Clarke courier. [volume] (Berryville, Va.) 1869-1997, 1899-01-18
MILES OF WHEAT

oelng planted 10 the grain that makes
the staff of life. 1t covers over 25..
ooO acres or forty square miles.
This enormous field of grain is lo.
Gated on the banks of the San .Joa-
gum river. near the town of Clovis.
IN MADEIRA county. The field is par,
IN Fresno county and part in MADEIRA
county.
Clovis Cole is the man who is mt
ting IN tins vast acreage, and he has
undertaken one of the largest jobs
that any man has vet done in Cali
fOrnia.
While 1t Is true that larger acre-
ages "f wheat have been planted hv
certain rauchers IL the State. Their.
seems 20 ~ no record of sn exact
parallel tn the present case On the
Miller y Lux ranch IN Kern county.
10000 acres were planted in one
Year, but the fields were scattered
abou, IL different places They we're
really series of fields. located wherev
or there WAS IA fertile spot. Few Of
the fields were over 1900 acres, and
IN many INSTANCES there would be
half a mile of bare land between
them. The acreage planted could
not he called n wheat field of $4,000
acres anv more than ali the wheat
fields IN the State could be classed
( under one field.
The Clovis field. however j. ALI
idea wheat field. IL is almost as flat
as floor with = gcutie slope toward
the river. The other lines of the
field make il almost perfect
square. Each side Is little over
six miles. and If the dav is clear ev-
cry part of the field can be seen from
amy other part.
There are no roads TN ough the
+ Clovis wheat field. 1t is TO be one
solid stretch of grain, aud every
square foot of land is to be sterilized.
Flowing and planting began in the
big wheat field about the middle of
last July and will hardly be COM
pleted for the next two months at
least. But the grain will mature
about the same time. Then will
come the herculean task Of harvest
ing it.
With the big improved machinery
it 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 miles long, and the
one man had double gage pillow cut
ting furrow twenty-four inches
wide. He would start at the corner
of the field in San FanciSco aud pillow
south toward San Jose, distance of
forty miles. Then he would come
back and cut another furrow TO San
Francisco, making eighty miles for
the roundtrip.
This amount of work would only
be tiny scratch four feet wide along
one side of forty mile field. and the
process would have to be repeated at
least 300 times, making total dis
tsnce of about lO5, 900 miles.
Suppose that the plowman worked
at the rate of about twenty miles a
day. TO get over the 100000 miles
would take $3.50 days. To plant
would take about the some time.
making a total of 10000 days, or
nearly thirty years. 1t would be like
spending lifetime and the distance
travelled would be equivalent to 90
ing 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 300
men, over 200 horses and several
tons of big machinery. The men
work early and late now, and if the
whole acreage is planted by January
and sufficient quantity of rain falls,
there will be such II crop of wheat rs
has never been heard of, for the land
is good land and the seed good seed.
Then will the bread eaters of the
world give thanks for the existence
of the largest wheat field III Califor-