Montana farmer-stockman. [volume], November 15, 1949, Page 6, Image 6

About Montana farmer-stockman. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1947-1993

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1950 Conservation Handbook Stresses Practices
For Wheat Land Conversion
By DWIGHT F. MASSEY, Montana PMA Committee
THE MONTANA HANDBOOK of
the 1950 agricultural conservation
program has been formally ap
proved, and copies have been sent
to county PMA committeemen from
which they will prepare county
handbooks fitting the program to
their individual counties.
Although in general the 1950
Handbook is very similar to those of
previous years, several major
changes have been made. Of these
the one most significant, perhaps,
to individual operators is that the
per-person payment limitation has
been raised from $750 to $2,500. Also,
the state allocation of funds for con
servation practices has been in
creased from $3,655,000 to $4,051,000.
Rates of payment, which on an av
erage represent about 50 percent of
the cost of performing practices,
have been increased because of
higher costs of materials, operating
expenses and contractual services.
For example, the rate of payment
for application of phosphate has'
been increased from 3V 2 to 4% cents
per pound of available phosphoric
acid, and the rate for dirt moving
under such practices as dams, dikes
and ditches has been increased from
9 to 10 cents per cubic yard.
Stress Legume, Grass Seeding
In order to encourage farmers to
divert acreage from wheat, an in
creased rate of assistance is being
offered for legume and grass seed
ing practices, which will be at 80
percent of the average cost of seed,
not to exceed $4 per acre.
A new practice is being offered
this year for legume and grass seed
ing in addition to the permanent
pasture seeding practice which has
been in the Handbook for a number
of years. However, the acreage that
will be eligible for assistance will
only be the acreage established in
excess of the usual acreage of all
biennial and perennial legumes and
perennial grasses on the farm.
Alfalfa has been added as a green
manure crop but is limited to the
first or second year alfalfa from
which no hay, seed, or pasture is
taken in 1950.
The land clearing
practice is applicable only to land
cleared for establishing permanent
pasture or biennial or perennial le
gumes or perennial grasses needed
for a better soil conserving cropping
system on the farm.
Authority is continued in the 1950
Handbook for county committees to
select with the approval of the state
PMA committee and the Agricultur
al Conservation Programs branch,
Washington, D. C., one local and one
special practice which merits the use
of program funds to meet particular
conservation problems which can
not be taken care of through the use
of state approved practices.
Summary of Practices
The Montana Handbook of the
1950 Agricultural Conservation pro
gram contains four practices for ap
plying fertilizers and adequate
growth of soil-conserving crops;
four practices for green manure and
cover crops to develop cropping sys
tems that protect the soil and restore
and maintain soil productivity; five
drainage and irrigation practices to
conserve and obtain efficient use
of agricultural water and to promote
land use adjustments needed in es
tablishing soil-conserving cropping
systems, or to permit other measures
required to conserve soil and water
resources; nine erosion control and
water conserving practices to pro
tect soil from wind and water ero
sion; nine practices to restore and
maintain range and permanent pas
tures; four forestry practices to es
tablish, restore, and maintain farm
woodland, and four miscellaneous
practices to permit the adoption of
a better soil-conserving cropping
system, to control perennial noxious
weeds as a necessary step in soil
or water conservation, and to meet
local or special conservation needs.
In connection with the use of di
verted acreage under 1950 wheat
acreage allotments, particular em
phasis is being placed this year on
seeding grasses and legumes, con
tour and straight stripcropping, pro
tection of summerfallow by crop
residue management, establishment
of sod waterways, planting of forest
iree seedlings and shrubs, and pe
rennial noxious weed control.
Farmers generally can comply
with wheat acreage allotments by
changing their cropping systems to
Farm and Ranch Experiences
Blueslone Treatment of Posts
Is Effective, Economical
By ELMER and ED DOTY, Carbon County
OUR RESULTS with treating
posts by the bluestone (copper sul
phate) method have been very sat
isfactory. Though we have tried
no other method, wè have read of
some, and doubt if any of them are
any better than bluestone, taking
everything into consideration.
Our first posts were treated in
1944 and set in the ground in the
spring of that year. This makes six
seasons that they have stood. Ex
amination of them beneath the sur
face of the ground shows them to
still be perfectly sound and solid.
