The Mellette County pioneer. [volume] (Wood, Mellette County, S.D.) 19??-1971, 1923-11-16
NUMBER AZ.

bushels.
In 1910 she ranked thirteenth with
over 55 million bushels, having passed
Michigan, Wisconsin and PENNSYLVANIA
IN the north and Georgia. Virginia.
Arkansas, North Carolina, Alabama
and Mississippi in the south.
In 1920, with total yield of l05,-
100000 bushels she passed Oklahoma,
Tennessee and Kentucky and took
tenth place and in 1921 she passed
Kansas and took ninth place.
The estimates recently released by
the Department of Agriculture con-
cedc to us almost 1873 million bushels
of corn this year, putting us in eighth
place. The increase in acreage Of
corn TOR the past five years, as shown
by a compilation of the reports OF
the township assessors has been 1876
per cent in the first congressional
district which is the oldest part Of
the state and is the south half of that
part of South Dakota east of the Mis-
souri, river The second congressional
district, roughly in the northeast
quarter of the state, has increased its
acreage of corn 4S.7 per cent and the
new part OF the state lying west Of
the Missouri river has increased it's
acreage 5l.4 per cent in the same time.
The counties along the northern bor-
der of the state though sparsely set
tied west of the James river valley,
raised last year one-twentieth Of
South Dakota S corn crop.
To illustrate the nOrthwestward
movement of the corn belt in another
way, in 1900 Beadle county, the Gen.
ter of the east half Of the state, pro-
duccd 145 600 bushels of corn. Twen-
ty-one years later the government
statistician found that she produced
100000 bushels The counties in
the central and northern parts Of the
state have al increased their corn
production in Il similar proportion.
The rural population of Beadle coun-
ty is only seven persons to the square
mile--iust a fraction more than one
average family-yet her present pro-
duction of corn is more than 1000
bushels per square mile.
There is still plenty of room in
South Dakota for good farmers. BY
a good farmer | mean farmer who
has had a liberal education in barn
chores. The barn is the nucleus, the
focal point, of farm prosperity in
diversified farming. Our state is not
crowded. The oldest and most dense
Iy populated county in the state,
Jnion, has a rural population OF Is to
he square mile. BroOkings county
las 1l.S: Minnehaha, l4.7; Grant, 10;
While as one goes westward there Is
till more room. Hughes county, the
seat of the state capitol and splendid
corn and alfalfa territory, has rural
population at present OF 2.3 to the
quare mile while the counties west
of the Missouri, all containing good
corn and alfalfa territory, average
about two persons.
South Dakota has over thirty mil
lion acres of good arabic land that has
never felt plow share. 1t is no Won
der that land is cheap where there are
not people enough to make profit
able use Of it.
The new country west Of the Mis-
souri, has produced this year consid-
,rably more than twenty million bush
lis Of splendid corn and probably twice
rs much as the whole state produced
thirty years ago. The state acreage
# corn is now about four million
iowa S is about ten million. 1t is not
90 much to say that eventually the
corn acreage OF South Dakota will be
fifteen millions, and when that time
comes she will produce more corn
han any other state in the Union.
Corn is King but alfalfa is Queen,
md its production is increasing in the
tate very rapidly. In 1900, when al
ialfa was first discovered by the Gen.
,us enumerator, we had an area, all
old, equal to about half township.
in 1910 we had fields equivalent to
,hrcc townships, over two-thirds of it
vest of the Missouri.
The acreage reported in 1923 was
j63,9H or about pine times as great
it was in 1910. The South Dakota
lfalfa seed, produced mainly in the
area west OF the Missouri river, is
loted all over the United States for
is yigcr and hardness, and it gives
Is producer large returns, sometimes :
syer $lG0 per acre OIL land costing
from $40 to $25 per acre.
The dairy industry has attracted a
rood deal of attention everywhere I'M