- Bonanza farms
Bonanza farms were very large farms in the
United States performing large-scale operations, mostly growing andharvesting wheat . Bonanza farms were made possible by a number of factors including: the efficient new farming machinery of the1870 s, the cheap abundant land available during that time period, the growth of eastern markets in the U.S., and the completion of most major railroads.Most bonanza farms were owned by companies and run like factories, with professional managers. The first bonanza farms were established in the
Red River Valley inDakota Territory , andMinnesota in the mid-1870 s. They were located close to theNorthern Pacific Railroad which transported their wheat to market. Investors also organized bonanza farms farther west.There were many Bonanza Farms in North Dakota; a number of them are still preserved.citation|title=PDFlink| [http://www.nps.gov/nhl/designations/samples/nd/Bagg%20Bonanza.pdf National Register of Historic Places Multiple Property Submission: Bonanza Farms of North Dakota] |32 KB|date=September 25, 1990 |author=Lauren McCroskey |publisher=National Park Service]
Role of farm technology
Bonanza farmers pioneered the development of farm technology and economics.
Steam engines were used for motive power in plowing as much as 40 years before the modern farmtractor made its first appearance.Plows andcombine harvester s drawn by steam tractors prowled the landscape in the 1880s and 1890s, well beforemechanization of the smaller midwestern farms. Thedivision of labor was applied in bonanza farms generations beforefamily farms adapted to these modern ways. Farm boys from themidwest , working on bonanza farms in the early 1900s, transplanted these ideas toCorn Belt homesteads and built larger farms as the century progressed. (An example is FredGeier , of Lynn Township,McLeod County, Minnesota andBoon Lake Township ,Renville County, Minnesota , who travelled to the Dakotas in the early 1900s and became a progressive farmer and customthresher andmiller at a time when others in the townships were still farming with horses on a very small scale. Other than his role as an inventor of theGeier Hitch , this may well have been his most significant contribution tosociety ). They were also used to grow one type of crop for profit on a large estate.Dependence on migrant labor and demise of bonanza farms
Migrant labor was a necessary part of bonanza farming. At planting and harvesting times foremen often supervised some 500 to 1000 extra workers on a bonanza farm. When weather and market conditions were good, bonanza farms made large profits; buyingseed s, and equipment in bulk meant lower production costs. But in times ofdrought or low wheat prices, their profits fell. As theRed River Valley developed, the necessity to useMexican migrant labor orbracero labor distinguished the former area of the Bonanza farms from their local competitors, family farmers. Family farmers, with fewer workers to pay and less money invested in equipment, could better handle boom-and-bust cycles. Thus by the 1890s most bonanza farms had broken up into smaller farms.Bagg farm
The
Frederick A. and Sophia Bagg Bonanza Farm is a preserved example of a bonanza farm, located in southeastern corner of North Dakota.citation|title=PDFlink| [http://www.nps.gov/nhl/designations/samples/nd/Bagg%20Bonanza.pdf National Historic Landmark Nomination: Frederick A. and Sophia Bagg Bonanza Farm / 32 RI 5] |260 KiB |date=September, 2002 |author=Delia Hagen, Ann Emmons, Janene Caywood, and Geoff Cunfer |publisher=National Park Service] The Bagg Bonanza Farm was designated aNational Historic Landmark in 2005.References
H. Drache, The Day of the Bonanza: A History of Bonanza Farming in the Red River Valley of the North (Lund Press, 1965)
External links
* [http://www.nps.gov/history/NR/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/106wheat/106wheat.htm "Wheat Farms, Flour Mills, and Railroads: A Web of Interdependence," a National Park Service Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP) lesson plan]
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