The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1899-03-29

VIZ "HedI iarm represent the aVcrag,
annual expenditure for replacing are
keeping up the machinery. Twine il
naturally the larger item on the whea
farm. The Iowa farm supplies its OWL
fuel. On the Dakota farm coal is re-
uuircd.
Here, too, note that the corn farm
is planted with 600 bushels of corn
costing $50, while to seed the wheat
farm requires 5000 bushels of wheat
worth in 1898 $4,000. Again in Da-
kota live hundred acres of oats barely
feeds the 100 head of mules, while in
Iowa 25G acres Of corn feeds the same
number easily. These differences
together with the seed difference and
the twine difference, sometimes handi-
cap the profit account of the wheat
farm $4,000 year to start with.
HOW IT WAS DONE.
The essentials of profitable farm
are good land, we'll drained, but not
too rolling, and accessibility to ca
sonablc transportation. Six thousand
acres being about three miles square,
makes the largest farm which can be
operated to advantage from a single
central station; larger acreage sim
ply means two or more farms.
About April l men and mules move
on the fields in battalions. Four
horse seeders, four-foot harrows, and
six-horse gang-plows maneuver for six
weeks like an army, sowing small
grain, plcving and planting corr.
The minute the small grain is sown 81
corn planters are thrown behind the
plows, and in this work lies largely
the success or failure of the crop.
Note, for instance, the pains taken in
selecting the seed corn.
A perfect stand of corn is the first
requisite of a large yield. From a
choice piece of land previously plant
ed with selected seed about 1000
bushels Of the finest ears are taken.
From these an expert selects 600
bushels. These ears are placed on
racks in building arranged especially
for seed house. Whatever the ther-
mometer registers in Iowa, the tenn
perature in that seed house never falls
below freezing All this insures the
highest terminating power in the
seed, and that alone might, in case of
a cold, wet spring, save the entire
profit of the season by producing a
good stand.
The planting must of necessity be
done by machinery, and to secure the
maximum yield three seed kernels
must be dropped in each hill. If five
drop in, that hill is lost to the profit
account. IF only one, it is partially
lost.
But perfect as American farming
machinery is, it does not leave the
factory perfect enough to insure
against irregular planting. Patiently
and by series of exhaustive tests the
planter plates are so adjusted to the
size of the seed kernels for each year
that they will deposit an average of
sixty-6ve kernels to every twenty
hills, and not more than four nor less
than two in any one. So great arc
the precautions that before the seed
is shelled the tips and butts of the seed
ears are cut off to secure kernels Of ap
even size.
Even after this delicate adjustment
Of the best machinery in the woriG,
foremen follow the 81 planters and al
intervals open hills to count the seed
deposits and make sure that each ma.
chine is doing its work. In addition,
q purse Of 800 is split in eight prizes
between the eight men who do the
best work and whose teams mark the
straightest rows. With such method
is it any wonder that the crop on this
farm averaged go bushels per acre
against the average of 80 bushels as
given lowe by the government report
for 1893?
After the seeding, the narrowing;
and it is done with extraordinary
energy and concentration. One hun.
dred and forty sections Of four-foo.
harrows sweep the fields like charge
of cavalry. Every time they move q
mile 62 acres are covered.
When the $500 acres Of corn are uf
and ready rs two-horse oultivators are
put into it. The point in the first
cultivation one way and in the second
the other way, is to get as close al
possible to the corn; but after the
Mains to nlace IT, there No D1ant mus,