The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1914-03-17
Dakota Has
Developed Remarkably
as a Dairy State

W. P. Kirwood in Minneapolis Jour-
nal:
North Dakota in 1913 had eighty
ed about 4,250,0OO pounds of butter.
Minnesota centralizing plants made an
equal amount of butter from fat re-
ceived from North Dakota COWS. Some
800 cream stations are maintained in
North Dakota by such plants, and, in
addition to the cream handled through
these, a great deal is forwarded by
direct shipment. According to the
states statistician, in 1912 North Da-
kota had 1S1. $50 cows used for milk
ing, and in 1913 the number was 190,-
S24. Federal estimates give much
larger totals, but these are convincing
enough. North Dakota, as well as
Minnesota, is a bread and butter state,
and Is going to spread the butter on
thicker in the near future. 1t takas
no inspired vision to foresee this.
Who Started 1t.
And the leaven of this North Dakota
movement--away, from farming as a
summer occupation to farming as an
all-the-year-'round business, for the
latter is what dairying means--camc,
in part at least, from a little company
of ~tailors. shoemakers, and small
tradesmen, with a slight s]prinkling Of
farmers, which ventured into the west
of-the-Missouri country back in the
early sos. These men began dairying
in a pinch, as a means Of self-preser-
walton. They simply had to. And yet
today those of them who are left, and
their children, with the children OF
those who nave gone, constitute a rich
community, from which, in larger
state, is spreading the gospel of the
COW as a creator Of permanent pros
perity.
Colony Organized I'm Chicago.
Back in 1882, Rev. John King and
several associates in a German Evan
gelical church on Twenty-fourth street,
near Wentworth, Chicago's south side,
conceived the plan of organizing a
colony to take UP homestead lands i'll
the northwest. The idea grew. An OF
of a family contributed $40 to send out
an exploring party which should mako
selection of a location, This committee
reported in avo of lands lying aroun
New Salem, then a mere wayside sta
ton, some thirty miles west Of Man
dan, N. D., on a watershed between the
Missouri and the Heart rivers.
The morning of April 8, 1883. tho
chattels, left Chicago by freight train.
They arrived at Blue Grass, some three
miles west Of New Salem, the evening
of April 6, So eager were some of the
that same evening they tramped back
to New Salem. 1t is reported that dis
appointment fell upon several, and that
the next DAY these maze. Lnelf way
back to Mandan. The majority remain
ed, however. They could do nothing
else. They were at the end of their
resources, or SO nearly there that to go
elsewhere would leave them with moth
ing at all to make a beginning.
The following day the railroad COM
pany sent a construction crew down
from Mandan, put in a sidetrack at
New Salem, shifted the new settlers
cars to this and left them there for
temporary ~habitations, until -shacks
could be built on the homestead acres.
Beginnings Were Difficult.
scantily equipped we're the members :
of them. There was but one team of
horses owned in the whole colony.
Oxen had to be bought to- make a be-
ginning. The land was virgin n had
to be broken. Because of q lack of
draft animals, the blowing done was
scant in quantity and indifferent in
quality. Oats. barley, wheat, max and
potatoes were planted, The returns
the next, things went about as they
did the first year. But then came a
series of dry years. and the little col
ony had a hard fight. Prices for such
supplies as had to be bought went up,
and there was less money with which
to buy. Temporarily many OF the
homesteaders had to seek employment
elsewhere.
The Cow to the Rescue.
There was one member OF the farm
institution, however, that was always
on the Job, and that was the COW. The
COW ranged the rolling prair1es, living
on native grasses. and came home In
the evenings bringing milk. This was
in part manufactured into butter.