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I gre up in North Dakota. Just before the Great Depression bottomed out, the Hoover Administration Agricultural Department was encouraging farmers in the area to diversify their crops as a means to combat low farm prices. At that time, there was no distinction made between industrial hemp and its reefer cousin, so there was a whole lot of growing going on.

When FDR pushed through prohibition, they didn't want to put the prohibition enforcers out of work, so many went right into the DEA, BAFT or other new federal agencies. There is just something about socialists that doesn't mind putting thousands of people employed in the private sector out of work, but can't stand to put a relative handful of government people out of work.

Anyway, to make a long story short, hemp is a hearty plant and not easy to eradicate. Even when I was in high school in the 1970's there were constant reports of new discoveries between the railroad tracks near this town or ditch banks near that town. The kids generally managed to do the harvesting before the DEA teams could get there.

It made me appreciate not only how wonderously fertile the soil of the Red River Vally is, but also how wonderosly resilient plants in the hemp family are.