1094 



NORTH CAROLINA 



NORTH DAKOTA 



of New York and other northern cities will come here 

 to make their contracts instead of going to France, 

 Italy and Holland. Already some Holland growers are 

 talking of coming to spy out the land, and the great 

 development of the future in North Carolina will evi- 

 dently be, so far as horticulture is concerned, in bulb 

 <'"lt"''<'- W. F. Massey. 



NORTH DAKOTA (Fig. 1494) lies between lat. 4C° 

 and 4!)° N. and long. 96° 25' and 104° W. The special ad- 

 vantages of soil and climate for the production of grass 

 and the small grains have given the .state great agricul- 

 tural prominence, but little has been done along horti- 

 cultural lines. While it possesses undoubted possi- 

 bilities along certain lines of fruit production, and in 

 the growing of certain vegetables can hardly be excelled, 

 yet these things have always been considered incidental 

 and not to be classed with the leading soil industries. 

 North Dakota settlers, for the most part, did not come 

 from fruit regions, and in no case have they occupied 

 the land with other intention than to raise stock and 

 grain. At the same time, as population increases and 

 homes become established, there is the natural ten- 

 dency to protect these homes with trees, ornament them 

 with shrubs and flowers, and furnish the tables with 

 vegetables and fruit. Such is the present incentive to 

 activity in horticulture, and its future status will be 

 controlled by the following natural conditions: 



Phiisiral and Geologic. I'eafures. — Its distinctive re- 

 gions are referred to as the Red river valley, the Tur- 

 tle mountain country, the Devil's Lake region, the 

 Mouse river country, the James river valley, the Mis- 

 souri slope and the western range country, including the 

 Bad Lands. The Red river valley is a level plain from 

 20 to 30 miles wide on the North Dakota side and ex- 

 tending across the state north and south, thus embrac- 

 ing an uninterrupted area of some 6,000 sq. miles, all 

 level and of great fertility. This is preeminently the 

 wheat belt of the state, and the character of the soil is 

 such in both physical and chemical properties as to in- 

 sure an excellent growth of such plants as are hardy 

 and will mature within the season. The soil is a lacus- 

 trine deposit containing about 33 per cent of very fine 

 sand, 55 per cent clay and silt, and 12 per cent organic 

 matter and soluble salts. It is so rich in nitrogen and 

 phosphoric acid as to be quite indifferent to fertilizers, 

 even when applied to such garden vegetables as demand 

 the most fertile soils. It rarely bakes under reasonable 

 cultivation, is never lumpy and is very retentive of mois- 

 ture. It is unusually well adapted to the cultivation of 

 practically all vegetables, particularly celery and other 

 plants requiring a deep, fine, easily worked soil. 



This general type of soil is not confined to the Red 

 river valley, but is the predominating surface soil for 

 most of the state lying east of meridian 101 and of 

 consi<lerable tracts still further west. The subsoil in the 

 Red river valley lying under three or four feet of very 

 dark loam is uniformly a soft yellowish clay extending 

 to a great depth. Much of the subsoil outside of the 

 valley is largely made up of firmly compacted sand, 

 with a wraall percentage of clay. Such lands are not so 

 good as those having the clay subsoil, but with the good 

 surface soil which they support they are capable of pro- 

 ducing large yields in seasons not too dry. They are 

 naturally not so well adapted to horticultural operations 

 as are the lands having the clay subsoil. 



