Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1880-02-20

Harvesting on n Large Dakota Farm.
Ride over these fertile fields Of Dakota and
behold the working OF this latest triumph Of
American genius You are in a sea of wheat.
On the farms managed by Oliver Dalrymple
are 10 600 acres in one field. There are 9TH
er farmers who cultivate from 100 to GOOO
acres The railroad train rolls through an
ocean Of grain. Pleasant the music of the
ripping waves as the west wind sweeps over
the expansc. We encounter a squadron of
war chariots, not such as once swept over the
delta of the Nile in pursuit of an army of flu
gitive Israelites, not such as the warriors of
Rome were wont to drive, with glittering
knives projecting from the axles to NOW q
swHth through the ranks of an enemy, to
drench the ground with blood, TO cut down
the human race, as if men were noxious weeds
but chariots of peace doing tho work of hui
man hands for the sustenance of men. There
are twenty-five of them in this one brigade
of the grand army Of 49, under the marshal
ship of this Dakota farmer. A superntend-
ent upon q superb horse, like a brigadier di-
recting his forces, rides along the line, accom-
panied by his staff of two on horseback They
are fully armed and equipped, not with
swords, but the implements of peace
wrenches, hammers, chisels They are sur
geons in waiting, with nuts and screws, or
whatever may be needed.
This brigade of horse artillery sweeps by
in echelon-in close order, reaper following
reaper. There is sound of wheels. The
grain disappears an instant, then reappears
iron arms clasp it, hold it moment in their
embrace, wind it with wire, then toss it dis
dainfully at your feet. You hear in the rat
ting Of the wheels the mechanism saying to
itself, See how easy l can do it,"
"A 1 = 4
setting up the bundles to ripen before thresh-
ing. The reaping must ordinarily all be done
in fifteen days. else the grain becomes too
ripe. The first fields harvested, therefore,
are cut before the ripening is complete Each
reaper averages about fifteen acres per day,
and is drawn by three horses or mules.
The reaping ended. threshing begins.
Again memory goes back to early years, to
the pounding out of the grain upon the thresh-
ing-noor with the hail-the slow, tedious
work of the winter days. Poets no more will
rehearse the music of the fail. The picture
for February in the old Farmers Almanac is
obsolete. September is the month for thresh-
ing, the thresher doing its GOO or 700 bushels
per day, driven by a steam-eugine of sixteen
horse-powe Remorseless that sharp tooth
ed deyourer, swallowing its food as fast as
two linen can cut the wire bands, requiring six
teams to supply its demands And what
cataract of grain pours from its spout, faster
than two men can bag it
The latest triumph of invention in this di-
rection is straw burning engine, utilizing
the stalks of the grain for fuel.
The cost of raising wheat per bushel is
from thirty-fve TO forty cents the average
yield, from twenty to twenty-five bushels per
acre. The nearness Of these lands to Lake
Superior, and the rates established by the
railroad-tfteen cents per bushel from any
point between Bismarck and Duluth-give
the Dakota farmers a wide margin of profit.
Since the first furrow was turned in the
Red River Valley, in 1870 there has been no
failure of crops from drought, excessive rains,
blight, mildew, rust, or other influence of
climatology. The chinchbug has not made
its appearance; the grasshoppers alone have
troubled the farmers, but they have disappear
ed, and the fields are smiling with bounty
With good tilth the farmer may count upon
a net return of from eight to ten dollars per
acre per annum. The employment of CAPT
tai has accomplished benefcent end. by de-
monstrating that the region, instead of being
incapable of settlement, is one of the fairest
sections of the continent Nor is it a wonder
that the land offices are besieged by emigrants
making entries. or that the surveyors find the
lands "squatted' upon before they can survey
them; that hotels are crowded that on every
hand there is activity. During the months
of May, June, and July, 1879, the sales of
government land were nearly 700, 600 acres,
and the entries for the year will probably
aggregate 800, 00O taken in homestead, pre-
emption, and tree claims. There are other
millions of acres, as fair and fertile, yet to be
occupied.-C. c. COFFIN, in Hdrper's Maya
zine for March.