AGRICULTURE AND FARM LIFE
Land of supersized farms, of spring wheat and winter rye rippling in the wind, of gigantic flower gardens of paradise-blue flax—this is North Dakota, one of the greatest agricultural States of the Nation.
Those who have seen the vast fields in the summer know the meaning of this land to the farmer and the stock-raiser; for while the romantically inclined can meditate on the beauties of a bronze wheatfield under the July sun, or the picturesque qualities of fine cattle grazing on a hillside, the agricultural statistician can point out that 87 percent of the land in the State is devoted to agriculture, and, given sufficient moisture, the richly productive soil will more than repay the efforts of the farmer or stockman who depends upon it for his livelihood.
Here in North Dakota were the original bonanza farms—so-called because of their almost fabulous yields of wheat—some of them two or three townships in extent. They are gone now, but the size of the farms today still startles those familiar with agriculture in other States, for many holdings run as high as 10,000 acres, and the average for the whole State is 463 acres, as against the United States average of 154.8 acres.
Ordinarily the rainfall is sufficient to bring crops of high value, despite the fact that in the western two-thirds of the State it is not abundant. In occasional years the moisture is poorly distributed, resulting in lessened cash values. About twice in a century the dry-land farming area of the United States, of which the western two-thirds of this State is a part, is subject to major drought conditions. At such times farming is difficult and in places impossible—without irrigation. In the drought of the 1880's there were few people in North Dakota to suffer. It took the recent major drought which began in 1929 to impress not only upon North Dakotans, but upon the Federal Government as well, the necessity for reliance in part upon irrigation, utilizing the waters that flow so abundantly through the State—and out of it.
More than a thousand dams are contemplated in the Works Progress Administration program for the State. Many have already been completed, and steps are being taken to divert the waters of the Missouri River into the James and Sheyenne Rivers, and to utilize waters in western tributaries of the Missouri.
Fortunately, North Dakota has never had a land boom. The result is that prices of agricultural land are low, and with the returning rains it is likely that the State will experience a new wave of confidence and prosperity.
Naturally, in a State where 87 percent of the land is devoted to agricultural pursuits, farm conditions are of paramount importance to almost every person. Directly dependent upon the soil are the farm residents who compose 53.6 percent of North Dakota's population. Directly dependent upon the wealth of the farmer are the 28.6 percent who live in small rural towns, and, almost as directly, the 17.9 percent who compose the urban population. Of the urban group, approximately one-third are employed in the processing of agricultural products.
The same general boundaries that divide the State topographically also designate the three agricultural belts. The Red River Valley and Drift Prairie are combined in what is known as the black-earth belt, the Coteau du Missouri constitutes the farming-grazing belt, and the Missouri Slope is the grazing-forage belt.
In the black-earth belt the farms are usually small, averaging less than 400 acres in extent. Here the average annual rainfall varies from 18 to 24 inches, 6 to 8 inches of which falls during the months of May and June, when it is most valuable to small grains.
The black-earth region was the first part of North Dakota to be settled. Furs were the object of the earliest white settlers there, but the value of agricultural pursuits was by no means overlooked even during that early period. Alexander Henry, Jr., the fur trader who foresaw that the Red River Valley would be good agricultural land if the transportation problem could be solved, tells in his diary of planting a garden as early as 1800 at his trading post at the mouth of the Pembina River, where he raised carrots, cabbages, beets, potatoes, and other vegetables. Nor was he free from the evils which beset the modern farmer: his crop was highly satisfactory for several years, but in 1808 everything was eaten by the grasshoppers which swarmed across the land. Henry's agrarian ventures were secondary to his fur trading, however, and it was not until the friends of Charles Cavileer settled at Pembina in 1851 that a permanent agricultural colony was established in the State. An earlier settlement by the Selkirkers of Canada in 1812 had been short-lived. When the Cavileer colony arrived, however, the Selkirk colonists, now established at Fort Douglas, Winnipeg, not only provided Cavileer himself with a bride but also supplied his people with seed wheat, oats, barley, and field peas—an invaluable contribution.
For almost 20 years the little settlement at Pembina was the only farming community in the State. Dakota Territory had been opened to settlement January 1, 1863, and free lands were offered to anyone over 21 years of age who would cultivate and improve his 160-acre homestead, and live on it 5 years. If he wished, he could also obtain a tree claim of 160 acres.
