The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1899-10-05
GREAT WHEAT HARVEST
sUsY AND INTERESTING DAYS IN
;'HE NoRTHWESTERN STATES.


The mum of the threshing machine
will be heard for the next few weeks
/ from the east line of Minnesota TO the
/ farther boundaries of the Dakotas.
The land is dotted with grain stacks,
usually in groups of four, though oc-
casionally Il farmer, who makes herd
N flock the prominent feature of his
husbandry, will have his entire crop
stacked in semicirclc round the north
aud west sides of his corral. AT iu-
tervals slender columns of smoke tell
of Steamer" at work from dawn till
dark A stranger in tue country see.
ing the steamer moving from one Job
to another might easily mistake the
outfit for Gn 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 a rack for
hauling straw. Nearly every engine
nowadays is straw burner. Then
comes the separator, u monster ma.
chine with thirty-six TO forty eight
inch cylinder. and sixty-inch separa.
tor. Behind the separator comes the
tank, resembling very closely n
Standard Oil distributing wagon,
which hauls water for the engine from
the nearest windmill pump. Next the
trap wagon" carrying the loose para
phernalia of the outfit and the clothes
and bedding Of the men. II the thresh-
ers board with the owner of the grain
this constitutes the train, but it, as is
generally the case, the owner Of the
machine boards his crew, the grub
shanty,' an ordinary house-wagou,
brings up the rear, making 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 a dozen straw stackers-thc
crew consists of manager, usually
the owner of the machine: engineer.
oiler, waterman, six pitchers and II
cook. The pitchers, three on stack
on each side Of the machine, throw the
handles, higgledy -piggledy 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 weiSher, weighed and
sacked or poured into tho farmers
wagon box. The straw and chaff pass
into the "blower," or automatic
stacker, a 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 or higher. 1t also swings from
right to left, stacking the straw in
semi-circle around the tail of the
machine. At the bottom a "hlower"
or fan forces u 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, bave meals at regular
hours, and keep their men together.
All the farmer has to do is to haul his
wheat to the granary and pay the bill,
ranging from five to six cents a 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 twonty
men, and the farmers wife is de-
lighted with the change.
Twenty years ago q dollar bushel
was considered only n moderately
paying" price for wheat. Ten years
hack, when the market had worked |
down below seventy-fve cents, the |
wheat farmer faced certain bankruptcy
with groGn. Now, farmers in the |
Northwest are selling wheat, and |
making money, at fifty cents 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
n larger surplus from given sum,
but the result is brought about most
Of all by improved machinery and
systemi2ing the business. The gang
plow, the four-horse harrow, the broad
drill, the binder and the header on
the level prairies of the Northwestern
wheat fields have more than doubled
the producing capacity of labor.
As soon as Que crcp is off prepara-
ton for the next is begun. Even
now in the Dakotas and Minnesota
notable progress has been made to-
ward tho crop of 1900. On many
farms a field of forty to 100 acres was
summer fallowed in June. Then,
there is the cornheld, twenty to 100
acres more, needing only to have the
corn stalks dragged to make it ready
for the drill. AS soon as the grain is
IN the stack-and here is the strong
point of the large and increasing mum.
ber who use the header in preference
TO the binder-the gang plow is
The earlier the stubble is
turned under the better the promise
for next year. With fourteen-inch
gang and four good, heavy shres or
Percherons, an old man past tue age
for arduous labor, a cripple, bright
boy OF twelve or thirteen--and on
pinch the farmers daughter can
turn over five or six acres OF the mel.
low soil day Recently at a G.. A.