 North Dakota has been losing population since the first wave of homesteaders discovered that 160 acres on the northern prairie couldn’t produce the fields that a similar farm could in the more humid East. |
 Out migration began almost as soon as the state was settled as pioneers realized that North Dakota’s sub-humid climate was not capable of producing as much per acre as comparable more humid Midwestern and Eastern areas. |
 Over 360,000 native-born North Dakotans live in other states according to statistics in Elwyn Robinson’s The Themes of North Dakota History. They left to seek opportunities North Dakota could not offer. |
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