New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-08-06
WHEAT FIELDS OF KANSAS.
FROM sEED-TIME TO HARVEST.

fyRos A SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT OF THE TRiBUSEl
HurcuINsoN. Kan, July 19.-"Ten years ago ]
chased herd of buiialo over this town SITE" said
an old resident of Kansas TO me this morning. ana
killed one just about where that large brick block
stands"
To-day the town contains some $500 people,
with banks newspapers school-houses, two large
Touring mills. two three elevators, and sugar
mill was here last Saturday, the market day,
and standing in the crowded main street while the
farm wagons laden with grain poured in in steady
stream, the visitor could only believe himself in a
town whose prosperous life had covered a century.
The loneliness and savagery of the Arkansas Valley
only decade since cannot be realized by one who
now only the activity of trade and listens to
the thunder of express trains.
But with market day in the season Of wheat har-
vesting every railroad town takes on its liyehest
aspect. From the long wooden bridge that spans
the muddy, sluggish Arkansas just onfslde the
town, / counted at one moment thirteen wheat
teams coming from the praries to the elevators.
The farm wagon is an institution of Kansas lie
sembng a long express wagon. its high sides and
generous body will contain fifty bushels of wheat.
Bronzed were the faces and bloodshot the eyes OF
the hardy farmer-drvers from their constant expo
sure to the prairie wind. Their muscles Ike those
of their Flooding horses and mules, were
stfened with their constant toll. Tucked away
with them in the wagons were their wives gaunt,
sallow women. looking out from Tapping sun-bon-
nets, and their sturdy barefooted children 1t was
family holiday, for the first of the wheat crop was
to be Sold and that meant the receipt of hard cash
the first considerable sum of ready money that
had come to the farmer for year. 1t meant the
payment of Indebtedness on his land the settle
ment of outstanding accounts at the village stores,
80 e. &c Sttt,
day clothing for the children, and some addition to
the modest bank account. So there were cheerful
faces In the wagons the farmers drove in-some
to the Touring mills and others TO the elevators.
There, while awaiting their turn, the brawny toll
hardened fellows clambered down and walked
stiffly about among their neighbors, displaying
samples of wheat on their horny palms, aud occa-
sOnally susplcously chewing the golden kernels.
One by one the wagons driven up and the
grain shovelled into the shutes. There was some
thing pathetic in the close eageTness with which
they watched the weighing that determined the
amount of their years income. Out they came from
the suffy Offices where the air was filled with float
ing particles of flour of chat, showing greasy
wallets no longer dattened, down into their over
alls pockets and started for the stores and bank
On each side of the street stood lines of teams and
the little square near the depot was almost filled
with empty wagons, near which the horses and
mules champed their hay, while every shopkeeper
in the place was occupied with the slow. deliberate
purchases Of the farmer and his wife.
1t was yet early in the afternoon when the long
line began to move homeward over the creakng,
wind-swep bridge. Under the seats were slowed
packages of groceries and bundles of all kinds,
while on the bottoms of the empty wagons sat the
children made happy with bits of candy-to them a
81, IL
day had brought. No money had been wasted for
liquor, and the quietness and sober method of the
Kansas harvcsters offered contrast to payday in
any New-England manufacturing town.
SCENES IN THE HARvEsT-FIELD.
The raising and gathering of the wheat crop
which is just beginning to reach the railways, has
peculiar interest for those accustomed to the COM
paratively Lilputian farming of the East. The
prairie is broken up and allowed to lie for a year
Then it is cross-plOughcd and narrowed, and one
reason for the greater of the Mennonites in
wheat-raising is that they plough deeper aud har-
row more thoroughly than the American farmers
In September the winter wheat is sown from drills.
This sower resembles horse-rake, but the iron
teeth are hollow sharp-ponted. and some three
inches in diameter Inside each is a tube descend
ing from the grain-box, that the soft earth is
turned up by the iron tooth, the grain falls INTO the
burrows almost underneath the loan which at once
covers it. From half bushel to bushel of seed is
used to the acre. No further attention is needed
until harvesting time begins, usually about the
middle Of June
There are three machines for cutting the wheat,
Of which the "header' is probably most frequently
used. This has succeeded the prairie schooner
the white topped emigant wagon Of the Santa Fe
Trail--and may not unftly be termed the prairie
he tpr bor is he
name of the machine Indicates 50 as to cut the
ks at half or two-thrds the distance from the
ground, removing the heads and only few inches
of the straw. This cutter-bar is pushed ahead by
team Of four or five horses mules harnesscd
abreast behind. The driver SITS or stands in the
rear of his animals, and guides the machine by q
rudder, the arm Of which passes to q wheel that
runs along the ground just in the rear Of the whole
machine. As the wheat encounters the cuttor-bar
it fails backward upon broad, endless canvas belt
which runs in q wooden frame that rests on the
lower side of the "header-box," which accompanies
the header mounted Oh an ordinary wagon AS
fast as the grain is cut therefore, it is carried up
the belt into the box, and as that is filled
another takes its place and the first is driven away
to the wheat stack and unloaded.
second and still more wonderful product Of
mechanical ingenuity is the reaper and self-bInder
In this the wheat falling at the touch of the sharp
knives upon belt, is carried to the rear of
the machine where il is sized between two curving
iron arms just enough for a sheaf is gathered up
at each movement Of these arms, and cncrccd by 4
stout cord passing through the ends of these arms
hAe the thread i'll the needle of a sewing-machine
Another movement and the shcaf is bound with the
cord, strong knot tied, the Irvine cut and then the
iron arms relax their embrace, and the neat com.
pact shcaf rolls ont behind. 1t is worth visit to
Kansas to of these great rcapers travelling
through 200-acre field Of wheat, which in front
stands tall End erect and behind il transformed
into regular rows of golden sheaves. Another form
OF reaper provided with large paddle-wheel,
thar. revolving at an irregnlar incline brushes the