30 



MONTANA : INDUSTRIAL RESOURCES 



A Phase of Stable Farming 



These results were attained largely under the one-crop system. Wheat, oats, 

 and flax were practically the only crops sold. Total annual sales of livestock 

 per farm averaged $50 for Sheridan county and $86 for Daniels. The sale of 

 livestock products for all farms amounted to an average of $106 for Sheridan 

 and $123 for Daniels. The report states the number of horses and cattle per 

 farm, especially the latter, "seems low for a region which at one time was 

 wholly devoted to grazing". Few of the farmers kept hogs the year around, but 

 most of them kept poultry. 



This survey corroborates the conclusions reached in the survey by the State 

 Agricultural College of a different non-irrigated district ; that the number of crop 

 acres had considerable bearing on the farm income ; the greater the crop acreage 

 the larger the income. ( In Daniels comity, for instance, the men who had less than 100 

 acres in crops lost on their farm operations.) It is apparent that not enough 

 attention has been given to livestock products or to gardens for home use. Corn 

 was grown by 51 farmers and the majority felt that every farmer in the area 

 would find the crop profitable. 



Non-irrigated farming is just emerging from the formative, one-crop stage. 

 Corn is making revolutionary changes, paving the way for silos and general 

 purpose cows whose steer calves will grow into beef on the public or the national 

 ranges and whose heifers at the pail will increase the creamery check. Corn is 

 bringing in hogs. The first carload of Montana beef fattened on Montana corn left 

 the state for a west coast market in March, 1023. Wheat probably will con- 

 tinue to be the biggest cash crop on the non-irrigated farm, but corn will 

 be the foundation of a diversified agriculture whose income will be distributed 

 over the year. The hen is taking its place alongside of the hog and so is the 

 turkey, which seems e.«:pecially adapted to the Montana environment. The 

 Montana turkey is more of a factor today on the Chicago market than is the 

 Montana hen. 



Because moisture, (he controlling factor of crop production in Montana, is 



under the absolute control of the irrigated farmer, that type of farming affords 



a much wider field for diversification or specialization than 



Irrigated does the non-irrigated type. In the most prosperous irrigated dis- 



Farniing tricts the tendency is toward intensive or specialized farming — 



sugar beets, peas for seed and canning, beans, potatoes and 



other root crops ; pure-bred livestock, hogs, dairying, winter fattening of lambs and 



