The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-09-29
HARVESTING IN CALIFORNIA,

From the Buffalo Express.


Wheat raising In California is carried
on upon scale BETTING the state of big
trees and other huge things. The East
erner would be surprised at the methods
followed. The Sacramento Valley. he
may be surprised TO know, is one of the
largest wheat-raising sections in the Unit
cd States. The valley, which lies In the
northern central part Of the state, is about
20 miles long and from forty to seventy
miles wide, and is dotted here and there
by fruit orchards, alfalfa, hop and other
fields, which are profitable TO the agricul-
turists and horuculturlst.
Wheat growing in California is carried
on with the greatest economy Of labor. The
plowing narrowing and sowing are done
by once going over the ground Gang blows
are fastened one behind the other and are
followed by harrows and drills. the whole
drawn by horses. mules or traction en-
gines. An outfit Ike the one described will
plow, harrow and SOW about twenty acres
a day. This work is done during the
rainy season, in the early spring If the
rainy season continues late in spring there
Is always sure to be large crop.
Harvesting Is done by using combined
harvesters, which cut, thresh and bag the
grain all at one time. The machine is
driven either with traction engine or
mules. One Is drawn by thlrty-eight
mules-six rows of six with two leaders.
This harvester could not be drawn up and
down the hills by any other means; mules
being surefooted. will draw the machine
over places that would seem impossible
to one who had not seen II. The mules
pun from an angle several degrees above
where the machine travels. This is done
TO keep the harvester from sliding down.
nil and out of the reach of the uncut
grain.
To operate a combined harvester REQUIRES
five men. They are a driver, a header
runner, a separator tender, sack sewer
and roustabout The driver guides the
mules with one pair of lines. He has a
whipstalk twenty feet long and a lash
twenty-five feet long. He also carries a
box of stones to throw at the mules out
OF reach of his whip whenever they shirk.
The header-runner sits on top of the sep.
arator and with a small wheel regulates
the header, which is twenty feet wide, cut
ting off the heads of the grain only. leav-
ing the straw standing. He also keeps
the separator level while running on I'M
even ground by moving a lever which is
operated with his foot. The separator
tender, who is also general superintendent.
Keeps the machine in perfect order. The
sack sewer sews the sacks and drops them
off on the ground. The roustabout rides
a horse. keeping close watch to see that
everything is running smoothly. In case
of a breakdown, he is on hand to attend to
the needs of the machine
These five men do the work of about
thirty men working In the old way They
harvest, over hilly land, about 275 bags.
140 pounds to the bag. a day, covering
about thirty-hve acres daily. The harvest
ing season lasts ninety days.
The grain ripens in June, and will stand
he barupGfprG
ready. These conditions are due to the
fact that there is no rain, fog, dew o.
moisture of any kind. Consequently, the
grain stand all the season ready for har-
vesting. Large quantities of wheat in
bags may be seen piled up in fields along
the railroad tracks where there are no
warehouses. No one is afraid it will rain;
it never does from spring until fall. There
is a fine wheatfield containing 1000 acres In
the western part of Tehama county, about
fifteen miles west of Corning which IS the
nearest railroad station.
The men running the harvester have a
dining room, water supply tank. horse
feeding racks and all other necessaries on
wheels, moving from place to place. to be
convenient to their work.
There are many large ranch owners in
California. I visited one-D. S. Cone of
Red Bluff-who owns about 100000 acres
He employed 400 hands, raising large guam
wheat His pear crop brought 1886 600. He
keeps three combined harvesters running
an the season on his own land. There are
also large vineyards in California one, the
Stanford. containing 1900 acres. the largest
in the world. A great change, however, Is
taking place. Horace Greeley said in 1859:
Fruit growing is destined TO be the ulti-
mate glory of California" His prophecy
is being fulfilled, Many large wheat
ranches have been divided into small
tracts colonies have been formed and
fruit trees have been planted For an il
lustration, there is a colony called May
mood. situated in the southern part of Te-
hama county. consisting of about 1900
acres. which was all wheatfeld only five
or six years ago. and is now transformed
into a continuous fruit orchard making
homes for Eastern people who wish to live
in a warm, healthful climate
Il can be seen in every direction that
fruit will be grown in place of wheat be-
fore many years have passed.
--s-o-s