Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1900-10-06

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THRAsHER AT WORK Is KANSAS wHEATFIELD
railroads that cross the prairies are
| literally flied TO overfowing. and 1t
| has been found necessary TO begin the
movement of grain toward the markets
earlier than usual in order to provide
storage for the immense yield Some
| idea Of the magnitude of the crop may
| be obtained from the statement that
| this commonwealth alone will furnish
about one twenty-ffth part of the en-
| tire worlds annual product of wheat
! According to reports of the agricultural
department the worlds wheat crop in
| 1898 was in round numbers 100000,
| 900 bushels of go pounds. This was
| the largest harvest ever garnered,
nearly every wheat growing country
| having a full crop. While no figures
are yet obtainable as to the worlds
total output this year, the crop reports
and predictions indicate that it will
| fall many million bushels short of that
of 1898 as in some wheat countries the
! crop is almost if not quite a failure.
| Thus the 100000 bushels of golden
grain which Kansas this year layishly
pours into the lap of commerce cuts a
| conspicuous figure in the great worlds
staple food supply.
Out in Oklahoma there is another
| big wheat crop. How many bushels
the territory will produce l shall not
attempt to say. but it will go a long
way into the millions. The quality of
both Kansas and Oklahoma wheat this
season is unusually good The berry
is firm and hard. and the yield per
acre way beyond the average. ! have
seen large fields that went 40 bushels
| TO the acre and occasionally a patch
J which produced As or 80.
| There seems to be in wheat raising
! something of a fascination for men
who have once engaged in g. some
| thing akin, think, to that which gold
| digging has for the old placer miner.
| To the onlooker there is certainly
| charm and fascination in the great
wheatfelds rolling in yellow waves
awaiting the sickle, and something
| quite interesting and attractive in the
work of harvesting and garnering the
| grain.
Since the writer was q barefooted
boy gathering sheaves and carrying
water for the harvesters on a Mime
sofa wheat farm back in the fifties
there has been a wonderful change In
the methods of harvesting the grain,
though the process of thrashing Is
about the same as it was then. except
that steam is now used instead Of
horse and the operations are carried on
somewhat more extensively. The
work in those old harvest days was
hard and the hours were long, The
same sun was shining then as now
but somehow it seemed to beat down
more fiercely then than now. It rose
earlier than it should by all rules Of
astronomy, and set later, and from
sun up to sun down the harvest hand
followed the reaping machine. II went
round and round the field, dropping off
the unbound sheaves every few yards
la f,~fI ft.4n
five equal divisions called stations, and
a man bound up the sheaves of one
station while the reaper was making
one entire round, and was ready to go
on with the next station as it passed
him; or he was supposed to do this,
and If he did not he was dismissed in
ignominy. He made the band for
tying up the sheaf out of the grain it.
self, making an Ingenious though
simple knot with a peculiar movement
of the hands, drawing it tightly around
the bundle and fastening it with a sort
of half twist, half knot
To thus go on endlessly round O
field, STOPPING over every few yards
and lifting and tying the heavy bun
dies of wheat for u or IA hours, with
the hot sun beating down from cloud
less sky, was work which well de.
served good pay. The man who trudg-
ed about setting the sheaves up into
shocks of a dozen or 20 each had a
task almost as hard, while the luckless
boy who gathered the bundles into
groups tor this man. and whose duties
alss included looking after the water
jug, could often be induced TO con-
fide privately TO friend that he should
follow some other occupation than
wheat growing-a resolution he usually
kept.