Those who have seen the vast fields in the summer know the meaning of this land to the farmer and the stock-raiser; for while the romantically inclined can meditate on the beauties of a bronze wheatfield under the July sun, or the picturesque qualities of fine cattle grazing on a hillside, the agricultural statistician can point out that 87 percent of the land in the State is devoted to agriculture, and, given sufficient moisture, the richly productive soil will more than repay the efforts of the farmer or stockman who depends upon it for his livelihood. Here in North Dakota were the original bonanza farms--so-called because of their almost fabulous yields of wheat--some of them two or three townships in extent. They are gone now, but the size of the farms today still startles those familiar with agriculture in other States, for many holdings run as high as 10,000 acres, and the average for the whole State is 463 acres, as against the United States average of 154.8 acres. Ordinarily the rainfall is sufficient to bring crops of high value, despite the fact that in the western two-thirds of the State it is not abundant. In occasional years the moisture is poorly distributed, resulting in lessened cash values. About twice in a century the dry-land farming area of the United States, of which the western two-thirds of this State is a part, is subject to major drought conditions. At such times farming is difficult and in places impossible--without irrigation. In the drought of the 1880's there were few people in North Dakota to suffer. It took the recent major drought which began in 1929 to impress not only upon North Dakotans, but upon the Federal Government as well, the necessity for reliance in part upon irrigation, utilizing the waters that flow so abundantly through the State--and out of it. More than a thousand dams are contemplated in the Works Progress Administration program for the State. Many have already been completed, and steps are being taken to divert the waters of the Missouri River into the James and Sheyenne Rivers, and to utilize waters in western tributaries of the Missouri. Fortunately, North Dakota has never had a land boom. The result is that prices of agricultural land are low, and with the returning rains it is likely that the State will experience a new wave of confidence and prosperity. Naturally, in a State where 87 percent of the land is devoted to agricultural pursuits, farm conditions are of paramount importance to almost every person. Directly dependent upon the soil are the farm residents who compose 53.6 percent of North Dakota's population. Directly dependent upon the wealth of the farmer are the 28.6 percent who live in small rural towns, and, almost as directly, the 17.9 percent who compose the urban population. Of the urban group, approximately one-third are employed in the processing of agricultural products.