Morning journal and courier., 1881-02-05

into extensive ranches or farms under grants by the Mexican government With the q nerican occupation of this section, the land was surveyed and large tracts were held by those who had received grants from the Mexican government, which accounted for the immense farms that we now find in that State. The Professor gave description of a large ranche of Az, GOO acres. Of course only small portion of this ranch, he said, was under cultivation. Only recently has wheat been raised there, and now it is gro VII in immense quantities At this farm they began sowing in November and continued until February. The variety of wheat raised is of that kind that will not shell when it is ripe, and it is often left to stand for weeks after ripening, as during the dry season when they have no rain they can har- vest at leisure. Harvesting here is done by reapers, but in California they have ma chine that only cuts off the heads of the wheat and dumps them into an immense box as it moves along. Everything is done on big scale The speaker gave an interesting description of the harvesting He said the headers, as they were called, would harvest house and it's surroundings of blacksmith shops and machine shops to repair the tools used on this rancho were interestingly de- scribed.
 The laborers were of all nationalities, there being large number of them. They often moved over the ranch with cooking utensils | and tents, and so continuing their harvesting | and stacking of the grain He then referred to another enormous tract of 400, 900 acres, | owned by Carr & Hazard, where 22, ,0OO acres were grown with wheat. A large part | of this land was reclaimed or desert land, l and over 100 miles of ditches had been dug | for irrigation, and from $2 GOO GOO to $3, ,00O | GOO had been expended The enormous | quantities of water put on this desert land l by irrigation before the land became fit for | culture was wonderful Wheat is sown l broadcast by machine, and sixty acres a day 1 were often covered.
 | Dr..Glynn's ranch was next referred to. l It was on the west side of Sacramento river. l He is very wealthy and probably the largest | wheat grower in the world. He sent five l ships to England last year loaded with wheat. | I rode through his wheat field, said the speaker, for fifteen miles, and it is stated that he had 46, 900 acres of wheat under cultiVa- ton last year. The threshing was next re- ferred to- The largest threshing machine
 ever made was on this rancho. The men
 there work in gangs or crews. There are lr
 8 crew 35 men and eighty-four horses to dc
 the cutting. They haul the grain to the
 machine, which is self-feeder, the grain ls
 taken to high point, dumped into the ma , ,f chine and the threshing goes on without f+ermission. The crew at the machine
 con5sts of thirty-one men and twelve horses , All the while that the work of threshing If
 going on the wheat is being placed in sack , and IS earteo to the river and transported tc
 San Francisco.> The greatest threshing eve
 done Tn one day by a machine, and probabl,
 the largest in the world. was 6.183 bushels There was said to be ahout three hundred men at work on Dr. Gtynn's ranch abou half of whom were Chinamen The averag, I yield of wheat in an ordinary year is abou i, twenty bushels to the acre. Ths Professo
 spoke of machine that did the work o
 threshing and clearing all at the same time . These machines had not always worked sue cessfully he referred to one, however, on Mir. Hoffman's rancho that worked more suc cessfully. He said it was an enormous ms
 chine drawn by ten horses or mules, and GU
 a swath IT feet wide. It was man
 aged by four men and would go owe forty or fifty acres in 8 day. To see thi | enormous machine crossing the field was ex
 ceedingly impressive.
 3 The great danger to grain in California wa . from fire, as thousands of acres were some
 times lost in this way.
 Wheat culture in Dakota in the vicinity O
 Bismarck was next referred to. There wer
 about 75, 900 acres in this locality in one far1
 owned by company of which Mir. Dalryn
 pie was the general manager. This farm va t divided into smaller farms of 5000 acres, an j. again into what are called divisions of abor f 1000 acres, each being cared for by a supe e intendent. They have twenty-six stea1
 threshers on this farm. The wheat raise l. here is all spring wheat. The Professor e, ' hibited photographic views of gangs of me z, at work on the farms in ploughing, whic d were examined with much interest by tl h farmers. He said, in closing, he had on r spoken of the large farms, and could not # this time speak of the small farms. Sampl o of wheat from several farms visited were e # hibited by the Professor. The club extende r. unanimous vote of thanks to Professt tt Brewer and then adjourned until the fir l. Friday afternoon in March