The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-11-19
WHEAT FIELD OF $4,000 ACRES.
Ii Would Take One Man Thirty
Years to PIOw and Plant 1t.
From the San Francisco Can.

From the San Francisco Can.
What is said to be the largest single
wheat field in California is now being
planted to the grain that makes the staff
of Iifes 1t covers over q, 900 acres, or forty
square miles.
This enormous field of grain is located
on the banks of the San joaquin river,
near the town of Clovis, in MADEIRA coun-
ty. The field is part in Fresno county and
part in MADEIRA county.
Clovis Cole is the man who is putting
in this vast acreage, and he has under
taken one of'the largest jobs that any man
has yetvlone in California.
While it is true that larger acreages of
wn5dI have been planted by certain ranch
ers in the state, there seems to be no
record of an exact parallel 70 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 diff
ferent places. They were really a series
of fields, located wherever there was
fertile spot.Few of the fields were over 2 900
acres. .aI@d in many instances there would
be half 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 state could be
classed under one head
The Clovis field, however, is an ideal
wheat field. 1t is almost as fiat as a floor,
with a gentle slope toward the river. The
outer liQes of the field make il 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
waves gently in the breezes of spring time.
There are no roads through the Clovis
wheat field. 1t is to be one solid stretch of
grain, 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 viii hardly be completed for the next
two months at least. But the grain will all
mature at about the same time. Then will
come the herculean task of harvesting 1t.
To get an idea of the enormous size OF
This great wheat field, let us imagine that
it is close to San Francisco. If one end
of il one mile wide touched on Market
street, the rest of the field would stretch
one mile wide almost to San Jose This
same wheat field is over four times the
size of the improved portion of San Fran
CISCO The whole city and county of San
Francisco, including al the outlying dis
tricis is about the same size.
With the big improved machinery IL 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 a thing were possible, how
long would it take him?
Suppose the field was one mile wide and
forty mi es long and, the one man had
double gang pillow cutting furrow twenty
four inches wide. He would start a a cor
ner of the field in San Francisco and pillow
south toward San Jose, distance of forty
miles Then he would come back and cut
another furrow in San Francisco, making
eighty miles for the round trip.
This amount of work would only be
tiny scratch four feet wide along one side
of the forty-mile field, and the process
would have to be repeated at least l. 300
times making a total distance of about
105 coo miles.
Suppose that the plowman worked at the
rate of twenty miles day. To get over the
los, 900 mics would take $3.50 days. To
plant would take about the same time.
making a total of 1880 days, or nearly
thirty years. 1t would be like spending a
lifetime, and the distance travelled would
be equivalent to 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 Cows wheat field has to en-
ploy over 200 men, over 1000 horses. and
several tons of big machinery The men
are working early and late now, and IL the
whole acreage is planted by January and
a sufficient quantity of rain falls there
will be such a crop Of wheat as has never
been heard of, for the land is good land
and the seed is good seed Then will
the bread eaters of the world give thanks
for the existence of the largest wheat field
in California.