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CLAY COUNTY ILLUSTRATED 



Margaret L. Lofgren, Who Won a Trip to Washington for Bread Making 



Since its earliest settlement. Clay 

 County has been known for its large 

 wheat fields. For the past twenty 

 years the potato crop has been in- 

 creasing in importance until at the 

 present time it almost equals the wheat 

 in acreage and exceeds it in number 

 of bushels produced. The improve- 

 ment most needed seemed to be the 

 introduction of diversified farming 

 with more live stock and a regular 

 rotation of crops. The first undertak- 

 ing of the Bureau was, therefore, a 

 campaign to increase the acreage of 

 corn, alfalfa and clover, and the num- 

 ber of silos, realizing that nothing 

 could be gained by increasing the 

 number of live stock until better and 

 more economical methods of feeding 

 were adopted. Another reason for 

 urging clover and alfalfa was to build 

 up the sbil that had been impoverished 

 by continued grain cropping. During 

 1914 the Bureau bought and sold to 

 farmers at cost 160 bushels of alfalfa 

 seed. The seed houses sold about 360 

 bushels during the same season. Prior 

 to the spring of 1914 there were about 

 200 acres of alfalfa in the county; 

 today there are about 7,000 acres. The 

 acreage of clover has been brought up 

 to about 17,000. The corn crop has 

 increased by leaps and bounds. The 



1910 census gives the acreage of the 

 county as 2,000. In 1915 there were 

 about 50,000 acres planted and in spite 

 of very adverse weather conditions, 

 about 800 bushels of good seed was 

 gathered. This seed, because it ripened 

 in such a short season, is worth thou- 

 sands of dollars to the county. A good 

 portion of the corn crop was used for 

 silage in the fall of 1915, the number 

 of silos having increased from 65 in 

 the spring of 1914 to over 300. Clay 

 County corn has received recognition 

 wherever it has been exhibited. In 

 the fall of 1913 a prize was secured 

 in competition with the southern part 



Milo R. G. Skrei's Prize Corn 



