain rivers and vast vice. To those of us who have lived coal resources that will furnish un- close to the agricultural development tolepower to industries that can uti- of this state it seems .that America's lize raw material immediately at growing population which within the hand. coming few years will again begin to What then, is Montana's oblige - °Despite Many Difficulties Montana Farmers Harvest Crop That Carries a Potential Value of $132,000,000. Montanans Have Every Reason to be Thankful, Says C. W. Towne. Labor is Profitably and Steadily Employed. Merchants are Plying a Brisk and Ever Increasing trade. Bank Comrings are Larger and Bank Deposits Heavier. The Mon- tana Farmer, the Chief Bulwark of Our State's Prosperity, is Rapid- ly Coming Into His Own, t'ate 10 1 V 11 6 1 4,1r . rits' 4 6 The past year has seen a decided upaverd trend in the cattle industry iii Montana and today almost every farm has its small herd, the effort being toward pure bred beef and dairy stock. indicate its overflow tendency, will ! tion of the present toward this great move freely and naturally to Mon-; opportunity of the future? In agri- tana's low-priced farming lands if in culture, we feel that the most im- the meantime we have developed our portant step now is thq development agricultural methods to the point of a type of agriculture which will where they offer moderate assurance of success. Montana Is Great Opportunity • Free lands are gone, so that the best utilize our level farming areas and make them available and pos- sible of success for new settlers (Continued on Agricultural rage/ Montana's New Wealth in 1925 Totals More than Third of Million Dollars Products of the state's 47,000 farms ... St 32,393,000 Income of the Meek/telt Industry 12,350.000 Info g enterprhes, great and small , What the forests contrih tf'd Dug out of the state's ast coal beds OD—Montana's Infant Industry atm. added to raw products by ma n u fac I,. Grand total of Montana's new o ealth In MS 66,000,000 14,550,000. 9,710,000 5,961.000 51,500 , 01X1 $332,21i1,000 C. W. Towne, head of the de- 0 partment of information of the and expanding. Their output for 1925 Anaconda Copper Mining cum- promises to be more than 1,000,000 pany, in an address before Butte pounds. Rotarians recently, reviewed the \The turkey crop is estimated at state's progress in new wealth pro- 500,000 pounds. We have no figures dueed during the past year in a for this year's egg and chicken leo- very comprehensive manner. Mr. duction, but it will not fall behind Towns estimated the spring and that of 1924-, when more than 3, - winter wheat crop at 30,000,000 000,000 ickens and 16,000,000 bushels, estimated to be worth, at dozen eggs brought more than $2. - today's market price around /1:525,- 500,000 dollars to the producers of Montana. \As to industrial Montana, we have a coal output of some 4,000,000 tons. Our lumber mills will have an increased output, approximately 360,- 000,000 board feet, principally Pon - dose pine, native fir and larch. \In the production of metals, fig- ures published by the United States geological survey show that Montana produced' in 1924, in round figures, 249,000,000 pounds of copper, 128,- 000,000 pounds of zinc, 39,000,000 pounds of lead, 13,000,000 ounces of silver and nearly 98,00 ounces of gold. \No figures are available for 1926. ' but unofficial opinion in mining cir- cles is that the 1925 produCtion will not fall below this. One interesting phase of the mining business is re- vealed in the fact that, of a certain grade of manganese, four times as much tonnoge will be shipped this year as ,was' marketed last year. \Within the past year, the manu- facture of beet sugar has been great- ly expanded by the erection of a million dollar factory at Sidney and another costing the same at Chinook. Because of this, there has been an increase in sugar beet culture amounting to 110,000 tons. This is in addition to the 240,000 tons pro- duced exclusively for the older-es- tablished.:factary in Billings, where a million bags of sugar were turned out in 1524, earning for this plant the title of the largest beet sugar factory in the world. \Canning... factories itt Bozeman and, Stevensville this year put out 321,000 cases of' our famous and un- excelled 'tieas. Bozeman also pro - valued at ;2,800,000. Continuing duced nearly. 