North Dakota

In the public school system of North Dakota in 1933-34 there were enrolled 160,699 pupils, or 78.3% of the total school popu lation which numbered 205,10o. The average daily attendance in 1934 was 135,379, and the average number of days attended per year per pupil 152.5, the greatest in the history of the State. Of the total enrolment (160,699) in 32,556 were registered in the secondary schools of the State. In addition, there were 9,881 pupils enrolled in the private and parochial schools of North Dakota, of whom 2,064 were in the private high schools. There were 8,175 teachers in the public school system during 1933-34 of whom 21.3% were male. They drew a total annual salary of $5, 373,000 or an average salary of $621 each. Total public school expenditures in 1934 amounted to a decrease of nearly $7,000,000 from the amount spent in 1930. The cost per capita of population in 1934 was $13.63, or per capita of enrolment, $59.13.

The University of North Dakota, founded at Grand Forks in 1883, had 1,784 students and iso teachers in 1936. It is composed of a college of liberal arts, schools of education, law, engineering, medicine and commerce, a graduate division and an extension divi sion. The State Agricultural college at Fargo, founded in 1889 in accordance with the provisions of the State constitution, had, in 1935-36, 1,562 students regularly enrolled. There are State teach ers' colleges at Valley City and Mayville (both founded in 1889), and at Minot (founded 1912), all giving four years of college work. There is also a State normal school at Dickinson (founded in 1916) and a State normal and industrial school at Ellendale. At Wahpeton is a State school of science, which operates as a trade school and junior college, giving instruction in the electrical trades, plumbing, bricklaying, printing, auto mechanics, dressmak ing and business courses. The State school of forestry is at Bot tineau and gives work of a junior college grade.

There were but two private institutions of higher learning in 1935-36, Jamestown college at Jamestown, and Wesley college at Grand Forks. All institutions of higher learning, both public and private, in North Dakota are co-educational.

Charities and Corrections.

The State board of administra tion has general control over a State penitentiary situated at Bis marck, a hospital for the insane at Jamestown, an institution for the feeble-minded at Grafton, a State training school at Mandan, a school for the deaf at Devils Lake, a school for the blind at Bathgate and a State tuberculosis sanatorium at Sun Haven, Dunseith. There is a soldiers' home at Lisbon which is not under the control of the board. There is a State children's bureau which licenses and regulates hospitals and lying-in-places which receive maternal cases and institutions which receive children for tem porary or permanent care. The bureau investigates homes into which children are placed for care or adoption, and co-operates with the juvenile courts in investigation of delinquents, with the county commissioners in administering the mother's pension law, and in general works to enforce the child labour and all other laws relating to abuse or neglect of children.

Agriculture and Live Stock.

Probably no other State in the Union depends so exclusively upon agriculture as a means of livelihood as does North Dakota. Of its total area 87.1%, or 39,118,00oac. is classified as farm land. Of its population 58.4% (exceeded only in Mississippi and Arkansas) live on farms; the population of the small towns is almost entirely dependent upon farm trade for its support. The value of all crops was estimated in 1931 at $20,003,000, in 1933 at $43,373,000 and in 1935 at $48,500,000, 1934 representing an unusually poor year and 1935 an average one. The value of live stock upon farms amounted to $116,690,000 in 1930 and in 1935. Land and buildings were valued in 1935 at $707,139,000, a decrease of about $312, 964,000 from the inflated valuation of 1925. The decrease was due mainly to the decrease in value of land from an average of $29.72 per acre in 1925 to $18.08 in 1935. Despite the hardships suffered during the period of agricultural depression, there was an increase in farm population from 372,886 in 1925 to 385,614 in 1935 and an increase in the number of farms actively operated from to 84,606. From 1933 to 1936 the farmers received in benefit payments from the AAA.

North Dakota is divided into three very distinct farming belts.

The black-earth belt occupies nearly half the State covering all east of a line drawn from the southern boundary at Dickey county north-westward to Rolette county on the Canadian border, and also including a small area in Divide and Burke counties in the north-west. In this zone the soils are dark, moisture conditions are favourable, production is the highest for the leading crops and the size of farms (averaging 48oac.) is generally smaller than in other parts of the State. West of the black-earth belt, extending a short distance west of the Missouri river and including also the greater part of McHenry and Bottineau counties to the north is the farming-grazing belt. This is, in general, rougher in topog raphy with soils somewhat lighter and production about 20% lower than in the black-earth belt. The average size of farms in this division is 64o acres. In the south-western quarter of the State is the grazing-forage crop belt. The region is hilly, the soils are residual in origin and the rainfall is less than in other parts of the State. The size of farms in this section averages 800ac. and less than 30% of the farm land is devoted to crop production. The main crop of North Dakota is wheat in the production of which the State ranked first among the States in 1933 and second in 1935 with 71,314,000 and 53,855,o0obu. respectively. Its value for 1934 and 1935 was $20,404,000 and $42,932,000. Slightly less than 40% of the crop area of the State was devoted to this crop, varying from 3o to 35% of the acreage in the east to 50% in the west. North Dakota wheat has a high protein and gluten content and commands a premium in the market. Oats in 1935 occupied about 7% of the crop area, being somewhat more important in the northern than in the southern part of the State. The value of the crop was $10,325,000 in 1929 and in 1935. About 8% of the crop area in 1935 was devoted to barley, in the production of which the State ranked second in 1929 and fourth in 1935. Its value in 1935 was $10,710,000. In the growing of rye North Dakota leads all States with a production in 1929 and 1935 one-third larger than that of Minnesota, its nearest competitor. In 1935 12,754,000bu. with a value of were harvested. The State came second in the production of flax in 1934 with a crop valued at $1,504,526. Indian corn showed marked increase in acreage from 1920 to 1929 but decreased slightly from 1930 to 1935. In the latter year 1,305,0ooac. pro duced 22,838,000bu. valued at $10.277,000. It is relatively more important in the south-eastern portion of the State together with an area in Burleigh and Morton counties. Tame hay occupied about 20% of the crop area and was relatively more important in the western and south-western parts of the State. A great amount of wild hay is also harvested, the value of the latter in 1935 being $5,094,000 and the former $5,180,000. Potatoes are generally of excellent quality. In 1935 13,230,000bu., valued at $5,027,000 were raised. The average yield per acre for the leading grains during a period extending from 1928 to 1932 was approximately as follows: Indian corn 25bu., wheat i7bu., oats 26bu., barley 2obu., rye 13 bushels. Deficient moisture is the most important cause of damage to grain, especially in central and south-western North Dakota, while in the south-east wheat is subject to rust. The raising of grain is supplemented on most farms by the raising of live stock. This becomes the major industry in the grazing-forage belt south-west of the Missouri. Beef cattle, sheep and horses are found in increasing numbers from east to west across the State. Swine are found mainly in the south-east where a large proportion of the corn is raised. They numbered 218,319 in 1935 valued at $5,058,847. Dairying showed a vigorous growth between 1927 and 1934, the number of dairy cows increasing from 365,038 to 569,351. The amount of butter made in creameries increased from 33,035,000lb. to 47,163,000lb. but the amount of milk produced decreased from 199,037,293 gallons in 1924 to 180,918,877 in 1934. The beef cattle business was slow in re covering from the economic depression following 1929 but there was a notable improvement in 1935. Sheep showed a slighter de cline than any other branch of the live stock business, the num ber decreasing from 856,621 in 1930 to 740,025 in 1935 and their value from $7,023,726 to Wool production in 1935 amounted to 5,856,000lb., or 8.51b. per fleece.