Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1872-06-20

enemy Is already upon you in "thou-
sands" and stems of thousands" To
fight them when they haye attained
such numbers is very different thing
than to fight them when they are kept
down. so that there are only 'sdezens''
and ''hundredsD present.
-----=ps = -
Wheat Culture IN CaIifornia-Six
Hundred Square Miles in One
Wheat Field.
A correspondent of the New York
Tribune gives some interesting facts in
regard to. the culture of wheat in the
Californian country, and some state
ments in regard to the coming crops,
which seems almost incredible to the
hard working farmers of the Middle
and Eastern States.
Between Stockton and Merced, lie
about six hundred square miles OF
wheat, in one vast unbroken and undi-i
vided field. The method of cultiva-
ton is graphically described.
| The fields are plowed with what are
called gang plows, which are simply
four, six or eight plowshares fastened
to stout frame of wood. On the
lighter soil eight horses draw a seven
gang -plow, and one such team is count
ed on to put in $40 acres of wheatin the
sowing season; or from to 10 acres per
day. Capt. Grey, near Merced, has put
in this season 4, 600 acres with five such
teams-his own land and his own
teams. A seed sower is fastened in
front of the plow. 1t scatters stlre,seed,
THE plow covers it--and the work d is
DONE The plow has no handles, and
the plowman is, in fact, only driver;
he guides the team; the ploys do their
own work. 1t is easy work, and a
Ismart boy, if his. legs. are equal to the
walk, is as good plowman as arybndy
for the teamaturns the corners, and
the plow is not handled, at all.
/ On the heavier soil, theq process is
somewhat different. An eight horse
team moves . four gang-ploW, am and gets
over about six acres per day. The seed
lis then sown by machine which scat
tiers it 40 feet and sows from IS to 100
acres in a day, and the ground is then
narrowed and crcss-harrowed. When
i the farmer has done his winter sowing
'Ehe turns his teams and men into other
u ground, which he is to summer fallow.
slThis he can do from the first of March
Ito the middle Of May; and by it he
: secures a remunerative Q crop for the
following year, even if. the season is
.ldry. This discovery is of inestimable
importance to the farmers on the driel
! part of theseIgreat plains. Experience
! has nowWdemonstrated conclusiyely,
!, that ifothey ploW their land in the
: sp-Ing; let it lie until thenwinter rains
} come on, then sow their wheat and har
row tin, they are sure ofia crop; and
1.-THE summer will have killed every
weed, besides. s.e,st,sg ! s
Il In the rainless season the farmer gets
: his teams, his grain wagons, his thresh'
ing machines, and his sacks and men
, , into the field, and cuts, and threshes
and puts the grain insacks, often at the
rate of 100 acres per day. When the
grain is put iuto sacksit is left 9on the
4 ground until the harvesting is done
T and there is leisure to hand it to the
: railroad. 1t does not sweat nor mould
I and there is no fear, of rain. When the
ground is cleared, six-horse teams are
d hitched to twenty-foot brush, which
r lis drawn over the field at the rate. O
forty acres a day, scattering the grair
which was left in harvesting, and some
|, times when these Ieayings are small,
little more grain is added. i, Then the
: field is plowed two or three inches deep
: to cover the seed, and from this comes
I a second crop, sometimes better thai
l the first. =se h.ha.i
From these two crops the yield il
+ fIenormous. The San Joaquin Valley
1 will send to tide-waGer this year, 180,
1000 tons of wheat. Mr.. Friedland, the
S great grain buyer of this State, is re
y1ported to have estimated the probable
!, o,lexport of the whole State this year a
: I700, 900 tons. This means thatS0O ship
[ of !, 600 tons each viii be needed to car
eIry California's crop to the far away
market; and it means that $4,000 cars
, each carrying 10 tons of grain will b.
needed to move the surplus wheat o
6 the San Joaquin Valley to San Francis
! CO; or $50 trains of 80 cars each, or {
l single train more than 100 miles long.
5 PREMIUM /. iST FOR z2