north forty

north forty (plural north forties)

1. (agriculture, usually preceded by the) A 40-acre section of land, located in the northernmost part of a farm or ranch.
   • 2005, Don Aslett, Done!, →ISBN, page 185:

     I headed out to the barn for a ten-minute milking job, and the cow took off and ran to the far end of the north forty.

2. (idiomatic, by extension) Farms, ranches, or agricultural land collectively.
   • 1984 May 6, David Dillon, “An Architectural Tour Of the Lone Star State”, in Washington Post, retrieved 22 September 2015:

     In Dallas and Houston, the dominant architectural forms are glass office towers and air-conditioned shopping malls that owe more to the Bauhaus than to the North Forty.

   • 1985 February 7, “Opinion”, in New York Times, retrieved 22 September 2015:

     President Reagan behaved like his predecessors: preaching free enterprise in Washington but playing sugar daddy on the north forty. Mr. Reagan's response to a collapse in world food prices in the early 1980's was to protect American farmers with a $19 billion subsidy.

   • 2010 August 11, Steve Poses, “On the Road: Farm Stands of Long Island's North Fork”, in Huffington Post, retrieved 22 September 2015:

     [N]ot all roadside stands sell produce from the "north forty," rather their produce is the result of efforts before and after someone's day job and a fertile back yard.

   • 2012 January 20, Bloomberg News, “Investors plowing money into farmland”, in InvestmentNews, retrieved 22 September 2015:

     Rush to buy acreage fueling bubble in the north forty. (subheading)

3. (idiomatic) Any remote place.
   • 1998, D. Keith Mano, Take Five, →ISBN, page 369:

     [P]arts of him, uh, are as far away as the north forty. Muscle has been drawn out. . . . His arms—can you imagine?—feel longer.

   • 2011 September 20, Marie Swift, “Future of the Financial Planning Profession”, in RiaBiz.com, retrieved 22 September 2015:

     While these cool people could have been visiting with peers and gathering insights in the exhibit hall, they chose to hoof it on up to the north forty, “over the river and through the woods” so to speak, and spend forty-five minutes with me sharing their thoughts.

   • 2015 July 23, “Meet Ken Levine”, in VegasNews.com, retrieved 22 September 2015:

     To prepare for a MLB career, he bought beer for some of the regulars sitting next to him in the north forty of Dodger Stadium.

• (remote place): See Thesaurus:remote place

• back forty