1/16/2011:
North Dakota has always taken pride in being a wheat producing state with an economy tied to agriculture. On this date in 1951, a novel approach was introduced in the North Dakota House of Representatives to adjust the salaries of elected state officials in parity with the average price of Number 1 hard wheat! Beginning in 1952, if the price was less than 75 cents a bushel, the salaries would remain the same. However, with every twenty-five cents increase in the price of wheat over and above fifty cents, capping at $2.50, the salaries would be increased five hundred dollars per year. Evidently, those in power lacked confidence in the wheat market as House Bill 602 was indefinitely postponed.
Dakota Datebook written by Jim Davis
Sources:
The Bismarck Tribune January 17, 1951
Journal of the House of the Thirty-second Session of the Legislative Assembly 1951