Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1902-10-31
FARMING ON SLOPE.
Reports of the First Farming Oper-
ations on the Missouri Slope
in Early Seventies.
Robert McNider Tells Of Breaking Of
Land on the Stark Farm
in 1877.

Some early farming experiences On
the Missouri slope are told by Robert
Macnider in the current issue Of the
North Dakota Record, in a article in
which he says:
In the early summer of the year
1877, Mr.. George Stark, ait that time
vice president of the Northern Pacific
Railroad, made trip of inspection
over the Dakota division to the ter
minus of the line at Bismarck. at
which time I met him, and, in CONVEX
sation, he inquired as to what I thought
of the agricultural possibilities Of the
Missouri slope country. There were
no lands broken for farms west of Cas-
selton at that time. A garden patch
at Valley City, another at Jamestown,
a few acres planted to corr and pota-
toes in and around Bismarck, was all
we had to go by to furnish an opinion.
I had met General Hazfn, who was in
command of the troops at Fort Buford.
He was very staunch and outspoken
in his opinion that the country was
unfit for settlement. and should be
given up to the Indians and the buff
falo. To be frank, my impression of
the country at that time for a farming
country was not favorable, still I was
satisfied the soil was good and produce
tive, and if the climatic conditions
would permit, the Missouri valley
would be- settled, and would furnish
homes to thousands of happy families.
My prediction at that date have been
more than fulfilled. Lands that
twenty years ago were considered not
worth the taxes are today being
snapped up at from IS to SIS an acre
by a good class of farmers, who know
their business, are prosperous, and
have come to stay. To test the value
of the land, I proposed to Mr.. Stark
that he break UP a half section of lana,
which he owned south of the town on
Apple creek, I agreeing to take charge
of and work it for a term of years. He
accepted my offer, and in the month
of June sent a breaking outfit from
Minnesota belonging to the late Hon.
Thomas H. Garfield, who was at that
time doing some farming in the Lake
Park region, and broke up 300 acres.
The following spring I sowed the
whole piece to oats, and, as luck hap
pened, we got five inches of rain dur
ing the month of April, which gave
them a great start and at harvest time
I cut as nice a field of oats as T ever
saw in the states of Wisconsin or Min
nesota and threshed ffty-one bushels
by weight to the acre The following
year, 1879, I sowed the same piece to
wheat, and one hundred acres Of new
breaking to oats. The wheat yielded
twenty-one bushels to the acre. and
the oats forty bushels. 80.
This was the first farming done in
the county of Burleigh, and, as 1t
proved successful, was a strong magnet
in the future settlement of the Mis-
souri, slope. After four years. time
Mr.. Stark sold this section, and it
passed into the hands of some Chicago
parties, renting it from year to year to
tenants, who did not take the best of
care of it, but took all they could get
out of the land.
I saw this farm last week, after
twenty-four years of continuous. CROP
ping. It vas sown to wheat and corn,
one hundred acres of corn promising to
yield forty or fifty bushels of ears to
had been headed, was in stacks, the
tenant expecting to thresh sixteen or
eighteen bushels to the acre. The
stubble eighteen inches in height was
as strong and thick on the ground as
it was the first year I cropped it.
Col. Lounsberry adds his recollec-
lions to the article and says:
Hunter Collins broke two acres in
Burleigh county in 1872. Dutch Mike
also broke about two acres at that
time. The editor of the Record broke
five acres in 1873. Oscar Ward also
broke a few acres about that time.
Harry Carhoof and w. 3. Cahall were
also among the early farmers and John
w. Mitchell, too, but there was no farm
opened prior to the one of which MI.
Macnider speaks. About 1882 there
was five acres of oats on the Stark
farm, on what has been used for a COW
corrall, and, Of course, RAJ richly man
ured. The grain stood upwards Of
five feet high and yielded 100 bushels
to the acre. John H. Richards had
100 bushels Of oats to the ere that
year on his Homestead claim near Bis
marck, and the Record editor had 80
bushels of wheat per we're weighing