EXPANSION AND DECLINE 213 



December, 1918, at a meeting held in Marshalltown to organize a state 

 federation, seventy counties responded to the invitation. Financial assist- 

 ance from both the federal and state governments, plus the cooperation 

 of Iowa State College, were powerful aids in the organization work. 74 

 Membership in the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation fluctuated; on De- 

 cember i, 1920, the membership was placed at 92,000; on September i, 

 1921, it was given as 124,000; but on September 15, 1921, the member- 

 ship was placed at 60,250, and the number of county farm bureaus at 



ioo. 75 



The North Dakota Farm Bureau Federation was organized in January, 

 1921, when both the Nonpartisan League and agriculture were beginning 

 to flounder in the depths of depression. In 1921 thirty-five counties were 

 reported organized, with a total of 23,679 members; the "paid-up" mem- 

 bership on September 14, 1921, was 7,705. Although the North Dakota 

 Farm Bureau shortly became involved in financial difficulties, it neverthe- 

 less contributed to the confusion of the depressed farmers, who already 

 had faced several years of crop failures, low prices, and a variety of ag- 

 ricultural reforms, plus disillusionment over the accomplishments of the 

 League. Less aggressive, but equally important, was the Wisconsin Farm 

 Bureau, which claimed a membership of 12,548 and a paid-up member- 

 ship of 5,015 in September, 1921. Eighteen county farm bureaus had been 

 organized. Montana had no farm bureau membership on December i, 

 1920, but in September, 1921, a membership of 7,200 was claimed, with 

 thirty counties organized. Minnesota, the state which the League had 

 tried desperately hard to organize, reported a membership of 72,000, of 

 which 39,000 were paid up. Seventy-eight county farm bureaus were or- 

 ganized. The Minnesota Farm Bureau to this day has remained one of the 

 most prominent of the entire movement. A good foothold was also ob- 

 tained temporarily in Nebraska, where a paid-up membership of 19,082 

 was claimed in September, 1921. The South Dakota Farm Bureau was 



gan, A History of the Extension Service of Iowa State College (Ames, Iowa, 1934), 

 pp. 34-40. 



74. C. R. Dudley to D. Davis, February 17, 1938, in the office of the American 

 Farm Bureau Federation, Chicago. 



75. American Farm Bureau Federation, Report of the Executive Secretary to the 

 Third Annual Meeting, Atlanta, Georgia, November 21-23, J 9 2I > P- 2 9 



