NORTH CAROLINA— NORTH DAKOTA 



1425 



North Dakota 



North Dakota lies in tlie great plains 

 and prairie district of the north central 

 states. It is subdivided into three sec- 

 tions of prairie tableland. The first is 

 the valley of the Red river, along the 

 eastern edge of the state, with an eleva- 

 tion of about 798 feet at Pembina to 965 

 feet at Wahpeton, in the extreme south- 

 east. To the west of this plain lies an- 

 other, ranging in height from 1,200 to 

 1,600 feet and about 75 miles in width. 

 West of this lies the highest plain, called 

 the Coteau du Missouri. This division 

 occupies about one-half the state and 

 reaches an elevation of 2,700 feet. 



Most of the state has been subject to 

 glacial action and afterwards covered by 

 the mud of the lakes, the largest of 

 which was Lake Agassiz, wnich is said 

 to have originally been larger than the 

 present surface of all the Great Lakes 

 combined. 



The Red River valley is almost com- 

 pletely level and the soil is alluvial and 

 lacustrine. Further west the surface is 

 rolling or ridged, attaining gradually to 

 the higher elevations, where the surface 

 is more or less broken. The prevailing 

 soils are sands, sandy loams, gravel and 

 gravelly loams. In the western part are 

 the so-called "Bad Lands," carved into 



fantastic forms by the winds, water and 

 the drifting sands. 



There is very little fruit grown in tne 

 state. The total number of bearing apple 

 trees is reported to be 15,941; plums and 

 prunes, 19,147; peaches are scarcely 

 grown at all, and small fruits are not 

 grown to any considerable extent. The 

 counties producing the most fruits are 

 Cass, with 1,426 bearing trees; Eddy, 

 1,163; Richland, 2,806; Sargent, 1,290; 

 Traill, 1,371; Walsh, 1,318. 



These counties are all in the eastern 

 part of the state, and while it is true 

 that with proper selection and adapta- 

 tion, fruit growing might be much more 

 largely developed, yet it seems to the 

 inhabitants better to grow that to which 

 their soil is specially adapted, and to 

 buy their fruits, than to undertake to 

 grow fruits largely under existing diffi- 

 culties. 



Irrigation is practiced in North Da- 

 kota in the northwest in the drainage 

 basins of the Missouri and Yellowstone 

 rivers, and in the southeast by artesian 

 wells. 



Granville Lowther 



For additional information on orchard 

 sites and soils, see Selection of Site, 

 under Apple Orchard. 



