The Calhoun chronicle. [volume] (Grantsville, W. Va.) 1883-1984, 1899-11-21
GREAT WHEAT HARVEST
BUSY AND INTERESTING DAYS IN
THE NORTHWESTERN STATES.

Appearance of IA Thresher's Train rs 1t
Goes From One job to Another-what
the Separator Does-Relative Merits OF
the Header aud the Binder Discussed.
The hum of the threshing machine
will be heard for the next few weeks
rom the east line OF Minnesota to the
'arther boundaries of the Dakotas.
The land is dotteG with grain stacks,
usually in groups of four, though oc-
,asionally a farmer, who makes herd
)r a flock the prominent feature of his
lusbandry, will have his entire crop
stacked in asemicircle round the north
and west sides of his corral. At in
tervals slender columns of smoke tell
If n steamer" at work from dawn till
dark. \ stranger in the country see
ing the steamer moving from one job
to another might easily mistake the
outfit for an innovation in railroading.
First comes the traction engine, not
unlike locomotive engine, although
smaller and painted in brighter colors.
immediately behind the engine is the
tender wagon fitted with rack for
hauling straw. Nearly every engine
nowadays is straw burner. Then
comes the separator, monster ma
chine with thirty-six TO forty eight
inch cylinder, and n sixty-inch separa-
tor. Behind the separator comes the
tank, resembling very closely II
Standard Oil distributing wagon,
which hauls water for the engine from
the nearest windmill pump. Next the
trap wagon carrying the loose para
nj IN nf "a 4 IL
and bedding ofthe men. If the thresh-
ers board with the owner of the grain
this constitutes the train, but if, as is
generally the case, the owner of the
machine boards his crew, the grub
shanty," an ordinary house-wagon,
brings up the rear, making q train
from 100 to $50 feet long.
The modern separator comes pretty
near being the ''whole thing" Instead
of the threshing crew of our boyhood
days-drivers, feeders, oilers, hand
cutters, four to SIX pitchers measurers.
and half dozen straw stackers-the
crew consists of n manager, usually
the owner of the machine; engineer,
oiler, Waterman, six pitchers and
cook. The pitchers, three on n stack
on each side of the machine, throw the
handles, higgledy-piggIedy onto an
endless belt the width of the cylinder,
automatic guides straighten them and
the belt carries them under rows of
knives that cut the bands aud then
feeds them into the cylinder. The
grain passes from the winnower into
the elevator, is carried up ten or twelve
feet to the weigher, weighed and
sacked or poured into the farmers
wagon box. The straw and chaff pass
into the blower" or automatic
stacker, steel tube about three feet
in diameter and thirty feet long. This
is set at the beginning of job at an
angle of ten to fifteen degrees above
the horizon and gradually raised as
the straw stack rises to an angle of
fifty OF higher. 1T also swings from
right to left, stacking the straw in
semi circle around the tail of the
machine. At the bottom GLOVER"
or fan forces n draft through the tube
strong enough to carry the straw many
feet from the mouth of the stacker.
Some of the threshers require the
owner of the grain to board the crew,
but most of them have learned that it
pays better to carry their own board
ing house, have meals at regular
hours, and keep their men together.
All the farmer has to do is to haul his
wheat to the grauary and pay the bill,
ranging from five to six cents n bushel.
He finds it great improvement over
the old days when he was obliged to
scour the neighborhood to get to-
gether force of twelve to twenty
men, and the farmers wife is de-
Lighted with the change
TT 1ty years ago n dollar n bushel
was considered only q moderately
paying price for wheat. Ten years
back, when the market had worked
down below seventy-fve cents, the
wheat farmer faced certain bankruptcy
with n groau. Now, farmers in the
Northwest are selling wheat, and
making money, at fifty cents a bushel.
Many factors contribute to make this
possible, but heavier crops and lower
wages are not among them. Lower
prices on nearly everything he buys,
especially machinery, leave the farmer
larger surplus from a given sum.
but the result is brought about most
OF all by improved machinery aud
systemiziug the business. The gang
pillow, the four-horse harrow, the broad
drill, the binder and the header on
the level prairies of the Northwestern
wheat fields haze more than doubled
the producing capacity Of labor.
As soon as one crop is of prepare
ton for the next is begun. Even
now in the Dakotas and Minnesota
notable progress has been made to-
ward the crop Of 1900. On many
farms n field of forty 90 100 acres was
summer fallowcd in June Then.
there is the cornfeld, twenty g. 100
acres more, needing only To have the
corn stalks dragged TO make it ready
for the drill. Az soon as tho grain is
10 the stack and here is the strong
point Of the large and increasing mum
Der who usc the header in preference
TO the binder the gang pillow is
started. The earlier the stubble is
turned under the better the promise
for next year With n fourteen-inch
gang and foJu good heavy sbires or
PorcherOns. an old man past the age
for orduous labor, cripple. n bright
boy OF twelve or thirtceu-and on n
pinch tho farmers daughter can
turn over five or six acres Of the mel
low soil a day Rec entity At n G.. A.
r. campfire in South Dakota. there