CLAY COUNTY ILLUSTRATED 



49 



Loading in Potatoes at the Big Cellar on the E. D. Grant Farm 



tion plan, for his rule for the past 

 ten years has been to make two cut- 

 tings on 240 acres. Corn is another 

 spoke in the crop rotation wheel and 

 the illustrations show the silo Mr. 

 Grant built this year. He believes that 

 alfalfa hay and silage are the best 

 and cheapest feed for cattle and his 

 stock consume vast quantities of for- 

 age. There were 103 head of full 

 blood and grade shorthorns on the 

 farm when this article was written, 49 

 head of Percheron horses and a fine 

 bunch of hogs — Yorkshire sows crossed 

 with Berkshire boars. The practice on 

 the Grant farm is to turn the calves 

 only enough milk being saved for use 

 and cows out together twice a day — 

 on the farm. The calves are given 

 all they will eat and each year about 

 fifty of them are sold, when eighteen 

 months old, for baby beef when they 

 command the top price in the market. 



Practically all of the grain sold from 

 the farm is used for seed. It is thor- 

 oughly cleaned in the elevator, which 

 is equipped with the best of machinery 

 for the purpose. The screenings go 

 into the feed bin and everything is 

 ground — no whole grain being fed on 

 the Grant farm. 



The potato industry, however, is the 

 feature of Mr. Grant's business. In 

 1911 he raised over 40.000 bushels of 

 Early Ohios and Triumphs. For the 

 past eight years he has also handled 

 potatoes for other growers — one year 

 shipping a total of 203 carloads, mak- 



ing about 122,000 bushels. The root 

 cellar on the home farm has a capacity 

 of 12,000 bushels ; but the bulk of the 

 crop is hauled from the field to the 

 cellar and warehouse at Watts, one 

 and one-half miles distant. Both of 

 the cellars are equipped with elevators 

 and other appliances for the economi- 

 cal handling of potatoes. 



The buildings on the Grant farm 

 constitute a small village with nothing 

 lacking, even the ring of the anvil 

 in the village smithy. 



Mr. Grant was one of the organizers 

 of the Clay County Potato Growers' 

 Association and has been its only sec- 

 retary. 



Ludvig Walker is one of the old set- 

 tlers of Kurtz township. In 1878 Mr. 

 Walker came up from Wisconsin, 

 where he had been engaged on rail- 

 road and other contract work, and 

 bought land along the Red River 

 where his farm is still located. That 

 fall he broke up part of the land so 

 it would be ready for seeding in the 

 spring. Early in 1879 he came to lo- 

 cate, and brought along several head 

 of horses and a supply of feed. He 

 bought machinery in Moorhead, put in 

 his crop and began the erection of his 

 first set of buildings. Mr. Walker now 

 owns a section of fine land in Kurtz 

 township. There are 240 acres in the 

 home farm, and two other tracts, one 

 of 240 acres and the other 160 acres. 

 The usual acreage of potatoes on the 



