By the mid-1930s, tractors were more and more finding favor with farmers. Modern machinery, in conjunction with modern farming methods, including chemical applications, were increasing agricultural yields. In the Copper Country, a high percentage of farmers benefited from new and improved farming methods introduced by stated and county agricultural agents. Yet, throughout the Lake Superior copper region, few farmers had taken advantage of the increasingly popular farm tractor. Elsewhere, the growing use of tractors caused a direct impact on the population of animal power.

The May 1935 Quarterly Bulletin of the Michigan Agricultural College Experiment Station, in Lansing, provided a “Review of the Horse Situation,” which, without saying it, had captured an industry in technological transition. The review reported that a shortage of work horses and mules was appearing across the nation.

Agricultural agencies, such as the USDA, were becoming concerned, because there were still a great proportion of farmers still using animal power.

One study had found that, in spite of the attraction of modern, gasoline-powered tractors, horsepower remained more economically viable.

“Horse labor was charged at 10 cents per horse per hour,” the study found. “Garden tractors were figured at 50 cents an hour, two-plow tractors at 80 cents and three-plow at $1.00.”

Part of the resistance to gasoline-powered tractors on farms in the Copper Country can almost certainly be attributed to their high cost.

“Then, too, the relatively high cost of tractors, gasoline, and oil compared with the costs of feed that farmers themselves produce,” the May report stated, “has apparently caused many farmers on the small and moderate-sized farms to again look to horses for their source of farm power.”

The May 1933 Quarterly Bulletin of the Michigan Agricultural College Experiment Station reported that one of the limiting factors in the farming in the region was the small amount of tillable land per farm.

“In many sections, land clearing is rather a costly and laborious undertaking,” the bulletin stated. “The increase in the tillable acreage per farm has been extremely low.”

Between 1899 and 1929, there was an average increase reported of only five acres per farm in that 30-year period. The Annual Report of the Agricultural Experiment Station of the State Agricultural College of Michigan for 1923 suggests a principal reason for the low increase across the Upper Peninsula.

“The average of cleared acres per farm is too small to make economical successful farming,” the bulletin stated. “The reasons for (the) low rate of clearing by the settlers already on the cut-over regions, were found to be several: lack of knowledge of the economical methods of clearing, wasting explosives through improper handling and buying, too many accidents due to improper use of explosives, and a lack of interest and understanding of the problems of land clearing on the part of bankers and businessmen.

Experiment stations developed programs and demonstrations to increase interest in clearing more acreage. Demonstrations were given in the uses and proper handling of dynamite.

“Thirteen demonstrations in the use of dynamite and picric acid were held in the Upper Peninsula,” the bulletin reported, “with an attendance of 2,170 farmers. This clearly indicated the need of education on the use of explosives as well as the need of education in stump pulling equipment.”

The bulletin stated that a survey given to farmers found that one-third of all dynamite used for agricultural purposes was wasted because of improper methods and wrong materials being used. It also found that “one-half of all stump pullers purchased should never have been bought.”

What may have been occurring was a lack of understanding of Copper Country farmers on behalf of the state. Then, as now, the function of the Michigan agricultural programs was to assist farmers in becoming ever more successful in commercial farming: Clear more land; use more chemicals; expand operations; invest in more modern equipment. But, in the Copper Country, many farms were kept small to keep them manageable. Most of the former mine workers had left for the purpose of creating small, workable farms; in today’s terms, sustenance farms. This was small-scale farming, primarily for consumption by the farmer and his family, with some percentage of surplus sold at a local market, usually butter and eggs.

For many, farming was a seasonal occupation. Once the harvest was over, many farmers went back to work in the mines for the winter months. Tractors were expensive to purchase; necessary horses were in the barn. Additionally, gasoline and oil were expensive. Work horses could be sustained on feed grown on the farm. Still, by the mid-1930s, advancements elsewhere made commercial farming more attractive to many Copper Country farmers.

For instance, the public demand for better roads had begun with the bicycle craze of the late 19th century, when two-wheel enthusiasts began clamoring for roads free of wagon ruts. While roads had been greatly improved by 1932, during the Great Depression the federal government had provided for countless road improvement projects. By 1936, most roads that once saw horse-drawn wagons were improved to handle commercial truck traffic.

While some were content with sustenance farming, others sought to expand into commercial markets, in dairy, potatoes — and fruit. In 1936, the Copper Country Strawberry Growers Association was organized, with Chassell, in Houghton County, as its hub.

Strawberries had become a significant part of Chassell’s economy by the late 1920s, to the point which the local markets became saturated, according the Copper Country Strawberry Festival website. Growers studied a shipping organization in Bayfield, Wisconsin, and in 1935, and again in 1936, a group of growers traveled to Bayfield to learn how to set up and run such an operation in Chassell. Out of this effort grew the Copper Country Strawberry Growers Association, founded in mid-1936. So successful was the effort that, according to the website, the association started the annual Chassell Strawberry Festival in 1949.