What Is A Bonanza Farm

Bonanza farms — big, commercial farming enterprises that grew thousands of acres of wheat — flourished in northwestern Minnesota and the Dakotas from the 1870s to 1920. Geology, the Homestead Deed of 1862, railroads, modern mechanism, and revolutionary new flour-milling methods all contributed to the bonanza farm boom.

The fertile Red River Valley was created twelve thousand years ago when retreating glaciers left behind deposits of silt. The resulting apartment country, with its rich topsoil, was well suited to farming with horsepower and machinery. The Homestead Act of 1862 enabled farmers to obtain 160 acres of land in commutation for a filing fee and a residency of 5 years. They could too buy the belongings at a cost of $ane.25 per acre following six months of residency. This opportunity prompted an influx of European Americans into Dakota Territory and the new state of Minnesota.

Railroads had a significant affect on agricultural development in the Red River Valley. Trains provided transportation for the newcomers and carried equipment and supplies needed for farming. Railroad companies received large land grants to build their track lines. 1 of the railroads, the Northern Pacific (NP), went into bankruptcy in 1873. The NP's lath of directors agreed to commutation the railroad'south worthless bonds for land at face value. This enabled investors to purchase large tracts of land for just xv cents per acre.

Amongst the first to take advantage of the offer of state at discounted prices were General George Westward. Cass, president of the NP, and Benjamin Cheney, a member of the railroad's board of directors. Cass and Cheney initially purchased 13,440 acres a few miles westward of Fargo in 1874.

Absentee owners, often from the eastern U.s.a. or the Twin Cities, hired managers to oversee bonanza farm operations. Cass and Cheney hired Minnesota farmer Oliver Dalrymple to manage their farm. Its success ignited a firestorm of land sales to large-scale investors. Past the early 1880s, speculators viewed the land of the Red River Valley as a gold mine.

Railway magnate James J. Colina also saw the advantage of owning land in the Cerise River Valley. Hill'southward involvement in farming grew out of his desire to maximize his St. Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba (later Neat Northern) Railroad'southward profits. He reasoned that if the farmers along his rail lines were successful, his trains would have valuable freight to booty and would turn a tidy profit.

In 1881, Hill began purchasing country in Kittson County that had been a part of the railroad'southward original land grant at $2.75 per acre. His subcontract eventually totaled forty-v thousand acres (more than seventy square miles) and became the largest in Minnesota, although only near iii thousand acres were under cultivation. To simplify management, in 1910 the farm was divided into 2 parts: the Humboldt and Northcote Divisions.

About scholars agree that a farm had to have a minimum of three one thousand acres to qualify as a "bonanza." While most such farms in Minnesota ranged from four m to 10 m acres, others were immense. The Keystone Farm in Polk County took up 21,760 acres. The largest of all bonanza farms, the Cass-Cheney-Dalrymple farm in Dakota Territory, totaled seventy thousand acres.

Milling technology stimulated the growth of bonanza farms in the Ruby River Valley. Hard blood-red bound wheat was more nutritious than winter wheat and meliorate suited to the northern climate because it required a shorter growing menstruation. Spring wheat's hard, brittle bran crush, however, made milling with the former-fashioned grindstone method more difficult. The millers in Minneapolis began to experiment with the "new procedure" of milling, using roller technology and middlings purifiers that could break down the hard beat and consistently produce large quantities of loftier-quality flour.

Modern farm machinery also boosted large-scale agriculture. Improved harrows and seed drills saved farmers time and labor. These machines sowed seeds at a predetermined, uniform depth and covered them to keep them from blowing away. This increased the chances that every seed would grow. Fanning mills cleaned grain prior to shipment, and cleaned seed wheat to eliminate noxious weeds. Self-tying binders saved the labor of bundling the grain by hand, although it was even so paw-shocked. Improved steam traction engines and larger threshing machines fabricated it possible to thresh huge volumes of grain.

Bonanza farms required fleets of equipment. In 1885, Loma's Humboldt Farm employed 254 horses and mules; forty-5 each seeders, harrows, and binders; one hundred plows; six threshers; ninety-v wagons; xiv mowers; and other small machinery. Not surprisingly, implement manufacturers sprang up in Minnesota to run into the needs of these farmers. The Minneapolis Threshing Machine Company (1887–1929) and the Northwest Thresher Visitor of Stillwater (1866–1913) are only 2 examples of businesses that grew out of the agricultural boom of the Ruddy River Valley.

Typically, new acreage was broken in preparation for seeding each year, but not all of a bonanza subcontract'south acreage was cultivated at one time. Farmers intent upon making a quick fortune at the expense of the land continued to grow simply wheat on the aforementioned acreage year later on twelvemonth. This depleted the nutrients in the soil and decreased yields. Severe weather, early on and late frosts, besides piffling or also much moisture, and insect and weed infestations all contributed to pocket-size yields and poor-quality grain.

Good harvests created a unique problem. Other countries, similar Russia and Argentina, were too growing a substantial amount of wheat. The loftier book of grain produced led to stiffer competition in the strange market place. This impacted the bonanza farm economy by driving down the price of wheat.

Some bonanza farm owners, like James J. Loma, saw the benefits of diversified farming and soil conservation through crop rotation. Colina put both into do on his Humboldt Farm every bit an example to other farmers. Wheat was still male monarch in the Red River Valley in the 1880s, but farmers began to dedicate some acres to other crops, such as oats, barley, and hay. They added cattle, sheep, and pigs—animals valued for the natural fertilizer they produced and every bit sources of nutrient for the large crews required to run the farms.

By the end of the nineteenth century, most of the land in the Red River Valley was under tillage. With fewer men needed in the spring to break the land, subcontract managers turned to migrant laborers. At times, finding enough men to work the land proved hard. At that place was too some resistance on the part of local residents to the use of such labor; transient workers were perceived by some to exist untrustworthy.

In the early twentieth century, bonanza farms roughshod victim to a number of factors, including the spread of diversification and increasing labor problems. Information technology became more profitable to dissever the land into smaller farms, and rising state prices led many to sell off acreage for a quick profit. Taxation also played a part in the demise of these jumbo farms; an increase in taxes could wipe out the small margin of profit realized per acre. Past 1920, most large-calibration farming operations in the Red River Valley had ceased.

For more than information on this topic, check out the original entry on MNopedia.