E. M. Young, born in 1893, grew up on a farm in central North Dakota
which had only mediocre horses. However, in 1911 his father wisely
decided that to keep his sons interested in farming, he had to buy a
tractor. Even though it did not work perfectly, the sons preferred the
tractor and rarely used horses after that. He was the eldest son, was
mechanically minded and was totally convinced that tractors were the
wave of the future. By 1922 he called his business The New Era Grain and
Stock Farm. After some very successful years he caught the euphoria of
the agricultural boom of World War I and purchased land at the peak of
prices. The sudden drop in commodity prices together with drought wiped
out all he had accumulated. Fortunately, he was an eternal optimist, but
he also understood economy of scale and operated as extensively as his
finances allowed. When farm programs were written in the 1930s he
grasped that the more acres he farmed the more he would receive in
payments. In 1938 the dry spell ended, and by 1941 wartime activity
caused prices to rise. E.M. Young's fortunes recovered as quickly as
they had dropped in the 1920s. No matter how difficult times were, he
continued to charge ahead. This is the story of a farm boy who broke sod
on three frontiers and never gave up.
