The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1906-12-14

shutdown, the later arrivals are doing
their work with gang plows, twenty
foot harrows and sixteen-foot drills,
drawn by several head of horses or the
traction engine, and when the engine
Is used from six to ten burrows are,
turned at time, and frequently the
seed is sown at the same time by at
taching disc drill to Immediately
follow the plows. The traction engine
Is used in turning the land as we'll as.
the prairie sod, and now every year
thousands OF acres are plowed in this
way
Like all other new countries, the
great crop for the first year is fax.
and in raising fax Pierce county has
made itself famous, and especially in
the year 1901 did 1t receive hand
some yield, many of the fields making
an average of from twenty to thirty
bushels per acre. The average yield
per acre for fax in this county has
been close to twelve bushels, but now
that the land is getting older it may
not be as large, for it is a scientific
fact that no land will produce fax year
after year and keep up the average
yield made while the soil was new.
The great staple crop of Pierce
county is wheat, and its soil will
produce good yield year after year
with no intermission. In conversation
with farmers who have kept records
it can be stated positively that in TAX
ing three five-year records the yield
of wheat per acre has been seventeen.
and eighteen bushels, which must be
considered that for several years this
vicinity was placed in the especially
productive area, and of which 1t
has been said that it was fit for moth
ing but buffaloes and Indians and their
mode of life. Pierce county soil will
produce all kinds of crops which are
grown in the northern region, and in
yield and grade there is nothing lack
ing. Within the last three years the
farmers have become interested in
macaroni wheat which is proving itself
especially we'll adapted to this country,
and when grown by the side Of other
varieties of wheat, in dry years, will
yield from three to ten bushels more
per acre, and in years when there is
plenty moisture it sustains it's
record of being greater yielier than
either fife or bluestem, and is not
affected by either red or black rust.
For these reasons it is becoming very
popular, and a larger acreage has been
sown this year than ever before.
Garden vegetables grown exception
ally we'll, and it is not unusual to har-
vest several hundreds of bushels of
potatoes or onions from single acre.,
In the spring of 1892 the sheep in
dustry sprang up in this country
and rapidly grew to considerable pro-
portions, and was promising big re-
turns when the era of Democratic
prosperity" of 1904 knocked the bot.
tom out of the wool market and Incl
dentally dealt death blow to the in
FAINT industry, and sheep could be pur-
chased for about thirty cents per head.
The winter of 1878 was great
contrast when compared with the pre-
ceding one, and the weather was SO
warm that business men were stand
ing in their shirt sleeves in front of
their stores on January s. The first
snow of the winter to speak of fell in
February.
The German settlement in the west
ern part of this county south of
Berwick located in 1899 and 1900, and
when they arrived many of them had
scarcely enough money to carry them
until the crop could be raised, but the
condition is entirely changed now, and
there is not a more prosperous locality
in the county.
The year 1901 closed with the yield
of the largest flax crop in the history
of the county, mention of which has
been made, and the era of prosperity
which followed during the fall and
winter continued during the year 1902,
and for rapid development in the his
tory of Rugby and Pierce counties
that year has no equal.