Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1882-08-23
Thr freemau.
Letter From Minnesota.


DEAR FREEMAN The busy rattling c
the harvester has commenced again an
all hands are now engaged once more il
securing the bountiful crop of small grail
which the year has allotted us.
How swiftly time flies! 1t seems bu
yesterday since 1 took up my pen to tel
yoa of our harvest last year, and nov
arother season has come around. One ha
to stop and think twice before he car
realize that autumn, winter and sprinj
have intervencd since we were following
harvester twelve months ago.
Our harvest is about two weeks behlnc
time this year. The spring was cold, we
and backward. Summer seemed to CONF
very reluctantly, and, indeed, genuine
hot summer weather-excepting now snC
then a day-has not come at all. Ou
nights have been very cool. the mercury
frequently dropping below 80, and th'
days have not been oppressively hot at any
time yet. Corn growers are exceedingly
dubious over the prospect. A larger
amount Of corn was planted in this section
Of the country this year than usual. The
partial blighting of the wheat for the three
years past had led farmers TO think they
must look to some other source than wheat
raising for their profit in farming. and
last fall being SO excessively rainy that
ground could not be plowed to any great
extent, and spring plowing always being
productive of blight and unfavorable
every way for great crop of wheat, the
farmers with one accord, almost, conclud
ed to 60 into corn raising. Corn for the
last six years had invariably done we'll
The demand for it had been good, while
the price Of pork has been such and is
now that anything like fair yield of corn
would bring good revenue; so corn was
planted everywhere and in larger fields
than ever before. The methods of farm
ing were being changed to meet this new
stnto VI thihSS, WnouS AO' hotuo putS uci
foot down on this nice little arrangement
by giving us model season for wheat
raising but one that makes the raising of
corn we'll nigh hopeless Of course it is
too early to preuict what the result will b.
in reference 10 the corn crop. but unless
we have an August and September re-.
markably adapted to this end the corn
cannot ripen. Corn, however, looks well.
1t has thrifty color and the stand is good.
The trouble with it is it is about four
weeks late. II it was only July now
instead of August the outlook for it would
be grand. If we could find good roasting
ears in our fields instead of having to look
sharp 10 find here and there silk we
should be full of hope. But it is hard at
this writing to see how this difficulty is to
be overcome.
After all there is a great deal of wheat
to be cut. On the whole suppose it will
be much better for US if one of the crops
must fail that it should be the corn and not
the wheat. The wheat crop this year is
good, though not as good as it was five
years ago, but it will coma nearer to it
than it has come at any time before. And
taking into account the new farms and
fields that have been opened, l presume
the average of wheat in Freeborn, Waseca
and Steele counties is as great this year as
1t was in 1877. Some fields have suffered
from the rust, and in a few there is some
blight, but on the whole the crop is excel
lent and the heart Of the farm or is m ,de
glad
The constant improvement in machin-
ery has revolutionizsd the methods of our
harvesting. 1t is no longer the hurryIng,
back aching work that it was few years
ago. The introduction of the reaper
caused the grain cradle of the olden time
to be laid away for the moth and rust to
corrode, and made the cultivation of large
fields possible for single farmer. But
the reaper needed to have nimblc hands to
follow it and pick up the grain as fast as
it was reapod, causing hustle and hurry
In tho field where the men worked, and
bust]e and hurry in the kitchen, too. where
the hungry mouths must be filled. The
harvester was an improvement on the
reaper. Two men riding on the machine
could bind as fast rs the sickle could cut,
and do the work of four men binding from
the g found. But the self-bind is super
seding them all. This is a marvel of
Ingenuity and it is interesting to see it
operate. 1t acts like thing OF life-as IL
it thoroughly understood its business and
was conscientious in the performance of
it. The sickle cuts it, the apron elevates
1t and then two iron arms enolrcle the
bundle, passing the wire or twine around
and listening it more firmly than it could
be done by hand. And then it does its
work so neatly. Scarcely straw or head
OF grain can be found over the whole field
that Is not bouni into sheaf. NV boy
Twelve years old will mount one of these
machines in the morning and at night
leave some twelve acres of stout grain
nicely bound and ready TO be put into the
shock.
These machines make the farmers indie.
pendent of hired help to great degree in
the most critical time of the year. For
merly their caprices and whims and
exorbitant demands we're source of
torture to him. He must accept the
services of strangers, foreigners, tramps
and whoever offered themselves and run
the risk of their getting offended or le,y.
ing him when his necessities wers the
gre 'test. And he must take them into his
family for the time being, no matter what
the moral atmosphere might be that sur.
rounded them. Now with his self.binder
he can serenoly go on with bis own work
IN his own time and way and feel that he
Is master of the situation. The relief in
the house is just as great. The self.binder
doesn't ask the tired housewife to spread
liable before it three times every dav nor