The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-12-22
SQUARE MILES OF WHEAT
Field That Would Take Man Thirty
Years to >Plow and Plant.
(San Francisco Call.)

(San Francisco Call
What is said to be the largest single
wheat field in California is now being
planted to the grain that makes the
staff of life. 1t covers over $4,000 acres,
or forty square miles.
This enormous field of grain is To-
Gated on the banks of the San Joaquin
river, near the town of Clovis, in Ma
dera county. The field is a part in
Fresno county and part in MADEIRA
county.
Clovis Cole is the man who is putting
in this vast acreage, and he has I'M
dertaken one of the largest jobs that
any man has yet done in California.
While it is true that larger acreages
of wheat have been planted by certain
ranchers in this state, there seems to
be no record of an exact parallel to the
present case. On the Miller & Lux
ranch, in Kern county, $4,000 acres were
planted one year, but the fields were
scattered about in different places.
They were really series Of fields, To-
Gated wherever there was fertile spot.
Few of the fields were 1000 acres, and
in many instances there would be hail
a mile of bare land between them. The
acreage planted could not be called a
wheat field of $4,000 acres any more
than all the wheat fields in the 81 ate
could be classed under one head.
The Clovis field, however, is an ideal
wheat field. 1t is almost as flat as a
floor, with a gentle slope toward the
river. The outer lines of the field make
it almost a perfect square. Each side
is a little over six miles, and If the
day is clear every part of the field can
be seen from any other part. 1t will
be a beautiful sight worth seeing when
all the grain is up and waving gently
in the breezes OF. springtime. There are
no roads through the Clovis wheat field.
It is to be one solid stretch of grain,
and every square foot of land is to be
utilized.
Flowing and planting began in the
big wheat field about the middle OF last
July and will hardly be completed be-
fore the next two months at least. But
the grain will all mature at about the
same time. Then will come the her
culean task of harvesting it.
This wheat field is over four times
the size of the improved portion of San
Francisco The whole city and county
of San Francisco, including all the out
lying district, is about the same size.
With the big improved machinery 1t
does not look as though there was much
work spent on planting and harvesting
the field. But suppose one man had to
handle the crop, if such were possible
how long would it take him?
Suppose the field was one mile wide
and forty miles long, and the one man
| had a double gang pillow cutting a fur
row twenty-four inches wide. He would
start at a corner of the field in San
| Francisco and pillow south toward San
Jose. a distance of forty miles, Then
| he would come back and cut another
furroW to San Francisco, making eighty
miles for the round trip.
This amount of work would only be
! a tiny scratch four feet wide along one
side of the foy-ty-mile field, and the pro-
cess would have to be repeated at least
| 1900 times, making q total distance OF
about 200 miles.
! Suppose that the plowman worked al
the rate of twenty miles a day. To get
over the GOO miles would take 5,25(
DAYS. To plant would take about the
same time, making total of 1O,5O(
days, or nearly thirty years. 1t would
be like spending a lifetime, and the dis
lance travelled would be equivalent tc
going around the world four times. AND
! all in one California wheat field.
To accomplish the necessary amount
| of work within the time at his disposal
! the owner of the Clovis wheat field has
| to employ over 200 men, over 1,00t
horses and several tons of big ma
chinery. The men are working early
and late now, and if the whole acreage
! is planted by January and sufficient
quantity of rain falls there will be
such a crop of wheat as has never beer
lheard of, for the land is good land and
| the seed is good seed. Then will the
bread-eaters of the world give thinks
| for the existence of the largest field in
California.