The Red Cloud chief., 1884-03-07

> 14V1AoAA60 40AA1U6o
The story of the Dalrymple farms has
been told too often to bear repetition.
MI. Dalrymple c~ultivates, for several
owners, about q. 600 acres, the farm alto
gether containing $4,000 acres. He con-
ducts his agricultural operations on
business methods. Over each 6,0OO
acres is q superintendent, who has a
bOok-keeper. There is a headquarters
building and a storehouse for the en-
plOyes Of the farms. Each 6.OOO-acre
division Is made up of three farms of
1900 acres each, and q 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
tell;gent men, who are not diverted
from their business of raising the largest
possible crops ut the smallest possible
cost, and selling them for the largest
possible price, by tie wearying labors
of the field that are necessarily imposed
upon the smaller farmers. 1t is estimated
that the bonanza farmers make one dol
lar o 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 Dalrymple farms, it
is stated that the cost of raising the
wheat and delivering it at the railroad
is about thirty-five cents a 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
o. an acre of land is eight dollars, and
and on the 27,OOO acres S2l6,OO0.
There is no thorough guilty alton in
the Red River country. In opening the
prairie the soil is broken to u 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 vet there has been no summer fall
lowing. Signals of distress must have
been flung out, however, for it is ex-
pected that a 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
p%ortunity TO make the most of it, he will
make two thousand two hundred and forty
dollars a year. But twenty bushels is not
the average crop. In 1879, the census
year, the wheat crop was unusually
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
the Dalrymple figures and de-
Quoting the one dollar, and the farmer
three hundred and twenty acres
will make a profit of about one thou
sand seven hundred dollars. If he has
one hundred and sixty
acres. and bought the other one hum
dred and sixty acres at, say. three dollars
an acre -four hundred and eighty dol !
lars) his profit will represent a very large
interest in his investment. But it must be
borne in mind that q very large interest
is essential in so precariOus a business
as the raising of especial 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 !
has been disastrous to their wheat.
There must certainly come a time when
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
of these lands will be exhausted
in time, and the enormous wheat fields
will be succeeded by smaller enclosures,
devoted to a rotation of crops.-C0r.
Roxfno H,roII |