Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1883-12-06
bonanza Farming.


The story of the Dalrymple farms has
been told too often to bear repetition.
Mr.. DaIrymple cultivates, for several
owners. about q, 900 acres, farm alto
Oether containing IS, 900 acres. He con-
ducts his agricultural operations on
business methods. Over each 5000
acres is a superintendent, who has a
book-keeper. There is a headquarters
building and a storehouse for the en-
ployes of the farms. Each 6,000-acre
division is made up of three farms of
1000 acres each, and a foreman is
placed in charge of the inclosure and of
its complete set of necessary farm build
ings. The great business is managed
on a wholesale principle. The stores
for feeding and clothing the laborers
are purchased in large quantities, and
sold to the customers at retail. Every
advantage is taken of the markets,
every favorable or unfavOrable turn in
the financial world is watched by the in
telIigent men, who are not diverted
from their business ofraising the largest
possible crops at the smallest possible
cost, and selling them for the largest
possible price, by the 'wearying 1abors
of the field that are necessarily imposed
upon the smaller farmers. 1t is estimated
that the bonanza farmers make one dol
lar more profit per acre than the Ordi-
nary. wheat growers by reason OF the
advantages derived from their larger
transactions in buying and selling, and
the greater attention they are enabled
to pay to the. commercial side of their
business. On the Dalrymp1e farms, it
is stated that the cost of raising the
wheat and delivering it at the railroad
is about thirty-fVe cents bushel; that
the net profit is never less than forty
cents; that the average yield is twenty
bushels to the acre, SO that the net profit
on an acre of land is eight dollars, and
and on the q, 900 acres S216, 900.
There is no thorough cultivation in
the Red River country. In opening the
prairie the soil is broken to depth of
three inches, afterwards the sod is
''back-set, and, finally, the ground is
cross-ploughed. On this scratched sur
face the wheat is raised year after year.
The oldest land of the Dalrymple farms
has been cultivated for eight years, and
as yet there has been no summer fall
lowing. Signals of distress must have
been flung out, however, for it is ex-
pected that rest must soon be given to
the generous but weary soil. The
question is: Can a small farmer, work
ing his own land and raising wheat ex-
clusively after the fashion of the country,
make a large profit? He must buy
everything, it must be recollected, and
transport it to his home. Food for his
stock and for himself, all his machinery
and all his household goods must be paid
for at high prices. If he has a three
hundred and twenty-acre farm and
raises twenty bushels to the acre, and
makes the Dalrymple profit, less the one
dollar which must be deducted for lack
of business capacity or the lack of OPP
portunity to make the most of it, he will
make two thousand two hundred and forty
dollars year. But twenty bushels is not
the average crop. In 1879, the census
year, the wheat crop was unusually
large, and the average product of the
whole country was sixteen bushels to the
acre. Dakota produced about eleven
bushels to the acre in this year, and in
1882 the average yield was fifteen and
nine-tenths bushels. Given sixteen
bushels to the acre, and the profit, still
taking the Dalrymple figures and de-
Quoting the one dollar, and the farmer
of three hundred and twenty acres
will make profit of about one thou
sand seven hundred dollars. If he has
homesteaded one hundred and sixty
acres, and bought the other one hun
dred and sixty acres at, say, three dollars
an acre (four hundred and eighty dol
lars) his proitwill represent very large
interest in his investment. But it must be
borne in mind that very large interest
is essential in SO precarious a business
as the raising of special crop. A late,
wet spring, or a summer without show
ers, may make the wheat crop almost
worthless, and in Dakota there is no
other cereal grown to that extent that
the farmers can fall back on it in a year
that has been disastrous to their wheat.
There must certainly come time when
this exclusive growing of wheat must
give away to diversified farming. The
soil of the Red River Valley is alluvial,
and is blackened by the decayed vege-
table matter which enters very largely
into composition. OF course the fruit
fulness of these lands will be exhausted
in time, and the enormous wheat fields
will be succeeded by smaller enclosures,
devoted to rotation of crops.-C0r.
Boston Herald.