Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1881-08-06
A BIG FARM.
A Wheat Farm Of $4,000 Acres In Dn-
kota, md How IL In Worked.
na6nfo and DO ,oo,,o

spondent gives the following interest
ing particulars about one Of the largest
farms in that immense Territory:
A great deal of interest has attached
of late years to scientific farming on a
large scale. have seen nearly all the
big farms in Dakota, but have not yet
made up my mind as to the practica-
bility or profit of mammoth farming.
One of the best big farms in Dakota
is Mr.. Dalrymple's. 1t consists Of
$4,000 acres and cost from forty cents
to $5 per acre five years ago. The
taxes are ten cents per acre per annum
for school, road and county purposes.
There is no government tax. The farm
is laid off into 5000 acre tracts with q
superintendent over each division. He
has foreman and gang foreman under
him. The superintendent subdivides
his 5000 acres into $500 acre lots, and
these also have foremen. ALI the bust
ness is conducted on regular vouchers,
and all supplies are drawn on requi =
sitions, the same as in the army. The
division foreman gives all orders. Money
is paid on time checks, and each work
man receives his money whenever he
wants it. Mr.. Dalrymple is cultivating
%, 1000 acres, and 5000 acres is being
added each year. The crops are sowed
in April, and about three weeks are
taken for the planting season. Wheat Of
the Scotch Fife variety is planted, and
one bushel and twenty quarts is sown
per acre. All the planting is done by
machinery. 1t takes 400 head of horses
and mules to plant the crop. One seed
sower plants about 200 acres, and each
narrower about 100.
The new land is broken aftor the crop
is in, and the breaking is generally
commenced early in May. The land
produces No. l hard Fife wheat, and the
yield is twenty to twenty-four bushels
per acre.
The cutting of the crop commences
August l, and 115 automatic binders
and harvesters are used. OF these 100
are Woods patent and fifteen McCor-
mack's. The sheaves are bound with
wire. The threshing-mac used
are twenty-one in number. The crop
is cut in twelve days, and about one
thousand bushels per day is threshed
on each thresher. The threshers take
a gang of twenty-five men and twenty
horses for each, to haul wheat to the
machines and then to the cars. No
stacking is done on the farm. As many
as fifty cars per day are loaded with
wheat at this farm, the average per car
being 400 bushels. An expert on horse
buck attends each two harvesters when
they are at work.
The seed wheat is taken from the
new land and all the surplus grain is
put into market Immediately after har-
vest. The first yield of wheat from the
land is usually the best; the average
weight of wheat raised on this farm is
fifty-nine pounds. The workers on the
farms are mostly Norwegians, Scandi-
navians and Germans. In the spring
months they are paid $18 per month
and board, during the cutting season
1925 per day and board, during the
threshing season 90 per day and board,
and in the fall $25 per month and
board. In winter only one man for
each forty head of horses is retained
iD service, and he is paid $50 per
month.
In breaking, the first farrow is about
four inches deep; the land is then
backed over the same ground. The
average plowed by each man per day is
about two and one-half acres, and the
distance travelled eighteen miles. After
the ground is backset it is narrowed
and left lay until the next spring.
Every four years timothy and clover is
to be sowed and plowed under to recu-
perate the land.
The cost of raising wheat on this
farm is $11 per acre the first year and
SO thereafter. At an average of twenty
bushels per acre the interest on the
money invested is seventy-fve cents
per acre on the basis that the land is
worth $12 per acre. At this rate we
perceive wheat can be grown and sold
at fifty cents per bushel and the farmer
still make a good living. To put up
good buildings, bins and machinery,
plow and SOW new land, costs SO per
acre, to which if We add SO, the orig
inal cost of the land, it brings the land
up to $12 per acre, which is not excess
sive for good farm. Mr.. Dalrymple
gives the following as the basis of the
operations of his farm:
Cents.
Cost Of raising wheat on the farm, per
| pusnei ;.... ........ .....'............. 30
Freight to New York, per bushel ...... 28
SellihB commission. .................. "a
| Marine insurance, 2per cent. ............ 2
Ocean freight, IL cents. ts........"......... IS
contingencies. Observation-Disclosures. IL
Total cost per bushel to Cork ....... 96%
Cost delivered at New York.. 66
Pleasures of hotel life "Here's q
fly in my soup waiter" "Yes, sir /;
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