Grand Forks daily herald. (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1914-1916, 1914-09-12
In Opportunities
Circle
(By John A. Monger.)

1t is the purpose of this article to
unfold the amazing growth in city
building and farm home-making in
the fertile Mouse River Loop country
tributary to Towner, McHenry county,
North Dakota, that has made such
progress under the new propaganda
of Better Farming since 1910, a state
wide filing up in farm lands best, that
many predict will give North Dakota
a million population in 1920 when the
next United States census is taken.
h marvellous increase in population
and wealth is the outgrowth of diver
sified farming, wheat growing being
side-stepped. not that No. l northern
will not always be a staple and money
making crop. but that crop rotation
will take the place of robbing the soil
of its wonderful fertility. TRIPPING its
earning capacity in crop yields, be-
sides building up the soil, making
North Dakota's vast domain Of 70,176
square miles h premier agricultural
zone of the Central Northwest FOR di-
versi1ed farming, cereal crops, corn,
alfalfa. tame grasses. small fruits.
root crops, hogs, dairying n stock
raising, all of which spells Better
Farming, smaller farms and larger
cities and towns. This is the new dis
pensation that has taken such deep
root, bringing new prosperity to ev-
cry tiller of the soil that has adopted
it. The day of eight to ten hushel
of wheat to the acre in North Dakota
is all but a closed chapter. 1t will
prove, however, the brightest chapter
in the history of soil cultivation in the
next few years, when wheat as the one
crop has been abandoned for DIVERSE
fed farming, the real money-making
crops. The legacy Of wheat growing
has been handed down to the North
Dakota tillers of the soil from their
brothers in New England. the Ohio
and Mississippi Valleys, in truth, all
new agricultural ones went wheat
crazy. Until the soil refused to give
profitable yield. and North Dakota has
farmer cropped nothing but wheat his
bank account was on the wrong side
of the ledger and his farm was priced
at from $40 to $50 per acre, hut when
he adopted diversified farming, cereal
crops, corn timothy and clover, hogs.
dairying. n stock raising, poultry
and root crops. his bank account
jumped into the thousands and his
farm lands increased from $3.50 to
$3.50 an acre. just rs that of North
Dakota. will in the coming few years.
Fertility of oil does not of necessity
make for success in agricultural pur-
suits in the Mouse River Loop country.
any more than in the Mississippi val
ley. 1t all depends upon the scientific
cultivation of the soil, how the crops
are marketed, not markets, as North
Dakota mas the same facilities open
to the tillers of the soil as those of
Iowa or Minnesota in railroads and
primary markets for everything grown
or produced on the farm. All of these
statistical facts. will be faithfully COW
cred under appropriate headings, that
the farm homeseekers may know the
real conditions as they actually exist.
This is not a boast article, but a treat
Use on fertility of soil, prosperous
farmer home-makers of the Mouse
River Loop country and what the city
of Towner has to offer as a place to
live n do business in. the trading
metropolis n county seat of Nc
Henry, the educational and church
center. in the good road section of
farm lands best.