The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1881-09-15
FARMING IN DAKOTA.
Fifty Thousand Dollars Worth of Wheat
from Eifty-FIve Thousand Dollar Farm.

fitsy Thousand Dollars Worth of Wheat
! from u Eifty-Flve Thousand Dollar Farm.
FARGO, DAKOTA, August Is.
what Is known as the Raymond farm
Is declared to be perfection in crop, equip.
( ment and management 1t lies twelve
miles Northwest of Fargo, and contains
about 6,O0O acres. 1t is managed BY
John B Raymond, United States Mar
shai, "one of the men God made" as
they say up here, and is owned by him
and Mr.. Greene. banker of Jackson.
Miss. Mr.. Raymond is an Ilinoisan'
and went to the war rs Il member of Geu-
! eral Logan's old regiment, the Thirty. frat
I Illinois, enlisted at Pekin. He was one
OF the "boy veterans" entering at the
age of Ii, and serving with i nor unit!
tho dissolution Of the armies. when he
settled in Mississippi. Captain Raymond
! Is well known as the last man who smoke
to General McPhonon before the laltcr's
death. lie was Il few feet from the Gen
cral when he fell, and was taken prisoner
by the squad that killed him. The 20
litical revolution in Mississippi, and the
overthrow Of the Rcpl ,ican party there
by the impeachment lhd resignation of
Governor Ames, destroyed his business.
and he concluded to 20 where the de.
spised carpct-baggcr WAS welcome. He
sought the office of United States Mar
shal for Dakota, i'll order to secure n foot.
| hold. and after securing the appointment
and looking the Territory over, concluded
to settle in Fargo and become a land.
| owner. In company with Mr.. Greene, an
! old Mississippi friend, lie bought, in Au-
gust. 1879, II sections ofland, comprising
| 5000 acres
For four sections said Mr.. Ray
mond, whom ! asked for history of his
farm, (Which had been cultivated Que
year, we paid $3.50 an acre; for the new
| land we paid So an acre to the railroad
company. We sold three sections Of the
new land to Marshall Field, of Chicago,
When did you get your first crop?"
| This year. Last Fall we broke three
sections. 1000 acres, for seeding, and put
up buildings" "What is your crop go.
ing to be 2'' 1--WE will have m average
of twenty-five bushels to tho acre, or
about 10000 bushels of wheat"
What was your entire investment ?"
Before we received return from our
crop we will have invested $4,000.
That includes the purchase of our land,
the erection of five barns, q dwelling
house, an elevator capable of holding
900 bushels OF wheat and oats, all the
stock and machinery necessary 10 run
the land, planting and reaping the crop
and delivering it at the market, but you
must remember that we have owned our
farm two years, and that the first year it
was idle, so thnt we lost the interest on
our money by not cultivating it. We
have 1000 acres in wheat, and ell ough
oats to keep our stock. We will get about
twenty five bushels to the acre, which will
be $4,000 bushels from the entire place.
We will save out our seed wheat for next
year, and can then sell the crop for about
$50 900"
"That is your dividend upon sos, 900
Investment" YES, two years divi-
dend; about 80 per cent. for two
years, or As per cent. for one. If VIC had
worked the farm last year we should
have made as large crop. and perhaps
larger, for that was u better year."
Have you figured up what your first
crop mas cost you, outside Of what may
be considered permanent improvements ~
"Yes, can tell very nearly. 1t cost us
Just about an even $40 an acre to make
our first crop. 1t will cost less to make
the second, because there is one less
plOughing 1t takes from 81 to So an
acre to get off n crop, with prudent man.
agement."
GLOW many hands and horses do you
work % Fifty mules and horses and about
forty five men," "What do you do with
them in the Winter7" 'Send them
all to the pineries, the lumber re-
gOns Of Minnesota, under my foreman,
who goes along to see that they are we'll
treated. We get Sl25G month for each
mule for six months in the year. that is
$75 and his kceping-about one half the
cost of the manufacturing that time,
and the rest Of the year we work him
ourselves"
Mr.. Greene, of jackson, Mississippi, 4
native Southerncr, but one of the liberal
kind, came up here the other day to
see the farm, Of which he is part owner,
for the first time. Mr. Raymond
made up party Of ladies and gentlemen.
some residents and some guests, and we
drove twelve miles across the prairie,
mond farmhouses. There were no fences
on the way ; nothing TO divide farm from
farm except a strip Of unploughed turf
| that marks q section line, and which,
under the law, must be reserved for a
| highway, but miles after miles of the
waving grain stretched before us, restless
with soft and undulating motion as the
gentle breeze swept over ii. A green
lawn is charming in June, but there is
nothing in nature so quietly beautiful as
q ripened harvest field.
"How far does your land 60 ?" some
one asked of Mr.. Raymond when we
reached his boundary line. at runs six
miles that way he replied, with mo-
tion, "and four miles the other" There
are some jogs in it, and right in the cen.
tire, only a stones throw from our house,
an old soldier has pre.emption claim
which he is working. We tried to buy
him out, but he thinks too much Of n
good thing"
The farm house was reached lust as
| forty five sun burned, hard handed men
were coming out from their dinner.
They had been at work since O'Clock in
the morning, and had laid low thirteen
strips of grain, each four miles long.
Most Of them were Swedes. Many were
! 'homesteadcrs," who had one hundred
and sixty acre farms somewhere in the
neighboThoo;i, aid were trying to earn
enough to build house and barn. or
buy team, 80 IS to set up on their own
hook next year. They went to the barns
long, low rocfed, but substantial, build
ings, and brought out the horses and
mules, which were drawn up before the
house in.military line for inspection,
and then sent to the field where the thir.
teen harvesters had been left, two miles
away Cor. Chicago Inter- Ocean.