The daily Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1878-1???, 1884-02-29
DAKOTA FARMS.
MenWho Number their Broad Acres
by the Tens Of Thousands.
What Delegate Raymond, Quiet, Modest
Young Man, Knows About Farm
ing in the Northwest.
Migratory Farm Hands and Log Rollers
Who Follow the Flight of
the Birds.

WASHINGTON, ID. c., Feb. 28.-A very
large majority of the men composing the
upper and lower houses of Congress are
lawyers. Next to these perhaps in num-
bers are manufacturers, and farmers. Of
the latter class probably no Congress has
had one who conducts his enterprise ON
so large scale as one Of the farmers in
the present House. Delegate RAYMOND
of Dakota, very quiet, understanding
young man of less than forty, is one of
the largest farmers of that large farming
section of the Northwest. Bis home is
in Northern Dakota and His farm 80, 900
acres. On between S,000an 10, 600 acres
of this he raises wheat, while the re-
mainder he reserves for pasturage for
his 900 or more head of cattle To hear
of his methods of farming reminds one
of Florence's stories in his new play of
Facts" and one almost unconsciously
huns "Over the Garden Wall' when he
hears of wheat fields measured by thous-
ands of acres and yielding hundreds of
thousands Of bushels. On the other hand,
one is more ready to believe them when
he looks upon Delegate Raymonds frank
cOuntenance and sees the elegant style in
which he lives here in Washington. His
home is one of the handSomest of the
many handsome residences in this city,
overlooking Iowa Circle, and elegantly
furnished and tasteful in all its surround
ingS.
care there many such farms as yours
in Dakota?" your correspondent asked of
Mr. Raymond as he sat in his office on
Iowa Circle, talking of his Dakota home.
"Not many" he answered. "Of course
there are some much larger the Dalrym-
pie system of farming, for instance, in
Guiding $4,000 acres then there are one
or two farms of 5000 and 10000 acres,
and one near mine of 5000 acres; but they
are not numerous. There are good
many farms of 900 and | 200 acres, but
even these are very small fraction of the
number of farms in Dakota The large
proportion of the farms there are small,
quarter-Sectlons and halt-Sections, for in
stance"
Glow do you conduct operations on
such immense farms as this of yours? In
the same manner as on small farms?"
"Wel, uhe said, ~ keep ten ora dozen
men at this time of the year on the farm
taking care of the stock; in the spring,
when the seeding time begins, | here
thirty or forty and put them to work put
ting in the wheat. After this is done |
discharge most of them until harvest time,
except few whom employ for having a
little earlier. When harvest time comes
employ perhaps seventy-tiye men. put
self-binding reapers into the field, and all
that the men have to do Is to gather up
the sheaves and set them up into shocks.
That used to be boys work few years
ago. The men that we hire for this
work are professional haryesters. They
begin harvesting in Tennessee and work
north as the season advances, and reach
US during the end of the summer, when
our harvesting begins. After the harvest
ends they plunge into the woods and
spend their winter logging. In the spring
they send their logs down the river, and
tramp back to Tennessee and begin their
harvest again to the north. Our harvest
over, we begin threshing at once, taking
the wheat Immediately from the shock to
the steam thresher. We begin with one
on the farm, set
second at work on the second day and
another or the third day, and run along
through the season with three machines
until we finish our $4,000 acres The
wheat is shipped by rail to Duluth,
thence around by lake to Buffalo, where
it is ground into -four"
GLOW far are you from the Northern
line of Dakota, Mr.. Raymond; from Man
itoba?"
"About $50 miles. We are in the same
Red River Valley and have the same sort
of country; perhaps little better in some
respects, but not quite as cold"
care these published reports of dissat-
isfaction among the people of Manitoba
true?"
eyes," he answered, "they are largely
true, and the Indications at present lead
to the belief that Manitoba will some day
be asking admission into the United
States"