Connecticut western news., 1876-11-10
FARMING BY WHOLESALE.
How Thirty-Six Thousand Acres of Whea
 are Headed and Stored In Two Months.

are Headed and Stored In Two Months.
 Glen farm, on the Sacramento river, in California, contains fifty-six thousand acres, of which thirty-sir thoaasGad acres are sown with grain. The ranch is run by laborers, and constitutes lit tie city of itself. When work is in full running order, say in July, it is carried on from seven different points. At this time the working force is nine hundred people, and they have the latest i'm proved machinery to aid them. The grain is cut with headers, leaving the straw to be plowed in as manure. The headers used have sickle blades from twelve to sixteen feet long, and just above this knife is 8 revolving frame that catches the tops of the grain stalks and bends them over the blade. After the sickle has done it's work, the heads of the grain, together with the portion of the stalk that has been cut off with them, fall to the rear upon a travelling belt some forty inches broad, which, running up over shoot projected from the left side of the header, carries the grain out of the header and tips it over board into 8 header wagon, which is al- ways in attendance.
 One working party consists of one separator, five or six headers, one en- zine, some twenty-five header wagons, seventy or eighty men, and the same number of horses and mules. Most of the men are Americans, but there is sprinkling of three or four other races; among them, strange to say, the Portu guese.
 The work is systematized thus: One of these working parties pieces itself in certain position, and then cuts over an allotted section. For example,: in case mile square of grain is to be cut and thrashed, the area is divided, supposi- tiously, into nine equal parts, and the working force attacks each of these in regular order, advancing from one to another on successive days.
 Suppose that upon one of the many days of thu harvest season you get out of bed at an unusually early hour, and again climb to the house top.
 You will sweep the horizon with your glass. Hardly to be seen, even with that, are some curiously shaped dots, moving slowly hither and thither. They seem to crawl like insects, some going north, some south, some east, and some west. After while you will distinguish that nearly every one of these dots is of deep red color. A little later you recognize the awkward shape of the separators, and the broad topped fun nels of the engines. Throngs of people, most of them in wagons, yet some afoot, follow on behind. After while all of these now widely separated groups will come to standstill. They have taken up their positions for the on. slaught upon the grainfelds as de- liberately and with as much thought as batteries take up positions for battle. When one of these corps approaches it's station, header, with it's attendant wagons, is sent forward to cut clear place in the center of the area to be worked upon that day. The machine is pressed upon the wheat, devouring it as it goes, and then, having accomplished proper distance, turns and works in circle, cutting out a bare spot from three to five acres in extent. This is the point from which seventy acres of wheat are to be hewed down, cast into the thrasher, and sacked for market be- fore sundown.
 Then the separator and engine, and all the teams, move forward up the lane, and into the circle. The first comes to halt in the center, the second takes up it's position in the rear, and the headers at once attack the wheat !; the first taking the first swath of the en- circling grain, the next. the SC ond, 8 little in the rear, and so on.
 The belting between the engine and separator is adjusted, and the engineer starts his fires. The shoots that are to convey the grain from the canvas on the ground upon which it is pitched from the header wagons are attached. and the bag filters bring up their sacks. All the lids that cover the inner works of the great machine are drawn over and all is made 1 fast. The wheels are locked, as are those of the engine. Great care is taken to keep all things on as perfect level as may be, to insure the proper economy of force.
 They try the engine. It is all right. The separator clatters in tune, and noth- ing is anlies. Now, then, for the grain l In moment the wagons begin to un- load. Huge forkfuls are pitched upon the ground, from which it is borne into the recesses of the separator. Then there ensues strange combination of tremendous noises-a sound of grinding, a sound of brushing, sound of thump- ing, and sound of roaring. The entire fabric shivers from top to bottom, and from out every crevice there pours a thin sheet of dust. The upper part belches out the waste, hundreds of pounds and tons of chaff, and a stif1ing cloud follows it. In second everything | kh< bags hang them at the edges of the troughs. The brown flood comes pour ing down-a stream of clear kernels of wheat the day work fairly begins. From the largest separator in the field there run out six sacks, or eight hun dred pounds of grain, fit for market, each minute. This machine, one day in August, 1874, thrashed five thousand seven hundred and seventy-nine bushels. Its owner calls it the Monitor. All the Phssnix, Mars, and the like. No one would ever be mad enough to call one of these Ceres, for instance. There is no suggestion of gentleness, or grace, o1 poetry, in the whole field. All is inge- nuity, precision, order, force. A cly ot admiration rises to one's lips time and aBaln, put the SenSa6Iou lS bAo stano Iua' one feels upon witnessing string of ten strikes in bowling alley, only thou sand times extended.
 It is great to see the headers keep their circles of destruction, hewing down the fair expanse of lowing golden heads as ship hews down the crested waves, and to hear the smooth, intending click. clack of their glistening sickles. Even | &b> af fha T1nooin1v rod wagons that wait upon them have an un failing order that has strange power tc please. '...
 Most of the men are dressed in brow1 canvas jumpers and overalls, and veal 1 |. L. e.IL