|
 |
|
Wheat Most of the settlers who claimed land in North Dakota intended to follow the example of the early bonanza farms and cultivate wheat. However, it took several years for a farm family to break enough land to plant and harvest an adequate crop and, even then, the climate and markets were uncertain. Wheat yields fluctuated and generally declined. Wheat prices also fluctuated, but remained low until 1905. As economist Scot Stradley has noted, the wheat market "brings prosperity to North Dakota like no other economic or political phenomena. Conversely, when the demand for wheat collapses, the prosperity turns to its opposite and recessions and depressions can last very long." The uncertainty of wheat income, especially during the settlement period, when farm families were trying to establish permanent homes and communities, required families to develop other sources of income. The most common and reliable source of inocme was derived from surplus dairy and poltry products.
The investment in barnyard livestock was minimal. Cattle were pastured on marginal farm land. Early barns were small and usually constructed of sod. The expense of keeping a milk cow and a flock of laying hens amounted to little more than the price paid for the animals and that cost would be diminished by the sale or productivity of the animal's offspring. This arrangement reflects the dominance of grain crops in northern plains farming. Milking is Women's Work Many men refused to milk cows because it was considered women's work, and for the same reason, they accorded dairy income with little or no value in relation to the economy of the farm. While the historic record indicates that men as well as women stated that butter and eggs provided financial stability for farm families, they did not necessarily see barnyard work as farm work. The assumption they apparently made was that the dairy was an estension of the household rather than a part of the farm. The distinction was easily made if butter and eggs were traded for credit at the store, rather than sold for cash as the grain crop was. Many farmers apparently also clung to the notion that a farm woman's labor was free while a farm hand had to be paid in cash. The difference between cash and credit income enhanced the gender dividion of labor in a society where cash was increasingly necessary as a medium of exchange........... As long as the work and the income of butter making was devalued as women's work, farmers would not readily invest in improvin ght edairy. Even without addressing the question of who would do the milking, many farmers operated on the assumption that money put into improving the quality of the herd, the size or comfort of the barn, or the quantity or quality of feedstuffs would not provide a reasonable return. In other words, a dairy operation on a grain farm was considered a sideline, and profitable only as long as it did not draw heavily on farm resources. Making the butter and egg money stretch Women's primary income was generally derived from the production of butter and eggs. Since this income was usually in the form of credit at the general store, women had limited discretionary use of it. They could not, for instance, apply this credit to a purchase from a mail-order catalog or open a bank account. Store credit, however, was good for a range of household and personal supplies including groceries, kerosene, clothing, shoes, tobacco, candy, fruit, yard goods, and sewing notions. In lean years, these items became luxuries as the egg and butter income was diverted to essentials. Farm women could "make do" without trade items, but it increased the hardship and the labor of farm life. Mrs. Hans Emmanuel Anderson, like many other settlers, made coffee from roasted grain when she could not get it by trading eggs. Many families burned a rag in a shallow dish of tallow to make light when they could not afford kerosene. Sugar simply disappeared from the menu.
|
Livestock