The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1876-10-12
System in Farming.

One of the greatest obstacles to i'm
provement in agriculture, is the farmers
want of definite observation. How is a
bad method to be improved if the operator
has never even studied that? Accurate
observation of what one is doing is first
necessary before any progress can be
made in amending it. You ask most farm
ers the amount of grain raised per acre,
or even the exact amount of seed sown,
and no definite answer can be given. Sup
pose you endeavor to find the exact cost
per acre for the labor in raising oats,
wheat or other crop; they cannot tell you,
even for a single field. They do not be-
licve in experiments, or any of your "new-
tangled no.ions,' but they should, at least,
know the facts concerning what they have
practiced for lifetime. The great body
Of farmers are in the habit of travelling
the same road year after year without OBJ
serving anything upon either side. They
seem to adopt the rule recommended in
dispensing charity, mot to let the right
hand know what the left hand doeth. :"
How important that the grain raiser
should know the cost in labor of produc
ing each of his crops, that he may know
whether he makes or loses in that branch
of farming-that the dairyman should
know the average cost of keeping COW,
both in food and labor; that he may
know the cost Of a pound of butter or
cheese. Is it not strange that farming
alone, of all occupations, should be car
ried on without any regard to the compar-
alive cost Of production and the market
value of the product? The farmer keeps
no account with his fields to know whether
he is making or losing by their cultiva-
tion-no account of the cost of bushel
of corn, wheat or oats; of the cost of a
pound of butter, cheese, beef or wool. He
simply knows whether he has got
anything left at the end of the
year, and sometimes not even that
Not knowing where the loss occurs,
he cannot apply the remedy. How
long could a manufacturer contin-
ue business lf he did not know
the actual cost of his product? Yet the
farmer, as general rule, does not even
see the need of this knowledge. You will
often hear him say that his business can
not be carried on by rule like mechanical
business; that there are so many unfore-
seen circumstances connected with farm
ing operations that no exact order can be
adopted. 1t is not easy to see why def
mite system may not be adopted in farm
ing as we'll as in any other pursuit. It is
this hap hazard way of carrying on farm
ing that has led to the general. opinion
that agriculture cannot be probably con-
Quoted on large scale. This want of
system, want of close observations, and
the proper application of experience, has
kept agriculture, Intellectually, in the
back ground. If we were to indicate the
greatest want of agriculture, at this time,
we should name it intellectual training.
Let US take conspicuous. example to
show what system, accuracy in planning
and execution, can do in farming. Grain
raising, being so entirely dependent upon
the weather and seasons, the preparations
for it often limited to SO short period, is
certainly as difficult to put under accurate
system and order, on large scale, as any
other branch; and yet we find Mr.. DIAL
rymple, of Minnesota, some years since,
sand acres of spring wheat in season.
This he did with entire success, raising a
larger average crop than was produced by
the small farmers in the vicinity. He
went on for several years, increasing the
acreage until he reached 2, 800 acres. He
could bring sixty pillow teams into the field
d9 I1AC CGA AhlA VI q DSIl, uASA eASSoAApAAA
the preparation of 1875 acres per day. A
month saw the end of the sowing. AT
harvest time, fifteen reapers manned with
drivers and binders, went into the field
and $50 acres were cut, bound and shocked
each day; a few days saw the last shock
capped. r., e. e--. ...st.. =
And, now the first that was cut was
ready for the great steam thresher@ That
is placed in Convenient position, and
teams haul the grain as fast as the throat
of the great iron cylinder, driven by steam,
can pass it through. The grain having
become dry in STOCK while the cutting
was going on, is now bagged and hauled
to the Mississippi River as fast as
tLreshed, and sent direct to market. Fiji
teen thousand dollars profit remained to
reward his enterprise for single year.
Mr.. Dalrymple retired from farming for
a few years, but we see that he has opened
a new farm, and has raised 800 acres of
wheat the present season, and harvested
with nine self-hinding reapers i'll one
week. Only one man is employed to each
team, and twelve men follow the nine
reapers to shock the wheat. He now
harvests the wheat at one-fourth the ex-
pense of former years. It is stated that