40 



The Northern Pacific* has $8,000,0.00 worth of land to sell. When they- 

 built their railroad they got a grant from the National Government of 

 every odd section for forty miles on each side of the railway clear across 

 the State. The other two railroad companies did not get an acre of land, 

 and their co-operation with the State Experiment Station in this matter 

 is simply to increase their freight and passenger business. The money 

 given by the railroad companies is employed to hire men, buy equipment,, 

 and pay the travelling expenses of the agricultural experts. It is not 

 permitted to be used for administrative work, or the publication of 

 bulletins or reports. 



The following dry-farms have already been established : — (1)* 

 Glendive, (2) Terry, (3) Forsythe, (4) Billings, (5) Lewiston, (6) Great 

 Falls, (7) Chester, (8) Harlem, (9) Round-up, (10) Baker. These are 

 cheap stations, consisting for the most part of forty acres each, divided' 

 into one-acre plots. The staple crops are tested as well as different 

 methods of cultivation. The college possesses two small threshing outfits,, 

 which are shipped around the State. These stations are well advertised,, 

 and the farmers are brought together. In regard to the staff, it may be 

 said that the foreman gets $600 (£120) for his work during the summer, 

 and nothing for winter, viz., from April to September. He has to furnish 

 horses and ordinary farm machinery, and is permitted to work on his 

 own homestead. 



These dry-farms are planted in places to attract settlers ; for example- 

 the Forsythe Station was started in the spring of 1906. The first, 

 settlers came in two , years later, and this year all the land has been 

 taken up. Settlers are now coming very rapidly, and the policy in the 

 future will be to endeavour by encouragement and advice to make those 

 colonists stay. The cost of these dry-farms on an average is about: 

 $2,000 per annum for a forty-acre station. The dry-farm at Harlem is 

 twenty-five miles from the railroad, where as yet there is not a single 

 homestead in the whole district. Here the superintendent receives 

 $1,000 for six months in order to induce him to remain in that unsettled 

 country. The largest State dry-farm is 160 acres, of which 80 acres are^ 

 laid out in plots. In Montana it is usual to sow half-acre plots rather 

 than one-tenth acre, so as to appeal more to the farmer. The Lewiston 

 Station is twenty- two miles west of that town on . the Great Northern 

 Railroad. Here the staff consists of a superintendent, a plant breeder, and' 

 two workmen. This station costs annually $4,500, of which the State- 

 gives $2,000 and the Federal Government '$2,500. 



In Montana eighteen officials are actively engaged in the dry-land' 

 propaganda. This number includes two professors, three assistant pro- 

 fessors, two superintendents, and eleven farm foremen. Each of 

 the smaller type of dry-farm station possesses simply ordinary 

 farm machinery and a team of horses, whereas the larger stations have- 

 each a soil laboratory, a full set of meteorological apparatus, a seed house, 

 a house for the superintendent, also one for the workmen. Regarding 

 machinery, the sub-surface packer has been used on the dry-farms of 

 Montana, but it is considered an unnecessary implement in this State 

 and too hard on horses for the amount of work which it does. The 

 ordinary disc harrow is used both for surface pulverising and sub-surface 

 packing. The Superior press drill and the lucerne renovator are tools^ 



* I was told on good authority that Northern Pacific lands have increased in value to 

 the extent of $10,000,000 during t he past five years owing tb the rise and progress of dry- 

 farming. 



