The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-11-08 00:00:00

THE BIGGEST WHEAT FARM IN
AMERICA.

Tire Times of Thursday in last week published along
letter from a Special Correspondent, describing farm-
ing operations on a gigantic scale in the Dakota terri-
tory.—The Times also bases a leader upon the com-
munication, in which it remarks
. . "Under an able commander-in-chief, with a well-
selected staff, an army of men, horses, and mules, amply
equipped, and supplied with all the resources of peace-
ful engineerirg, are waging war with the obstacles and
asperities interposed by Nature in the way of those
who would rifla her hidden stores. The area of
this campaign is 75,000 acres, or 117 square miles,
which is about the size of the county of Rutland. Our
autumn mat oanvres are generally content with a much
smaller space; indeed, there would be quite room enough
in it for a few hundred thousand men to be surrounded and
captured, supposing the ground to be convenient and other
circumstances favourable. It is modestly described as a
farm, and we are invited to compare it with the bits of
valley or hillside surrounding old-fashioned homesteads
called farms in this country?' . . •

We make the following extracts from the corre-
spondent's letter, and which will be read with interest
at the present time, when agricultural questions at
home and abroad are engaging so much attention :

_
"The United States, although famous for great business
undertakings, have not many large wheat-growing farms.
Throughout the Eastern, Middle, and even the North-
Western States the ordinary grain farmer seldom possesses
more than 200 acres. But here at Ceaselton in Dakota
Territory, in the valley ef the Red River, is a striking
exception—a farm of 75,000 acres held by Mr. Oliver
Dalrymple. Four years ago this enormous farm was a
portion of the far-reaching prairie wilderness. No evidences
of human life were visible. Prairie fowls, snipe, jack
rabbits, the prairie squirrel or gopher were the inhabitants;
while wild ducks and geese congregated in creeks or marshy
spots. A few years previously buffaloes and badgers were
COMIIIOI3, and on the untilled prairie their whitened bones
lie thickly strewed. Some of the directors of the Northern
Pacific Railway had acquired these lands and wisely appointed
Mr. Oliver Dalrymple ,their manager, with a half-share in
the concern. Mr. Dalrymple brought to his serious task a
goodly experience, acquired in successful farming 6,000 acres
at Lake Elmo, near St. Paul, Minnesota.