Ten acres of this quarter-section had to be planted in trees, and proof, substantiated by two reliable witnesses, that the trees had been growing for eight years was necessary before the settler could obtain clear title to the claim. The acquisition of tree claims was sometimes hindered by the perpetration of a cruel hoax on newcomers. One of a group of unprincipled men, interested in money rather than in settlement of the land, and unable or unwilling to file claims, would approach a new settler and offer him a "deal" on a piece of land, ostensibly planted as a tree claim, with the little green tree shoots already appearing above the ground. The settler would pay a substantial sum for the advantage of having trees already planted, and in good faith would file on the claim, only to find later in the year that instead of a 10-acre grove he had an excellent but over-abundant crop of turnips. Notwithstanding such discouragements, many fine groves were planted which have not only added greatly to the beauty of the Red River Valley and central North Dakota, but have been invaluable as a protection against soil erosion.
A third tract of 160 acres could be secured under the preemption laws which permitted the settler to locate on land before or after it was surveyed, file declaration of intent to purchase, and pay for the land within 18 months after filing, at the rate of $2.50 an acre for railroad property or $1.25 for any other land. Additional land could be obtained by buying up grants to soldiers in the United States Army. Military land warrants could be purchased for a nominal price, often as low as 50 cents an acre.
At first, despite the ease of obtaining land, there was no great influx of settlers into the new land. The Nation was in the grip of the Civil War, and Indian troubles in the West not only discouraged new settlement but frightened out many who had already made their homes there. Writers who had visited the Territory depicted it as "a land of blizzards and Indians, drought and grasshoppers."
Moreover, homesteading in the northern part of the Territory was complicated by the fact that the nearest land office was at Vermilion, 400 miles away, a long and perilous trip in the day of the oxcart and dogsled. The only surveyed land was in the vicinity of Pembina. Here in 1868 Joseph Rolette, pioneer fur trader and settler, filed the first homestead in North Dakota, the only one before 1870. In 1871 a few more claims were filed, but it was not until 1885 that settlement increased to any great extent. During that year so many "took up" land that Dakota Territory became known as "the land of the free and the home of the boomer ... free homesteaders and town site boomers."
The extension of the Northern Pacific across the Red River into North Dakota was partly responsible for this sudden increase in population. Immigrants found it easier to reach the lands which the Government offered them. The Northern Pacific had been given by Government grant alternate sections of land for a distance of 20 miles on each side of its right-of-way. The land between these sections was opened to homesteading; and since the free lands were just as desirable as its own, the railroad could find no market for its property. It was decided, therefore, that the only way to profit on its investment was to encourage settlement, so that there would be an increased need of transportation in and out of the new country. In lieu of its stocks, which had slumped in the panic of 1873, the road sold some of its enterprising stockholders large portions of its land grants for 40 and 50 cents an acre. Among those persuaded to invest were G. W. Cass, B. P. Cheney, and Oliver Dalrymple. The three formed a company and placed their 12,000 acres, in the vicinity of Fargo, under Dalrymple's management. Thus was formed the first bonanza farm, initiating an important era in the agricultural history of North Dakota.
The chief purpose of the early bonanza farms was to demonstrate on a spectacular scale the potential wealth of the Red River Valley. The farms ranged in size from 3,000 acres to the 65,000-acre Grandin farm which covered more than 100 sections of land. Wheat was the sole crop. All operations were conducted on a large scale, with dozens of the most up-to-date farm machines working on the various divisions of the farms simultaneously, and huge crews of a hundred or more employed during the harvest season. Tales of the bumper crops were soon spread by the transient harvest "hands," and visitors and home seekers came from far and wide to see whether the stories of the fabulous crops were actually true.
Two new inventions added to the success of the wheat-raising bonanza farms. The first of these was the purifier, which made it possible to produce a superior grade of white flour from spring wheat. The second was a roller simplifying the milling of hard wheat, with the result that this grain was placed at a premium. In a single year, the value of the farms was raised from the original 40 and 50 cents to $5 an acre, and by 1906 the lands were worth from $30 to $40.
Because they raised a single crop, the managers of the bonanza farms found it easy to systematize and mechanize their work. The newest farm machines were common in this newly settled area long before they were introduced in the older States.
Eastern syndicates usually owned the bonanza farms, and resident managers were engaged to supervise the work. As long as only wheat was raised, the system was ideal. With the introduction of other crops, however, difficulties arose, principally because stockholders could not agree on a plan of operation. Almost all of the large farms were eventually broken into smaller plots and sold to the immigrants and easterners whom they had attracted to the West. Today, 51,149 of the 84,606 farms in the State are operated by their owners, 33,122 by tenants, and only 335 by managers.
