The weekly times-record. (Valley City, N.D.) 1912-1922, 1915-11-18
Corn Was Raised
IN North Dakota
4 ~
G tj&.". Qnf1lY1Qc A00

in North Dakota for more than 300
years. Earliest explorers of the re.
gion now occupied by the Flicker
tail state tell of the vast fields of
maize cultivated by the Arickarees,
Mandans and Hidatsas, occupying
the Missouri valley. Although their
agricultural implments were of the
crudest type, these early agrono-
mists, thanks to a soil and climate
naturally adapted to the production
Of corn, reaped large harvests, and
LaVerenrdie, who visited them in
1888, and Lewis and Clark, who
spent the winter of 1804-5 with these
tribes, found them in possession of
large, well-stored hordes of grain.
In fact, had it not been for their
ability to purchase good supplies of
corn from the friendly red men of
the Missouri slope, Lewis and Clark
would have been unable to continue
to the northwest their expedition
which gave to the United States a
great empire by right Of discovery.
Until quite recently, corn was
not raised extensively by the modern
North Dakota farmer.
In 1910 but 100000 bushels of corn
were grown in North Dakota. In 1911
the total leaped to 7,250,000 bushels;
in 1912 a gain of an additional million
was made. In 1913 an aggregate pro-
duction of 10,800,000 bushels was
reached, and in 1914 the total, as re-
ported by the state commissioner of
agriculture and labor, was 16,980,040
bushels. ~ -
In 1912 the North Dakota Better
Farming association inaugurated it's
first acre-yield corn contest for boys
from ten to 10 years. The first prize
was won by Ransom county boy
with production Of II bushels to the
acre; second honors went to the west
ern part of the state, with a yield Of
IS bushels. All prize-winners aver.
aged 81 bushels. ~
In 1913 the state was divided into
northern and southern districts, and
in the southern district the first
prize was won by total production
of 106 bushels to the acre, while in
the northern half the winner produc-
ed 96.2 bushels. In 1914 the two
prize-winning yields were 9S.S bushels
in the southern and 1854 in the north
ern half. Sixteen prize-winners in the
southern half averaged 70.6 bushels,
and Is in the northern half 62.3 bush.
els.
In 1913 4,142 acres Of corn were
planted and cultivated by various
farmers scattered throughout the
state, under the direction of the Bet
ter Farming association, and these
averaged 1916 bushels to the acre.
The average yield for the state in
1913 was 20 bushels; for 1914, 20
bushels. Illinois in 1913 averaged ~
bushels, and the average for the
United States at large was 23-1 bush
els.
That North Dakota is a corn state
cannot be denied. Corn was native
to this region, long before the COM
ing Of the white man With the
crudest cultivation it responded read
lily. North Dakota is destined to be-
come one Of the very greatest corn
states in the union. Already it has sur
passed Illinois in average yield per
acre, raising more corn on 100000
land than Illinois can raise on 100000
soil, and it is running Iowa very close.
During the current year, when the
corn crop in many sections of Iowa,
Illinois and other states Of the social
ed "corn-belt" was an almost complete
failure. North Dakota harvested ex- !,
cellent yields Of fully matured grain.
North Dakota farmers have wisely