The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1910-07-20
Banker Of Northwest Describes
the Crop and Banking Conditions

other thing you must not forget, and
that is, that crop conditions at this
time of the year are always over esti-
mated, either for good or bad A big,
heavy stand of grain rarely yields as
much as is expected; whereas a dry
year like this one nearly always pro-
duces a better yield and a higher
grade than appearance would indi-
cate.
Fewer Autos Will Be Bought.
Furthermore, the half of the crop
which we won't get this year is the
half that would be spent for things
which we do not need. Some farmers
won't buy automobiles, others will fix
UP the old binders and separators and
be surprised to find how well they
work. There won't be as many build
ings built, nor as many pleasure trips
taken, nor as much Canadian land or
timber or mining stock sold in North
Dakota; bQt the half crop which we
get will stay at home. We won't
raise as much oats and hay as usual
but neither will burning straw stacks
light the way across the state We will
feed up the straw instead of burning
it, and find it makes pretty good feed
at that.
"One very fortunate feature about
the present condition is the fact that
our crop was injured in June instead
of late in the season. If we had the
crop prospects in June this year that
we had last year, the 1910 crop would
have been spent by this time. Farmers
would have bought many things that
they won't buy now, and the banks
would have been loaded with their pa.
per. Then If the crop had been hit
in August, it would have been too late
to recuDerate.
Chea? Crop to Harvest.
Another good feature is the fact
that this years crop will be q cheap
one to harvest and the price undoubt-
eddy will be good so that in many
cases the net results will be fully up
to the average.
There are some fine stands Of grain
in this state today right alongside of
fields that it won't pay to cut The
contrast is so marked and the reason
so evident it is the difference be-
tween good and bad farming. Nine
teen hundred and ten will teach people
a valuable lesson in farming which
they will heed. Some people will only
learn by adversely, you know, and if
a, partial crop failure will teach the
people Of North Dakota to cultivate
their land intelligently, to take the
most instead of the least out of it, to
farm with their heads instead of their
hands, and to practice economy and
frugality, and use ordinary horse sense
with their money when they do get a
good crop, then I am of the opinion
that in the long run the short crop
will be blessing to the state.
Business Will Be Benefited.
TT is time we back pedal a little
and North Dakota is not the only place
to which this applies. If we had a
few more big crops, we would have
had to enlarge the insane asylums to
take care of the fools that too much
prosperity always engenders. The
much talked Of automobiles would
have been standing out in the fields
along with the binders and threshing
machines, and the honest husbandmen
would have been travelling in flying
| machines Now l think they will stay
on the ground for a while, which will
be good thing for them, and for the
country at large; and incidentally
there will be a lot of cleaner banks
around the state than there would
have been and everybody will be better
off and business, will come down to a
legitimate basis"