Thousands who were attracted by the success of the bonanza farms and the low railroad rates came west to take up land, and were aided in their preparation by the Emigrant's Guide, published by the Commissioner of Immigration for Dakota Territory in 1870. This contained not only such valuable information as data on the land laws, farming methods, and transportation facilities, but also freight rates and a list of prices of staple commodities to indicate supplies which should be brought from the East and those which could be as cheaply purchased in the new land. Tea was one of the most expensive of pioneer commodities, ranging in price from $1.25 and $2 a pound. Sugar was also high—from 12 to 16 cents a pound. For light, the homesteader had a choice of candles at 25 cents a pound or coal oil at 80 cents a gallon. Furniture, too, could be purchased by those who did not wish to carry it across the prairies from their eastern homes. Extension tables sold for $2 a foot, washstands cost from $4.50 to $10. Ox yokes were $3, a double harness $45. So many homesteading necessities could be purchased at the pioneer settlements that after reading Dakota newspapers of this period a North Carolina editor announced that "the people are fully up to the highest notch of civilization."
As the lands of the Red River Valley and the Drift Plain were occupied, settlers were forced to go farther west into the farming-grazing belt of the Missouri Coteau. Influenced by the fortunes being made in wheat in the eastern part of the State, they too became wheat farmers. But although the soil of the Missouri Coteau is almost as rich as that farther east, it does not have the same advantageous rainfall during the growing season; and while it produced successfully, it did not have the spectacular production of the bonanza farms in the black-earth area.
Today, the farms in this region are somewhat larger than those of the more easterly belt, being from 450 to 600 acres in size, but the relative production is lower. Although grain farming still predominates, ideally the farming-grazing region is, especially in dry years, a livestock section.
To the west of this central region lies the Missouri Slope, which constitutes the grazing-forage belt. Originally the farms here were much smaller than those in other parts of the State—with the repeal in 1891 of tree claim and preemption laws, homesteaders were limited to 160 acres of free land. For a few years the settlers on the Missouri Slope were able to file on desert claims, receiving one section at $1.25 an acre with the understanding that they would improve the land by irrigation; but so many people throughout the arid regions of the United States filed on such claims fraudulently that the act was finally amended to include the requirement that at least $3 an acre must be spent for irrigation.
Despite this land limitation, many new settlers came to western North Dakota during the "back to the land" movement from 1900 to 1910. Besides the farmers who took up free land, there were many school teachers, laborers, and business and professional persons who followed that method, or took a commuted homestead by filing on land, staying there 14 months, and paying the Government $1.25 an acre. In this region, where it is estimated that 30 percent of the land is not suitable for cultivation, it was inevitable that many of these inexperienced persons should settle on worthless property. Experienced ranchers and farmers realized that only large farms could be operated profitably, and purchased homesteads from dissatisfied settlers. In this manner the size of farms increased, until now they run to 800 acres or more.
The most fertile soil of the western region is in the valley of the Missouri. It was here that Verendrye, Lewis and Clark, Catlin, and other early explorers found the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara women carefully cultivating their neat fields of corn, beans, squash, pumpkin, melons, and sunflowers.
Lack of rainfall is the chief drawback to successful agriculture in the grazing-forage belt; but with irrigation, field crops can be raised dependably. The value of irrigation has been demonstrated by the success of the 20,319 acres immediately west of the Yellowstone River in western North Dakota, an area irrigated by the Bureau of Reclamation project of 1906. Similar projects are proposed in the basins of the Knife, Heart, and Grand Rivers.
The grazing-forage belt as a whole, however, is not well suited to agriculture. Texas cattlemen, driving their herds through western Dakota to furnish beef for frontier military posts, saw its true value as a cattle country. The nutritive grasses and natural shelters make this an ideal cattle-raising section.
Among the earliest ranchers were the Deffenbach brothers, who opened a ranch in the extreme southwestern corner of the present State in 1878. Others soon followed, including soldiers who had finished their period of enlistment in the western Army posts and were eager to settle in the new land. Ranching of cattle and sheep became the industry of the western part of the State. As the natural range showed inroads of the new industry, dry-farming was introduced, the chief crops being forage for winter feed.
