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→Farming: NFU
==Farming==
==Farming==
[[File:Nd-farm-map.jpg|thumb|290px]] North Dakota has always been a farm state. The most productive area is the eastern strip in the Red River Valley, where the soils are good and the water is abundant. Too abundant, sometimes, as the Red River (which flows north into Canada) often floods. Farming here is diversified, with wheat dominant, along witrh sugar beets and other crops.
[[File:Nd-farm-map.jpg|thumb|290px]] North Dakota has always been a farm state. The most productive area is the eastern strip in the Red River Valley, where the soils are good and the water is abundant. Too abundant, sometimes, as the Red River (which flows north into Canada) often floods. Farming here is diversified, with wheat dominant, along with sugar beets and other crops.
[[File:Sod-house.jpg|thumb|300px|There are few trees on the plains, so many pioneers built houses from sod and lived in them for years despite the dirt, darkness and insects. This hand-colored photo was taken about 1905.<ref> See Everett Dick, ''Sod-House Frontier'' (1937)</ref>]]
[[File:Sod-house.jpg|thumb|300px|There are few trees on the plains, so many pioneers built houses from sod and lived in them for years despite the dirt, darkness and insects. This hand-colored photo was taken about 1905.<ref> See Everett Dick, ''Sod-House Frontier'' (1937)</ref>]]
Wheat farming boomed in the late 19th century, in part because of improvements in harvesting technology, particularly the automated reaper/binder that relied on twine to tie wheat into bundles for threshing. In 1899, to meet the rising demand for twine and confront International Harvester's monopolization of twine production, North Dakota and other Great Plains states set up their own twine factories using prison labor.
Wheat farming boomed in the late 19th century, in part because of improvements in harvesting technology, particularly the automated reaper/binder that relied on twine to tie wheat into bundles for threshing. In 1899, to meet the rising demand for twine and confront International Harvester's monopolization of twine production, North Dakota and other Great Plains states set up their own twine factories using prison labor.
[[File:Nd-wheat.jpg|560px|thumb|left|Wheat harvest in Benson county, 1910]]
[[File:Nd-wheat.jpg|560px|thumb|left|Wheat harvest in Benson county, 1910]]
===Farmers Union===
[[File:Nd-Farm-union.jpg|thumb|400px|Headquarters of Farmers Union in Jamestown, Stutsman County]]
The Farmers Union emerged out of the NPL in the 1920s and grew rapidly in the 1930s when the [[New Deal]] (through the [[Farm Security Administration]] began funding rural cooperatives. The coops were businesses--grain elevators and retail stores--that are owned by the farmers collectively, and enjoy special tax privileges. Norwegians in particular favored the coops and the Farmers Union. The Union has always leaned to the left, as opposed to the conservative farm Bureau Federation. North Dakota is one of the few states where the Union has a much larger membership than the Bureau, thanks to those coops. In 1956 there were 58,000 farmers in the state, of whom 44,000 belonged to the Union In the 1956 the Union took over the remnants of the NPL and merged it into the Democratic Party, which is officially the Democratic-NPL Party. The Farmers Union is much smaller today because there are fewer farmers, but it still tries to push the party to the left on major issues.
==Transportation==
==Transportation==