"On Friday, the 26th of September, the members of the
Royal Commission, Messrs. Read and Pell, your Commis-
sioner, and a party under the guidance of Mr. James H.
Drake, assistant manager of the St. Paul and Sioux City
Railway Company, were most hospitably received by Mr.
Dalrymple • were driven for miles over this vast prairie
farm; examined its dark, friable, alluvial soil, perfectly
free from stones, varying from 141 n. to 201 n. deep, resting
upon an argillaceous clay rich in vegetable remains;
gathered information as to the cost of wheat production,
and speculated on the permanence of continuous wheat-
growing. The arrangements of this great farm are well
considered and systematically and effectually carried
out. Minor details receive more attention than on most
farms of one hundred acres; time and labour aae
everywhere economized. On one of the subdivisions of the
property telephonic communication, at a cost of only
300 dole., is established between the experintensient's office
and that of his foreman; and this rapid and direct system of
control is being extended throughout the whole estate.
Substantial and economical wooden buildings have been
erected at suitable points, consisting of houses for super-
intendents, sleeping and dining rooms for the men, stables,
granaries, and sheds for the storing of the numerous and
valuable machinery and implements, with blacksmiths' and
carpenters' shops. Handy to the several buildings, wells,
varying from 501 t. to 803., have been dug into the sand and
gravel bed which underlies the clay. On one farm avenues
of trees are planted out. Amid such modern equipments and
good cultivation it is difficult to realise that this busy,
profitable settlement was five years ago lonely, barren
prairie.
" This Dalyrmple property cost from 40c. to 5 dole. per acre.
There are no federal taxes; rates, mostly for school pur-
poses, amount to 10c. per acre. The estate is partitioned
into divisions of 5,000 acres, each under the management of
a divisional superintendent, who has under him two fore-
men, one of whom, on horseback, accompanies his 15 or
20 teams to work, sees to the ploughin.z or drilling, observes
and reports as to the behaviour of the men, the condition of
the animals, and the efficiency of the machinery. Each
division has two or more sets of buildings, and in con-
nexion with the principal homestead of each farm are
the quarters for the men—large wooden barrack rooms
sometimes over the stables, comfortably warmed
with stoves, where fifty men sleep in busy times
two in a bed. Hard by are the kitchens, each with the
capacity to provide for the wants of 100 men, presided
over by the cook and his mate, who on requisition through
the foreman, draw supplies from the stores—flour for
bread, puddings and cakes, beef which costs fresh fully,3d .per
pound, pork, bacon, cheese, and butter' tea and coffee,
and other good things. But the stores, liberally provided
with necessaries and luxuries, including some of the best
butter and coffee we ever tasted, wisely dispense neither
beer nor spirits. Three hot meals a day are provided, be-
fore six, at noon, and at seven; meat, bread, puddings,
cakes, tea and coffee are supplied without stint. All pay-
ments are made by the bookkeeper on vouchers signed
by the foreman. Men can draw their money as
they please. Some take it weekly ; a few spend
it at the beer saloons at Casselton ; others, more
provident, allow it to run on for weeks, or even for
half a year. The rate of wages varies with the season.
With board during the spring Mole, a month (18s. a week)
is given ; during harvest wages advance to 2dols. 25c. a day;
during the thrashing season the rate is reduced to 2dols;
during the autumn months the pay is 25d015. No piecework
I. adopted, but so thorough is the superintendence that full
work is obtained from both man and beast. During harvest
and thrashing, which is done out of the field, as many as
600 men are frequently employed. Even with this great
accession of labourers, work proceeds systematically and
harmoniously. No rows occur: brawling and fighting are
extremely rare, but when they do occur it unfortunately is
usually on Sunday. Dismissal for insubordination is