The land in the three North Dakota farm belts is still used primarily for the purpose for which it was settled. The leading spring wheat State, North Dakota is second only to Kansas in the total wheat production of an average year. Hard spring wheat, particularly marquis and ceres, is an important crop, commanding a premium on the market because of high gluten content. Three-fourths of the Nation's durum, a hardy wheat used in the making of macaroni, is raised here. During the period of 1924-33, North Dakota wheat production averaged 78,737,682 bushels a year. The State leads in rye and flax, and is outranked only by Minnesota in barley production. In production of grain seeds and cereal crops, respectively, the United States Department of Agriculture ranks North Dakota third and seventh.
Like the gold of the wheat, the blue of the flax flower has been part of the North Dakota picture since pioneer days. First planted for an immediate cash income, flax has proved an ideal secondary crop because it extends the seeding and harvesting periods, and since 1900 it has been an established part of the cropping system of the North Central States. One-half of the flax acreage in the United States is planted in North Dakota. As early as 1890, the State produced 458,117 bushels. By 1900, the figure was raised to 13,478,283 bushels, and the 10-year annual average for 1924-33 was 5,081,157 bushels.
Winter rye is extensively planted because of the protection it affords against erosion after a wet autumn. During the five years from 1927 to 1931, an average of 1,196,000 bushels was harvested in North Dakota.
A need for more feed crops for the cattle raised in the State has led to increased production of barley, oats, and emmer, grains which are used locally for feed. About 85 percent of the yield of barley is consumed by hogs and lambs. Barley is also useful as a clean-up crop in the control of annual weeds. The average annual production for 1924-33 was 27,227,284 bushels.
The same desire for an immediate cash crop which was the incentive to raise flax on the pioneer farms was largely responsible for the introduction of potatoes and sugar beets. Potatoes had almost always been raised for local consumption, but no effort was made to produce them in commercial quantities. Then a few enterprising farmers in the Red River Valley planted large acreages, and were successful in marketing the crops outside the State. Because of their high flavor, mealiness, and large uniform size, these northern potatoes command a premium on the market. One warehouse specializes in the shipping of hand-picked, wrapped potatoes, packed like apples or oranges, for sale to railways and other markets demanding fancy-grade potatoes. It is, however, for their seed value that North Dakota potatoes are noted. Their low fiber content makes them ideal seed stock, and under Federal and State supervision they are certified for this purpose. In 1934 North Dakota produced 6,140,254 bushels of seed potatoes. Exports that year totaled 8,390 carloads.
Experimentation showed that the soil which was good for northern potatoes was also excellent for sugar beets. The first crop of beets large enough to be listed in statistics for the State was 24,474 tons, harvested in 1924. By 1929 the tonnage had increased to 59,104. This is one crop which showed an increased production even in the dry year of 1934, when production totaled 82,304 tons, and beets were raised on 13,466 acres on 485 farms. When the industry was first introduced, most of the labor was performed by Mexicans. Under contract to beet farmers, trainloads of these people came north each spring. Not only did they work for very low wages, but they also developed a quality of work rarely equaled by white beet workers. The cultivation and weeding of sugar beets is done almost entirely by hand, a long tedious process in the blazing sun, which the Mexican worker seemed to mind not at all. In the fall, most of them would pack their families into second-hand cars purchased with their summer earnings, and return south. Difficulties of these workers in adjusting themselves to northern modes of living discouraged the use of Mexican labor, however, and today only a few of the larger farms still employ it. Most of the work is now carried on by local labor, often by school children. In driving through the Red River Valley, one can tell the farms on which sugar beets are a crop of many years' standing, for scarcely one of these is without an old tar-paper shack, a cook car remodeled into a house, or some other crude dwelling which was once the home of a family of Mexicans. In otherwise well-kept farmyards, where the buildings are comparatively modern, these laborers' dwellings are very decrepit and out-of-place.
Although not a cash crop like potatoes and beets, corn has become increasingly valuable in North Dakota. This is especially true in the southeastern part of the State, which is the hog-raising area of North Dakota. During the five-year period of 1927-31, the average annual corn production was 20,200,000 bushels. Only in rare instances does North Dakota corn reach the cash markets. It is not husked as in many of the Corn Belt States; instead, the hogs and sometimes the cattle are permitted to feed directly on the stocks in the field. This is known as the "hogging down" method of harvesting corn. About one-half the crop is cut annually for winter fodder.
