732 SHEEP INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES 



annual report of the commissioner of agriculture, made last year, in 

 his analysis of the crops of the State, he says : 



The main crop everywhere is -wheat, though there is a growing inclination to 

 raise other crops. A large increase in the acreage of flax is noted in several counties, 

 but unfortunately the flax crop is unusually poor this year. Corn, and especially 

 millet and Hungarian, are materially increasing and are usually reported as profit- 

 able crops. Barley shows a marked increase over last year in some of the counties^ 

 though this is more than offset by a decrease in others. Beans and pease are grown 

 to an increasing extent, but are not raised in sufficient quantities to render them of 

 much importance as a crop. The total acreage in several counties shows a decrease, 

 especially in wheat, which is usually attributable in the interior counties to the 

 persistent failure of crops, incident to lack of moisture, for the past three years> 

 though it may be in some degree the result of defective work by the assessors in not 

 obtaining correct figures. 



The corn of the State is raised chiefly in the Missouri River counties and along 

 the southern line of the State, although it is rapidly growing in popularity in nearly 

 all parts of the State. 



In the report of internal commerce for 1889, P. F. McClure, of Fieri e, 

 writes of hay and grass in the Dakotas as follows : 



The native hay of Dakota is of such superior grade, so easily and cheaply gath- 

 ered, and so abundant, that cultivation of tame grasses has generally been consid- 

 ered unnecessary. It is an indisputable fact that for centuries the Dakota prairies 

 have been the winter home of the wild buffalo. So well is this understood that the 

 large trains of ox teams used for freighting to the Black Hills from 1876 to 1885 

 were turned loose to graze on the prairie grass in herds of seA r eral hundred, and 

 wintered on these sun-cured grasses without being fed a spear of hay during the 

 winter, coming out in the spring in better condition than they were in the preced- 

 ing fall. The custom prevails in western Dakota of starting out with a "haying 

 outfit," consisting generally of a mowing-machine, alternated by two teams, a rake, 

 and a couple of stacking teams, in July, and continuing operations until the Octo- 

 ber frosts. These outfits will take in an area of some miles, and where, on old lake 

 beds, draws, ravines, or valleys, the yield may be from 1 to 2 tons to the acre, yet 

 the average yield is but 1,000 pounds to the acre; and a yield of 500 pounds to the 

 acre pays to cut. A mowing-machine covers from 10 to 12 acres per day, and the 

 stacking wagons haul to convenient distances of a mile or more away and stack into 

 "ricks," of 50 to 100 tons. Hay is thus put into the " rick " at a cost not to exceed 

 $1.75 per ton. This buffalo grass and double-stemmed blue-joint is of a fine spear 

 and very succulent and preferred by stock to tame or " cultivated" hay. There is no 

 coarse stalk to be left in the bins, and to the newcomer it is a matter of wonder- 

 ment to see how stock is worked on hay with little or no grain. During the drought 

 of 1887, in Wisconsin, Illinois, and Iowa, many thousand tons of Dakota hay were 

 -shipped to Chicago and other cities and towns of the States named. As a result 

 orders from livery-stable keepers have coine to Dakota localities for "prairie hay" 

 in large quantities. The prairie grasses of Dakota never fail, and on several occa- 

 sions in the past, where hail or drought in localities has stripped the Dakota farmer 

 of his expected revenue, he has turned to prairie hay and made a few hundred 

 dollars to tide over the winter. 



Old grasses and clovers, however, are being successfully cultivated in the more 

 thickly settled portions of older Dakota. On the lower plains timothy is the best, 

 but on the higher prairies red-top is the favorite. Red clover is found in small quan- 

 tities in nearly every locality, and where dairying is carried on occasional meadows 

 of alfalfa are grown, yielding from 6 to 8 tons per acre. 



The grass of western Dakota is sun-cured by the dry months of July, August, and 