scarcely known. Men injured or sick from causes be-
yond their own control are nursed and have medical
attendance gratuitously. Extra men in harvest and
duris g thrashing only receive pay for the hours they
labour. So soon as frost prevents ploughing, the whole of
the noon on the farms are dismissed, with the exception of
the divisional manager and about tsn men, who each look
after about forty mules or horses, feed and water them, and
turn them into a yard for'a quarter of an hour's exercise
night and morning. Hard as such wholesale dismissal would
be in Great Britain, it is no hardship here, for these men
readily find lumberwork in the forests. It is obviously an
enormous boon thus to get rid of men whom the farmer cannot
profitably employ during the five winter months. Many an
English wheat grower would gladly practise this retrench-
ment and send most of his staff to other vocations dur-
ing the short days and bad weather of mid-winter.
Twenty thousand acres are already under cultivation ;
5,000 acres are broken up annually. The uncultivated
portions are chiefly used in growing prairie hay and grazing
the milch cows. Four hundred mules or horses are at
present daily engaged ploughing the stubbier, or back-
setting or cross-cutting the land broken up from prairie
during the early summer months. The sod of ages is already
disintegrated; the prairie grass, previously cut short by the
mowing machine, is rotted. The stubbles are left of about
the same length as they are in England; but since the
straw is burnt, it would save expense, both in reaping and
thrashing, to leave a longer stubble and burn this and any
weeds among it before the Ploughs went to work.
In one field we came upon nine double-sulkey ploughs;
the ground being hard owing to a month's dry
weather, four mules are allotted to each The
qtuwaor eas t
raonfd
slOOOl
flacreiders.
aourevefueniecnetdlywitlhaidoakopuot
stsinands
arSoemec
barbed steel wire, which keeps back cattle and horses, but
not sheep and pigs, and has the disadvantage of lacerating
any animal coming forcibly into contact with it. To pre-
vent idly walking several miles to work, the teams going
and returning invariably plough along the intervening
fields, the twelve teams each time they go out or return con-
tributing a broad strip of nearly 30f1 of ploughing. .
"Mr. Dalrymple and Mr. Dutton, one of his intelligent and
able divisional superintendents, both prefer mules to horses
on account of their hardiness, endurance, equable tempera-
ment, and freedom from disease. With about an equal pro-
portion of mules and horses they have in four years used up
sixteen horses, but the whole of the mules are still service-
able, excepting one, which was accidentally injured
"Towards the end of &larch the working staff are again got
together. The lumbering is finished up, and men are ready
for farm work. A few of the hands of former seasons
return. The gang foremen, selected for intelligence and
promptitude, are appointed, The whole of the land intended
for crop has been ploughed in autumn; the newly broken,
as indicated, has Lad a second furrow, which keeps down
weeds and insures more certainty of result. So soon as the
frost has left the first sit inches of soil, which is generally
by April 1, the seeding of the wheat commences. Scotch
Fife, a good, hard, thinned-skinned red variety, is used. .
"No horse or hand hoeing, no weeding, or any I arther ex-
penses are incurred until harvest. Seasonable showers
usually occur during June and July ; heavy dews restore part
of the moisture removed during the warm noontide. For
four years the seasons have been propitious. The drought
during last July occasioned, however, considerable apprehen-
sion. Prayers for rain were offered in the churches, while
English farmers were imploring fine weather. Another week
of scorching drought would have shrivelled up the soft,
milky ears; but the much longed for rain came seasonably.
Drought is probably the chief cause of uncertainty in the
American wheat yield. Hailstorms and tornados, abounding
further south, are unknown here. No wire worm, weevil, or
fly interfere with Mr. Dalrymple's crops; mice and rats have
not yet made their home in Dakota; yarrows, larks, and
rooks are equally rare

