Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1892-02-16
WHEAT GROWING IN the NORTH
MAJ.

Iutfv ~ y mAfktu ututtvutC w Nttst
growing 40 Il Was pursued thirty yeArs
ago In Western Michigan aud as Il is
now In North Dakota. Then the writer
piowed and re-plowed, dragged and
cross-irsgged thirty acres of due wheat
land. when harvest time came, the IA
ther and son, with the help of neighbors,
cut the crop With an old-fAshloned
cradle, and bound Il by hand. New, In
North Dakota, one man, With mostern
appliances, crops one hundred and sixty
acres. The cropis quite ~ large per
acre, aud the price per bushel ne high as
were the crops from the limited scrcages
of thirty years sgo. Moreover, the
market is now only three TO h,e, or Il
the most, ten miles from the farm. In
those Michigan days, after the fall wheat
vas safely In the ground Tor the next
year. crop. came the event of the year
hauling the present years wheat crop
thirty-.ix miles to kslsmsroo, where IL
brought an average price Of seventy.
i've cents per bushel. A large part Of
the hauling was done With OK teams,
each load contalning thirty-five bushels
OF wheat, and the round trip taking
three DAYS. Net those trips to and from
Kalamazoo were not without their
pleasure. and mild excitement. When
we struck the plank road ~e generally
found q string of teams q mile long.
The lunch of cold chicken and whole
some bread and butter. with maple
syrup, or pickles, was eaten With gu.io
which can be Understood only by those
Who have been therr. And when the
market was reached. the wheat unload
ed, and good square meal enjoyed,
ho~ we roamed through the future
Hut these explorations
we're brief. for We had 10 retire early
enough Ia obtain the nec~sssry sleep for
q Ave o'clock breakfast and an lmmed'
late start homewsrd In the morning.
That pleasant r,turn drive, the joyful ar
rival home, the display Of purchases,
and relation of incidents, made pleas
an, evening, followed the next morning
by another start for market. And this
Was repeated until the entire crop wss
marketed. The change. 81 the last thir-
ty-fi,e years, great as they have bccu,
are not revelation, but evolution.
To-day, the North Dakota farmer
hliche. four good horses to his riding
gang. or eight on his double gang lfcur
plow., each throwing a foarteen'inch
furrow,) aud turns over six 10 twelve
acres per day. No siumps, no stone. 10
throw out the plow; no knocking . fel-
low. rib. With plow handles. Hut,
mounted on q spring ssai, he rides along
q. easily as In q spring-.ca,et wagon.
IIi. mind !. tolerably free To think of hl.
Alliance, IN. Mckinley nm, Prohibition,
or any other topic of the day; goc.
home at evening, looks over se,ersl
newspapers, and rrtires happy.
In the spring. With IN. same four
horses. he hltche. on Ia his press drill
seeding better than u was ever possible
for him In do In the olien time. even on
well dragged land-puttlng Ia hftecn a.
twenty acr-s of grain daily. and on
ground plowed the previous september
and Oytoter, With No further caw. The
frost and snow has lifted the ground in-
Ia a. fns condition n. could be done by
hand. The seeding IL done In April aud
the hr.t half 80 NAV. And how the
wheat grows. No winter frost az winds
To make afraid, aud In ninety to one
hundred days. The North Dakois
farme. hiiche- on the same four horses
on q -e,en-foot cut binder, and -nch dai
hnd. hftesn acre. nicely bound; or,
what L. much better. he bitches his team
to header and gets thr-- neighbour. To
help him With thr,e two-horse wagons,
and an extra man snd boy, puts IN stack.
thirty Ia thlr,y.d,e acres per day. IL
damp weather sbould happen, he Away.
Ia. plenty % groand to plow, ant ih.
bit 10 knowleige that rain
cannot spoil his wheat, {. IL IL not out
standing In the shock. aud headed grain
will stack a. safely and securely s
bundled grain. Besides, hl. grain.
headed. 1. ready any time for the thrc.l
er. sho I. now equippod Nth men, mas
chine and teams, tents, cooking appara-
tu., and thre.hes out the wheat, deli,cf-
Lug la -ack., 80 to !, go bushels dali, +,
for seven or eight cent. per bushel, or
ten or twelve N from the shock. Tie
farmer. expense of hauling se,euiy.h,c
to Que hundred bushels, At load. Ia th.
near elevator, which l. In sight Of most
wheat farms, !. usually one-half 10 one
and on.-half cents per bu.bel. lie gcis
hi. cash according to whether the
s'bulls" or bears" are on top, aud thus
within Que hundred days from the time
planted, may have hi. cash.
such l. North Dakota wheat-rai.lng,
ai the rate II over ~, $1,000 bushels the
year. ls9l. The picture l. not fancy
painted or exaggerated, but facts. III"
smaller farmer make- a much better p'r
cent, a. ia. labor question !. the serious
one here. Thousands of active young
men can find rrmunerative employment
from the dr., of April until the fifteenth
ot November. Altogether, the cost will
l.. i've Ia ten dollars per acre for farm
ing In North Dakota, aud nearly ten
times a. much more ral.e'i, II all our
good wheat land wss cultivated. such
ar, the almost boundlc-s possibilities of
thi. new state. Whist the farmer doe.
with the money, and Why he is In deb,
and unhappy, Il problem for political
economists. Agriculturist.