Speaking in general, the soil lying west of the 100th 

 parallel, also that of the Mis.souri slope. Turtle moun- 

 tain and Mouse river countries is all well suited to vege- 

 taljle and fruit culture, though partial failure may re- 

 sult from short seasons. This is especially true upon 

 the level, rich soil of the Red river valley, which tends 

 to prolong the growth of such plants as the grape and 

 apple beyond the season in which they should mature, 

 the more rolling surface of the land along the Missouri 

 river affords opportunity to srlo.-t f.-ivoralilf sites for 

 fruit plantations, and then- is .l,iiiliil,<s sutm- advantage 

 in the soil itself. This is mi,|.:.i-, .,t It, ilir . nitivation of 

 the gr.ape, or such vegetable s ms tlir tcunato, squash and 

 melon. So far attempts to grow fruit on the lighter and 

 mnre rolling soils, avoiding the extremes, has met with 

 reasonable success. On the heavier soils and level 

 lands success has been confined to the cultivation of 



such small fruits as the currant, gooseberry, raspberry 

 and American plum and vegetables maturing not later 

 than the earliest sorts of tomato or second early sweet 

 corn. In connection with the fact that attempts at 

 apple culture have generally been unsuccessful, it 

 should be remembered that plants, as a rule, cannot 

 make long jumps. The line of apple culture is gradu- 

 ally moving northwest, the successful varieties being 

 those, like the Wealthy and Peerless, that have origi- 

 nated in the newer places. A region so far removed 

 from the apple districts as North Dakota is must have 

 the time and opportunity required to develop varieties 

 of its own. 



Climate and Sainfall.— Renio-ved from all influence 

 of large bodies of water. North Dakota has a dry climate 

 subject to considerable extremes of temperature. The 

 mean annual rainfall at Fargo for the years 1892 to 1899, 

 inclusive, was 19.87 in., distributed by seasons as follows : 

 Spring, 5.49 in.; summer, 10.02 in. ; fall, 3.61 in. ; winter, 

 .51 in. Most of the precipitation is in spring and sum- 

 mer, when it is m<ist needed. The average rainfall for 

 June is 4.17 in. Tlif fact that the great majority of agri- 

 cultural lands in tlie state are absolutely flat, as near as 

 land may be, and conipcised uf a soil very retentive of 

 moisture, makes what w'ould otherwise be a light rainfall 

 generally sufficient for ordinary needs. Further west 

 than Fargo the rainfall gradually becomes less. For the 

 twenty years between 1870 and 1890 the annual rainfall 

 of the places named below was as follows: Bismarck, 

 18.90 in.; Fort Buford, 13.29 in. ; Port Totten, 17.78 in.; 

 Pembina, 20.30 in. 



The temperature is very uniform throughout the state, 

 with the general difference that the range country in the 

 western part has milder and more open winters, and the 

 higher altitude, as well as latitxide, of the northern tier 

 of counties gives them a shorter and cooler summer, 

 more inclined to frosts. It is only in that section that 

 corn has not been considered, so far, as a possible crop. 



At Fargo the mean temperature for the different 

 months since 1892 is as follows : 



The following table of soil temperatures, comparing 

 Fargo with Geneva, N. Y., is instructive and shows why, 

 with the longer hours of daylight, vegetation develops 

 rather more rapidly in North Dakota than in New York: 



e.'.i 



67.3 



1806 

 June — F.irgo . 



Geneva 

 July — Fargo . 



Geneva 76.6 



Aug. — Fargo 76.5 



Geneva 73.2 



Sept.— Fargo 60.1 



Geneva 64 



Sin. 

 62.2 



70.8 

 56.1 

 63.1 



59.6 

 65.5 

 61.8 



58.6 



The amount of soil moi-sture given in the following 

 table, covering the years from 1892 to 1896, inclusive, 

 shows that the comparatively high soil temperature is not 

 due to extreme dryness. The samples were taken tach 

 week to a depth of 7 in. from a cultivated field in which 

 wheat was grown a greater part of the time : 



Average for five years 

 May 29. nc per cent 



July 21.48 



Aug 20.19 



Sept 20.10 



Oct 19.78 



As the water capacity is about 70 per cent and the land 

 level, there is practically no loss from leaching or drain- 

 age. While these tables represent tests in a single lo- 

 cality, yet they would apply with exactness to 6,000 square 

 miles and approximately to some 4,000 more. 



Soil Fertilitij.— Samples of soil taken from different 

 parts of the state from time to time and analyzed by 

 Prof. E. F. Ladd. of the experiment station at Fargo, 

 show that the nitrogen rarely falls below .2 per cent and 

 in most instances reaches from .3 to .5 per cent, with 

 an occasional sample yielding .7 per cent. The potash 

 ranges from .25 to 1 per cent, the average sample giving 

 about .5 per cent. The phosphates range from .15 to .25 