- - -
"Harvest begins about August 1, usually amid fine, settled
Californian weather. About 300 extra men are engaged.
One hundred and fifteen automatic self-binding harvesters
are busily at work; 100 of these are Walter Wood's, the re-
mainder M'Cortnick's. Both are reported to do their work
admirably; no objection is found to the wire binding.
The grain is shocked, and cutting is overtaken In twelve
dews. No time or outlay is expended in stacking. The 21
steam thrashing machines made by the Buffalo Company,
and costing 600 dohs., with thrasher, winnower, and
straw-elevator in one, are placed at convenient points
throughout the fields. Ten wagcons, each with a pair
of horses or mules, bring up the shocks and carry off
the thrashed corn in three-bushel bags an average
distance of two miles to the railway cars. A gang of
twenty-five men keep waggons and thrashing machines
steadily going, and deliver at the station 1,000 bushels of
wheat daily. Each day the thrasher and engine, which is
partially self-propelling and costs 800 doll., is moved, so as
to shorten haulage of the sheaws. Every busy day, 50
railway cars, each containing 400 bushels are loaded, and
stand ready for despatch, usually to Duluth, 254 miles
distant on the western corner of Lake Superior. . . .

"Now comes the important question of the coat of produc
tion. Mr. Dalrymple furnishes the following Braes :
Land valued at 12 dole. per acre, interest thereon at 6 per
cent, 72c. ; taxes and rates, 10c. ; buildings, machinery,
and teams, valued at 10 dols., interest at 10 per cent., 10c. ;
ploughing, Idols, ; seed, 1 dol. 50c ; harvesting and thrash-
ing, 3 dols. ; total, 8 dols. 42c.
"Mr. Dalrymple thus produces an acre of wheat for lees
than 81 dolts. (345.) per acre; indeed,. he asserts that hitherto
the actual cost has not reached 8 dole., excepting in the
case of .the first year's crop, which the extra expenses of
breaking up and two ploughings advanced to 11 dols. For
four years his acreable yield has averaged 20 bushels, each of
which on the basis or the above calculation, would cost
42c., or is. Pd. On his own and other suitable wheat
growing farms, in favourable seasons, Mr. Dalrymple
declares that the crop does not cost more than 35c. per
bushel. Sold, as it readily can be at the railway station at
Casselton, at 750. to 80c., a very handsome profit is obtain-
able It approaches the Dutchman's 1 per cent, which on
investigation proved to be a cent. per cent. return.
"But now, important alike to producer and consumer,
comes the question, Will these crops and profits be
permanent No symptoms of deterioraj.ion are yet ap-
parent. The land is clean; neither twitcb, thistles, nor
docks appear. The chief weeds are wild cotton barn grass,
a sorrel with a yellow flower, and the Michaelmas daisies.
The manure made from the stables lies about in heaps, which
it is not yet thought 1$ ()rill while to apply. _Except-
lug the small quantity of straw used for littering the animals,
the whole produce of the 20,000 acres Is burnt. The spots
on which these heaps burn show no obvious difference
from the rest of the field, indicating that the unassisted
soil still contains phosphates and potash sufficient to
grow full crops. Row long the continuous corn-grow-
ing can be profitably continued is somewhat difficult
to foretell. On similarly good land in various parts of
the country fields are pointed out from which, without any
restorative treatment, 20 consecutive crops of wheat have
been reaped, and neither quantity nor quality as yet under-,
gout obvious diminution, Mr. Dalrymple, is, however, too
prudent a farmer to draw too long or deeply on the ree
sources of his land. By ploughing year by year an inch
deeper he brings up fresh plant food; by growing
at intervals probably of four years as be purpotes doing a
crop of clover, rolling it down and ploughing it in, he intends
cheaply to maintain fertility. By these means and by selec-
tion and change of seed, as well as by an occasional crop of
oats or barley, Mr. Dalrymple 's superior management
will doubtless secure a continuance of good crops for many
years."

The other morning a fox was sn3denly started in a
street in one of the suburbs cf Bristol, and having been
chased into a summerhouse in a garden, it escaped up a
chimney. After a hot pursuit It wail eventually killed In
another garden by a couple of dogs.

,"

TIGER FIGHT AT THE ZOOLOGICAL
GARDENS.

Mr. Frank Bueltisuid. writing In Land and Water, sap :
My friend Mr. Bartlett has kindly called upon me
to tell me the particulars of an event which took place
last Sunday at the Zoological Gardens, a false report
having been circulated as to what really did take
place.
It is customary to place tigers that are likely to pair
in the same den. For some time past two tigers, the
female being a Chinese tiger, and the male a native of
Malacca, have been mated in the same den. They
agreed very well until Sunday last. They were play-
ing together quietly, when, by accident (I suppose),
the lady tiger suddenly struck one of her sharp claws
completely through the septum of the gentleman
tiger's nose, tearing it completely through. The male
tiger immediately pulled back his head with a jerk,
and the lady's claw in consequence cut its way out of
the tender skin of the nose, causing naturally great
pain and bleeding.
Not liking this sort of courting the male tiger im-
mediately turned upon and pitched into his sweet-
heart, rolled her over, and gave her a good thrashing;
there the matter would have elided, but as he was
walking away the lady unwisely—and wishing to
"have the last word "—followed him and bit him in
the thigh. War to the knife was then proclaimed.
The male, the strongest of the two, rushed at her,
rolled her over, pinned her by the throat, and the two,
as I understand, fought most desperately. The sharp,
sabre-shaped, razor-edge canines of the male tiger
made a terrible wound in the female's neck, while
there was plenty of blood on both sides. I understand
that at this moment somebody who was present among
the visitors very kindly suggested that Me. Frank
Buekland should be sent for immediately to come and
dress the tiger's wound—poor thing!
Hearing the fight going on with the tigers' the lions
at the other end of the house thought that they to
might as well have a bit of a fight on their own
account. They bridled their manes and hair, lashed
their tails, swore a good deal, but luckily did not pitch
into each other, although a Frenchman, to quiet them,
to use his own expression, writes, "I ran up and down;
I made great noises; I agitated my hat; I waved my
handkerchief to disturb them, but they were agitated
by so strong anger, that my efforts were of little
effect."
After the tigers had grappled with each other like
two fighting cats, the animals luckily came near to the
bars of their cage, and Sattm, the keeper, who
thoroughly understands the management of these big
carnivore, managed to make the male tiger let go his
hold and got him into one of the sleeping compart-
ments in the den. The lady, who really began the
quarrel by scratching the gentleman's face, lay still
for some time and bled a great deal, which bleeding
probably saved her life. After a white she was in
duced to creep into her own sleeping den at the back,
and though of course her nerves are considerably
upset, she is doing very well and will probably be soon
all right again, but yet more careful for the future to
carry on her domestic quarrels without such free use
of her sharp nails.

