Charlevoix county herald., 1917-10-12
$4,000 ACRE FARM
TO Be SLICED Up
HEIRS WILL DIVIDE BIG NORTH
DAKOTA TRACT
New Holdings, Large In Area BY
Eastern Standards, Will Be
Laid Out Next Year.


Dalrymple farm in Trail and Cass
counties. North Dakota, said to be
the largest In the world and known
wherever agriculture on a mammoth
scale is talked of, is to disappear.
That which remains OF the great hold
ings of Oliver Dalrymple, in his day
the greatest farmer in the world, COM
prises $4,000 acres. 1t is to be cut in
to about 100 small farms of $50 to 800
acres.
New holdings, generous enough In
area as farms are measured in the
East, but tiny in comparison with the
parent farm, will be laid out.
There Will be farmhouses and farm
buildings in every direction. as the
new small farms are taken up, where
now, in winter time, there is vast
unbroken tract that to the traveller by
rail or along country road suggests an
uninhabited country.
Casselton. Valley City. Fargo and
other prosperous North Dakota towns
will be glad to see the big farm brok-
en- up. Time was when these bonanza
farms were a great asset and the pub
licity that their successful operation
gave TO the Northwest at time when
many people supposed grain could not
probably be raised that far north,
was worth millions. But economically
North Dakota has changed.
Oliver Dalrymple. who was
Scotchman and a skilled farmer. ope-
rated a 3.000-acre farm south OF ST.
Paul prior to 1875. That made him
an agriculturist of some note even
then. In 1875 Oliver Dalrymple and
his brother. William f. Dalrymple. be-
came interested in North Dakota
land. They were convinced that it
would raise good crops.
The Dalrymples interested L. B., w.
J. and ]. L. Grandin, three brothers of
Tidioute, Pa, also two Eastern capt.
talists named Cass and Cheney. In
all $4,000 acres OF land were bought.
in period OF tight money. was i5su-
in period Of tight money, was issl.
ing land script with stock and the
land was acquired in this way in part
and partly by direct purchase.
There was made from the $4,000.
acre holding number of farms that
were of such size that each was re.
markable in itself. But the Dalrymple
farm was the largest Of any and after
breaking 10000 acres in 1876, Mr.
Dalrymple continued extending until
at one time he had in excess of $4,000
acres under cultivation.
visitors from every part of the
United States and many from abroad
came to the farm, at harvest time, to
see the wheat. Writers for Eastern
publications came to view and de-
scribe the farm. Many columns were
written in magazine and Eastern peri
odicals of the scale on which opera
tons were conducted. The romance
of the bonanza farmer was written
and rewritten.
For twenty-five consecutive years
nothing but wheat was raised on the
Dalrymple farm. But for some years
past crop rotation has been followed
and the farm has produced vast guam.
titles Of fax, barley. rye, oats, mile,
and other crops in the process Of rest
ing and restoring the soil and every
year a portion has been laid in sum
mer fallow.
Oliver Dalrymple, his name known
IN England. France and Germany
himself st. Paul resident in the win
ter time and practical farmer on the
land in spring, summer and harvest
time, died in 1908. There was some
cutting of Of parcels Of land before
and after his death, but even aftel
that had been done his two sons, Will
lam Dalrymple and J. S. Dalrymple O
Minneapolis, came into possession o.
! nearly $4,000 acres. Part or this Is il
Trail, but the major portion lies II
Cass County.
my brother and / have decided Il
give up operating the farm and divide
II into small FARMS" William Dairy
mple says. at Is better, we think
that this be done. for many reasons
And we think II better for Nortl
Dakota.
when my father went into wha
then was Dakota Territory. few peopl
believed that grain could profitably b.
grown so far North and there was
very crude conception of what tn
country that we now speak OF as tn
Northwest really was. II was the BIZ
farmer. doing things In big way, tina
woke up the world to what the posi-
bilities were. AS a means OF pub'iclt
for the Northwest, IL for nothing else
the big farms were great assets.
"But economic conditions in Mort
Dakota have changed. The State
rich and prosperous. methods Of agr
cultural operation have changed
every thing is different. II will be BET
ter for the State. for the towns an
cities OF the State and for all tn
people. Interested in the development
OF the State to have a great man
small farms in the place Of the on
big farm"
Man Rolls 2. 600. 600 Stooies.