Treatment by the bluestone
Song of the Lazy Farmer
HE MOMENT I've been wait
ing for throughout the last
few weeks or more is just a
couple hours away, it's on
Thanksgiving day. The kitchen's
busy as a hive, the relatives will
soon arrive, Mirandy's tempera
ture is high, and no man's hun
grier than I. Inside, the promise
of a treat including turkey and
mincemeat has permeated ev'ry
room with a mouth-watering per
fume. I couldn't stand it any
more, so I'm out here beside the
door where I'm free from that
mad'ning smell, but sure to hear
the difiner bell.
This year I'm testing out a
scheme to make this day a grand
er dream; for weeks I've eaten
like a bird, each meal's been light,
and afterward I've hiked or
worked enough to be sure that
no fat piled upon me. Mirandy
thinks that I've been ill, but in a
little while she will be shouting
that I ought to stop before vest
buttons start to pop. I'm confident
I'm lean enough to handle four
men's share of stuff; I've also got
the stove all hot, the way is
cleared from plate to cot, and
when the gorging feast is o'er I
plan to sleep six hours or more.
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include greater acreages of legumes
and grasses and increasing the acre
age of summerfallow which should
be protected from wind and water
erosion by straight and contour
stripcropping or crop residue man
agement.
Assistance is offered through the
Agricultural Conservation program
to encourage such cropland uses. A
deduction of $3 per acre will be
made from payments which might
otherwise be earned under the pro
gram, for breaking out native sod or
permanent vegetative cover without
the approval of the county commit
tee.
A change which should be noted
by farmers who intend to partici
pate in the program is that the 1950
program year is from Jan. 1, 1950,
to Nov. 30, 1950, inclusive, instead
of on a calendar year basis as pre
viously.
Farmers may participate in the
1950 Agricultural Conservation pro
gram by filing a farm worksheet
with the county PMA committee not
later than May 20, 1950, and receiv
ing prior approval to perform the
practices.
method consists of soaking one end
of the posts in a solution of blue
stone.
Prefer Late Fall Cutting
We have cut posts in the fall, win
ter and spring, but prefér cutting
them in the late fall and letting them
lie over until spring before being
treated. Posts must be green when
treated, as a dry post will not take
the treatment.
Posts which are cut and allowed
to lie awhile in cool weather seem
to take the treatment somewhat
faster than those which are cut and
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Shown here are comparative sizes of
posts treated successfully with the
blueslone method by the Doty Bros..
Carbon county. Posts range from 3 or
4 inches to 10 or 11 inches in diameter.
In the background is a pile of several
hundred aspen posts cut last fall. They
were treated this spring.
immersed in the solution immedi
ately. We haven't treated enough to
be certain of this though, and would
not care to pass it on as a positive
fact. Our faster results on posts
handled in this way may have come
from other causes.
Cement Vat Essential
The construction of a cement vat
is almost essential for the treatment
of a large number of posts. The
bluestone solution is corrosive to
metal and so cement is about the
only satisfactory means by which it
may be held. Treatment of a small
number of posts might be done in
a common wooden staved barrel,
but there would be some danger of
the rungs corroding and the blue
stone solution being lost.
The size vat an operator wants
will be determined by the number
of posts to be treated, and their size
and how many it will be desirable
to treat at one time.
We have constructed a vat with
cement sides and floor. The top is
flush with the surface of the ground.
Our posts are usually mixed up quite
a bit as to size and we get close to
100 in to a vat full on the average.
It is a good idea to build a ridge
of cement up around the edge of the
vat to keep rain and snow water
from running into it. We did not
build such a ridge around ours at
first, and were bothered by water
dilution.
Also, it is a good idea to build a
cover out of 2 or 3-inch plank to
place over the vat while it is not in
use.
Saturated Solution
The water and bluestone should
be put in the vat before any posts
are put in. A saturated solution
is recommended. (A saturated solu
tion is one in which bluestone has
been dissolved into the water to a
point where no more will dissolve
in it).
We obtain a saturated solution by
first scattering bluestone over the
floor of the vat. We then hang a
burlap bag, with bluestone in it, in
one corner of the vat. This bag
should be raised out of the solution
every day or so, in order to make
sure that it still has bluestone in it,
and thus insure a saturated solution.
The water will dissolve somewhere
around three pounds to the gallon.
The solution should be allowed to
stand a day or two before being
used, to make certain that the first
posts are treated in a saturated so
lution.
After the posts are cut to the de
sired length, it is recommended that
the part which will be set beneath
the surface of the ground be peeled.
This is the practice which we have
always followed.
This peeling involves a consider-