Other feed crops are also important on the North Dakota farm. Many hay and pasture crops, especially red clover and alfalfa, can be successfully grown in the Red River Valley. In the western sections, alfalfa is raised for seed. Timothy and brome grass are also valuable grass crops in the eastern area.
In 1914 sweet clover was cultivated only on demonstration farms; but by 1929 an average of more than half a million acres was being seeded annually. Each year production of seed increased, reaching a high of 171,600 bushels in 1933. Sweet clover replaces nitrogen and other essential elements in soil which has been badly depleted by overproduction of wheat. One remarkable feature of this crop is its immunity to disease and insect pests.
Sheep are found generally throughout the State, although the northern part of the Red River Valley and the southwestern corner of the Missouri Slope have proved the best sheep-raising land. The animals were brought into the State when ranching first began here, and in 1933 there were 706,000 head of sheep and lambs shipped out of the State and 15,000 slaughtered locally. In 1935 North Dakota ranked twenty-second in the number of sheep on farms and ranges.
A true picture of cattle-raising in North Dakota can scarcely be gained from present conditions. The native grasses of the western part of the State were unable to withstand the heat and insects of recent dry years. As an emergency measure, thousands of cattle were shipped from western ranches to farms in the eastern and central part of the State, and even to other sections of the country where sufficient feed was available to carry them through the winter. The number of cattle and calves was reduced from 1,835,000 in 1934 to 1,157,000 in 1935. The decrease in milk cows, since they are raised in the less arid sections of the State, has been much less than that in beef cattle. In 1934 there were 620,000 milk cows, while in 1935 the number was 596,000—a drop of only 24,000. Thus, despite reverses, North Dakota was able to maintain a position as twenty-first in the Nation in the cattle census of 1935.
Although rarely conducted as an independent enterprise, poultry-raising has had perhaps the greatest increase of any farm industry. Some type of fowl is raised on approximately 89 percent of the farms of the State. In 1929 North Dakota was listed second in the production of turkeys, twenty-fifth in poultry and eggs, thirteenth in ducks, and fourteenth in geese.
Poultry organizations are active in the State. The North Dakota State Poultry Association has held annual shows since 1895, the All-American Turkey Show is held annually in Grand Forks, and there are numerous regional and county organizations. The North Dakota Farmers Union maintains a poultry cooperative at Williston. North Dakota is second only to Texas in supplying turkeys for the Thanksgiving and Christmas tables of the Nation.
The multitudes of wild flowers on the North Dakota prairies are an abundant source of honey; and with this natural incentive to its development, beekeeping has increased rapidly throughout the State. Although it can be successfully conducted in almost every part of the State, the most extensive areas are along the Missouri and in the Red River Valley. The sweet clover bloom is the chief source of honey, and yields abundantly in July and August. The number of bee colonies in the State increased from 32,000 in 1929 to 35,000 in 1932.
All of North Dakota was affected by the prolonged drought in the Great Plains States which began in 1929 and, except for one year, continued through 1936. High winds, intensive cultivation, and low rainfall combined to create the most destructive period of soil erosion known to the State since its earliest settlement. This combination of conditions brought production in all farm products far below normal levels. Even the Red River Valley, though it fared much better than the western part of the State, had subnormal rainfall and was subjected to frequent dust storms. To counteract the menace of drought to the prosperity of a primarily agricultural region, both State and Federal agencies began promotion of conservation in three forms: water, soil, and vegetation. Through the combined efforts of private groups and governmental agencies, ponds, marshes, lakes, and streams are being restored. Some irrigation projects, both private and public, have proved fairly successful in the western counties. The contemplated Missouri River diversion projects, with the Grand, Knife, and Heart sub-projects, would lead to reclamation of a large area of North Dakota. Planting hedges and forests to hold moisture in the soil and to prevent increased erosion constitutes the soil conservation program. To conserve vegetation, a program of dry-farming is recommended, including summer fallowing and the planting of drought-resistant crops.
Various agencies are cooperating in a program to educate farmers in these conservation plans. Extension workers, including county agents and their assistants, are employed by the United States Department of Agriculture to assist farmers. The agricultural college at Fargo, the Northern Great Plains Field Station at Mandan, the State School of Forestry at Bottineau, and experimental stations and farms are constantly conducting soil conservation and moisture control experiments designed to raise North Dakota agriculture to an even higher rank.