20.000 cases of beans. Mr. Towne said: Falls Plant Extending . \Our crops of peas and beans show marked increases over those of 1924. \Of vital significance to Butte and Montana's bean production in the last four years has risen almost as rapidly as Jack and his fabulous 'beanstalk.' From 49.000 bushels raised from 3,800 acres in 1922, the 1925 product will be 580,000 bushels C. W. TOWNE 000,000, which is more than the farmers received last year for a much larger crop. Other crop totals ivere placed by Mr. Towne as follows: Oats 817,000,000 bush- els; corn 8,000,000 bushels; barley 4,000,000 bushels; rye 3,000,000 bushels; flax 1,300,000 bushels, and 300,000 tons of auger beets the mining districts of Salt Lake and the Coeur d'Alene, is the extension program now under way at the Great Falls reduction department of the Anaconda. Copper Mining company. When the present additions to plant and equipment are completed, the raised from 40,000 acres and valued copper refinery capacity will have at $1,500,000. been enlarged by 50 per cent, elec- trolytic zinc plant by 33 1-3 per cent, and the rod and wire mill by about 30 per cent. \The recent spectacular behavior of the potato has brought nothing but good to Montana. We raise the best seed potatoes in the United States. Three years ago, tests in Louisiana showed that our product yielded 192 bushels to the acre, as against Wiscoesin's 166, North Da- kota's 161,. and Nebraska's 150. Southern potato growers are now buying annually more than 1,000 cars of our seed potatoes, with large shipments to Idaho and Washington. Potato Crop Big \As we all know, there is a tre- mendous potato shortage throughout the country, the 1925 crop being 108,000,000 bushels below that of \Power consumption is an authen- tic business barometer. I am told that the Montana Power company's Octo- ber output this year exceeded that of any other month in the long history of the company, and showed an in- crease or 21 per cent in average load over October, 1924, and an increase of 20 per cent in maximum load. The company's total kilowatt-hour output this year will show a 10 per cent gain over last year, amounting probably to a billion and a quarter kilowatt- hour. During 1925, four additional towns and nearly 900 new customere shortage, nature has smiled upon Mentana, where our 1925 crop of 4180.000 bushels exceeds that of 1924 by neerly 1,000,000 bushels. So that we have not only a million bush- els more to market this year but we are getting at least double the price we got last year. \Taking a quick glance at the stock grower, we find that Montana range cattle are in exceptionally fine shape, their condition at the present time being 104 per cent of normal. As range fed stock they command a higher figure than that obtained by similar cattle from other states. And cattle prices themselves are well above those .of last year. \Our sheep and lambs are also in fine condition and are commanding a good price at the stock yards, the average weight of lambs being slight- ly over that of last year. \The wool crop of 1925 is estim- ated at 20.593,000 pounds, a million pounds greater than that of 1924. and is of an estimated value of around $10,000,000. s f \We should be greatly encouraged by the mounting output of our -dair- ies. Last year 1,4200,000 pounds of butter were produced by 66 dairies. This year 71 are operating and but- ter production will show a substan- tial increase. \Cheese factories are multiplying \Under conditions such as these. it is self-evident that Montanans have every reason to be thankful. Labor is profitably and steadily employed. Merchants are plying a brisk and ever increasing trade. Bank clear- ings are larger and bank deposits heavier than usual. Butte, for in- stance, with about 50,000 population, has deposits of $35.000,000 equaling those of Tacoma, a city of $100,000. Taxpayers of the state, in addition to paying off huge bank obligations incurred during the lean years, have in the past year paid more than $5.- 000,000 in overdue taxes, a feat un- paralleled in the, taxation history of the state. The Montana farmer, chief bulwark of our state's prosperity, is coming rapidly into his own. \Some of them even have enough cash, and courage to go into the rail- road business. Witness the 50 -mile extension from Scobey to Opheim, in Valley and I)aniels counties. These plutocratic husbandmen cheerfully dug down in their jeans and bought $300,000 worth of Great Northern stock with which to build the road and paid for this stock, despite the fact that it was-- then- eel iitnr-otr'elte- - .market around 67. 0 Three -fifths of those employed in automobile factories work in Michi- gan. 4 - A HARVEST SCENE is the bleobey territo . is is typical of this section of Montana, whish at onetime was considered worthless for the eultivation of grains, lieobey is no:vo the world's greatest primary teheat market.