THE CAPTURE OF THE HIJASCAR.
Under date Oat. 8. The Times publishes the following tele-
gram from Valparaiso :
Particulars received here respecting the capture of
the Peruvian ironclad Huascar by the Chilian fleet
state that the Huascar and the Union, white returning
from a raid on the Chilian coast were cornered be-
tween Antofagasta and Mexillones by the Chilian iron-
clads, accompanied by four corvettes. The Union
succeeded in escaping, but the Huascar was forced to
surrender after a very gallant defence. Admiral Gran,
the commander of the Huascar, and both his lieuten-
ants were killed, and many of the crew were killed and
wounded. At the close of the action the Huascar's
hull was riddled and the vessel was nearly sinking. It
was thought doubtful whether she would reach port.
The capture of the Huascar was celebrated with great
rejoicings at Valparaiso.

The Daily News of Wednesday published a special tele-
gram from their New York Correspondent giving details re-
specting the capture of the Huascar by the Chi Han ironclads.
The battle lasted more than six hours. Fire was opened by
the ironclad Almlrante Cochrane at short range. The
Hnascar returned it, and attempted to ram, discharging her
two turret Armstrong rifled guns very close to the Cbillan.
This proved unsuccessful, the Chilian being able to turn
within a ship's length by means of her twin screws. Subse-
quent attempts at ramming also failed, owing to the same
cause and the superior speed of the Milan. During the
first hour the Huascar fired twenty•tive shots, the Almirante
Cochrane thirty from her casimate, three hundred pounders.
The Chi Han ironclad Blanco Ennalade came up fifty minutes
after the engagement began, and tired ten shots within as
many minutes. During the rest of the engagement the Huascar
had the advantage of shoal water, being of lighter draught.
She finally got between her adversaries, who thus in
terfered with each other's fires. The broadside ships
had a superior range and speed, could fire three
guns on each aide, and also directly fore and aft, the
end guns commanding any angle between a direct broadside
and the line of keel. The Haascar'e armour being two inches
thinner at the bow and stern than amidship, her adversaries
aimed at the vulnerable quarters, especially the stern, and
were able to lodge many shots there owing to the position
of the end guns, and the action of the twin screws. The
Almirante Cochrane was barely able to move alter the con-
flict, and her consort's hull and machinery were badly
damaged. The Huascar lost most of her officers and crew,
Including the admiral and executive officer. The turret was
repeatedly struck, and the revolving apparatus was broken.
When the flag was hauled down only four officers were un-
injured.

Intelligence received in New York from Panama
says that the gunners belonging to the Peruvian iron.
clad Huascar were foreigners, principally Englishmen
and Scotchmen, and of her crew twenty.five in all were
Europeans ;.and also, that subscriptions had been
opened in Lima to replace the Huascar, and a
Peruvian Commission had left for Europe to endeavour
to purchase another ironclad.

According to intelligence received from Buenos
Ayres, the Chillian and Peruvian armies had both
been reinforced, and were advancing towards each
other. A great battle was believed to be imminent.