FARM LIFE
The fact that eastern and central North Dakota has been settled 25 or 30 years longer than the western part of the State is evident in the appearance of the farms. The average eastern farm home has well-painted and modernized buildings, surrounded by a neat lawn and grove. Electricity is in use on many farms, being supplied from either an individually owned plant or a nearby power line. Telephones, radios, and cars are generally considered necessities. Since the farms are small and close together, and small towns are within a few miles of one another, social contacts are easily maintained. Activities center in the towns, where farm women are members of clubs, lodges, and church societies, and the men of fraternal and civic organizations. Consolidated schools have supplanted many of the one-room buildings, and parent-teacher groups have a prominent social position. Libraries are found in many towns, and are patronized by rural as well as city dwellers.
The farms in central North Dakota are as a rule not as modern as those in the east, but on the whole are well kept. A somewhat different picture, however, is presented by the western farms and ranches. The semiarid climate makes it difficult for even the most ambitious farmer to improve his place with trees, shrubs, grass, and flowers. Moreover, since there were no tree claims in this part of the State, early settlers did not have the incentive to plant groves. Periods of drought have been felt more severely here, and have prevented many farmers from making modern improvements on their buildings. On some farms, the shacks erected to establish residence under the homestead act are still in use. There is, however, one modern convenience found more frequently in western rural homes than in those of the east—the furnace. The chief reason for this is the vast and accessible supply of lignite, a fuel which does not burn readily in stoves.
Since farms in western North Dakota are large, homesteads are necessarily far apart and social contacts cannot be made easily. The majority of homes do not have telephones, because the market is limited to a few patrons and the cost is therefore prohibitive. The longer distances to towns result in lack of interest in urban recreational, social, and church functions.
The one-room school predominates in western North Dakota. Libraries are few, and most of the people fail to take advantage of loaning facilities offered by State libraries.
Farm families in all parts of the State participate in various seasonal activities. During the spring and summer months, school, church, club, and old settlers picnics are scheduled frequently. When harvest season arrives the farmer is exceptionally busy, but always has time to welcome the visitors from town, who come out to watch the threshers and often stay for a cook-car dinner. Later in the fall, especially in the eastern counties, young people participate in strawstack parties. Dances and card parties are held in community halls and barn lofts during the winter.
Winter activities are limited by heavy snowfalls, which often keep communities and farms snow-bound for days. Main-traveled highways are kept open except in unusually bad weather, but side roads are often drifted over for weeks at a time. Then the radio becomes the chief source of entertainment in the farm home; radio reception on the open prairie is exceptionally good. In winter the western farmers have an advantage over those of the east, for they get less snowfall, and chinooks (warm dry winds which descend from the Rocky Mountains) often temper the weather and melt the snow, permitting social life to continue almost uninterrupted.
In every rural community "fair week" is an important date. Farmers take their best cattle, hogs, sheep, and poultry to compete with their neighbors' entries for the prized blue ribbons. Farm women select their finest handiwork, their choicest jars of jellies, jams, and pickles, to enter in competition. Cookies, cakes, and pies are baked both to exhibit and to fill the picnic baskets, for when the family goes to the fair everyone is prepared to spend the day; one or two hurry home in the evening to do the chores, and return in time for the grandstand events at night. Almost every county has its annual fair in June or July, the oldest being the Pembina County Fair, which has been held at Hamilton each year since 1894. Even before this Pembina County Fair, a State fair under State subsidy was being held annually in Grand Forks, where the citizens had donated 80 acres of land for that purpose. When the first State legislature met, it created a department of agriculture, one of the duties of which was to hold an annual agricultural exhibit. Now State help is also received by the fair associations at Fargo and Minot.
Increasingly popular in recent years are the harvest festivals in various towns. These are held in September and October, when the garden products have reached maturity, and therefore often surpass the earlier fairs in the quality of exhibits. The junior chambers of commerce of the State sponsor a Golden Grain Festival which is held the latter part of August, each year in a different city of the State. In September comes the Grand Forks Harvest Festival, and the extension division of the agricultural college sponsors a similar event in Fargo early in October. Bismarck is the scene of the annual Corn Show in October.
Alfalfa Day at Fessenden in March features displays of alfalfa hay and seed, and also includes small grains, corn, and potatoes. The midwinter fair at Park River is sponsored by the Walsh County Agricultural College, and consists of exhibits from farmers throughout the Red River Valley. Other outstanding exhibits include the Barnes County Corn and Lamb Show held in Valley City the fourth week in September, and the Emmons County Breeders Association Stock Show which takes place in Hazelton each June.