The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1898-12-21
Forty Square Miles OF Wheat.

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 part in
Fresno county and part in MADEIRA
county.
Clovis Cole is the man who is putting
in this vast acreage, and be has under
taken one of the largest jobs that any
man has yet done 10 California.
While it is true that larger acreages
of wheat have been planted by certain
ranches 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 a fertile spot.
Few of the fields were 1000 acres, and
in many instances there would be half
mile of bare land between them. The
acreage planted could not be called
wheat field of 10000 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 fat as q
floor, with gentle slope toward the
river. The outer lines of the field
make it almost perfect square. Each
side is 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 beautiful sight worth seeing when
all the grain is up and waves gently in
the breezes OF springtime. There are
no roads through the Clovis wheat field.
1t 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 hercu-
lean task of harvesting.
To get an idea of the enormous size
of this great wheat field let US imagine
that it is close to San Francisco. III
one end of it one mile wide touched on
I Market street the rest of the field
would stretch one mile wide almost 10
San Jose. This same wheat field is
over four times the size of the improv-
ed portion of San Francisco The
whole city and county Of San Francisco,
including all the outlying district, is
about the same size.
With the big improved machinery it
does not look as though there was
much work spent on planting and har-
vesting 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 plough cutting q
furrow twenty-four inches wide. He
would start at corner of the field in
San Jose, distance of forty miles.
Then he would come back and cut an
other furrow to 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 1900 times, making total dis
lance OF ABOUT lU0, UUU miles.
Suppose that the ploughman worked
at the rate of twenty miles day. To
get over the 105, 900 miles would take
$3.50 days. To plant would take about
the same time, making total of 10, 500
days, or nearly thirty years. 1t would
be like spending fetime, and the dis
lance 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 Clovis wheat field has
to employ over 200 men, over 1000
horses and several tons of big machin-
cry. 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
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 field in
California Francisco Call