The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1900-10-24

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machine start in among it's billowy
! ripples, is beautiful beyond dcscrip-
tion. Hardly less wonderful is the
! view over the newly reaped fields
where the shocks are being gathered.
Ceres horn of plenty has surely been
poured out in these heaps of gold
among the yellow, shining stubblc.
The long, steady procession of the
binders, tossing ca: The shcavcs, the
busy workers gathering them up in
tbs shocks, the limitless level ground j,
the limitlcss burning blue sky above
"a July day Oil w!ica: farm is c day
to be remembered, if only for the
sheer beauty Of the scene.
Then comes the thrcshing. the bust
est time Of all. The binders have
used (our picturesque man Of stats
tics again as authority enough twinc
to tie two New England States togeth-
or and anchor them to Minots Ledpa
out in Boston Bay. Now the thrcsl
must cut all his-inevitable, but
necessary waste!-and must thresh
out the grain at the rate Of two or
three thousand bushels a day, while
the accumulatiDg straw is dragged or
blown away to keep it from ovcrwhelm-
ing machine and men alike. Labor
saving as this big machinc is, we see
that it takes thirty men to run it.; yet
never hand touches the wheat sheaf
from the time it tumblcs into the self
feeder to the time when the grain
flows from the thrcshcr' spout into
the wheat tanks on wheels which cart
it away steadily to the elevator. In
deed, wo may 60 further than this,
and say that, from tank to elevator,
from elevator to car, from car to mill,
from mill to barrel, no human hand
again comes in contact with the wheat
until the cook mixes the -four into
dough and bakcs it in the oven. It is
all triumph Of organization and ma
chinery, marvellous to the outside
observer.
But more marvellous yet-and this
will hardly be bclieved-is the fact
that the small wheat grower in Da-
kota, in Minnesota, in Iowa, in Kan
sas, in Oklahoma (and, in fact, every
where within that basin Of the Mis-
souri, River, which is the granary of
America, and the largest wheat bear
ing region of the wofld), is actually
getting more profit yearly out of his
wheat than the great bonanza farmer.
All the organization in the world will
not make hired labor. plus expensive
machines, as profitable as the deter
mined toll of farmer with family
of ten, for instance. The farmer 8
wife helps; the children help; the
single plow, carefully driven, gives a
bushel moro to tlo acre than che
"gang plow" does; and there is little
or no wages to pay. The largo farm,
experts say, will soon split up into
small holdings, or run at decreasing
| profit.
More marvellous still is the state
ment, recently mad. by the president
OF the British Association. that even
the wheatfelds of the West cannot
long supply the needs Of this CONT
ncnt alone, no matter how carefully
they arc formed, by one man or many.
The wheat bearing lands of the world
are limited, and the wheat eating Cau-
casian race increases steadily. BY
1881 there will not be enough wheat
to 60 around, Sir William Crookes
asserts. Looking over the rich gold
of the Iowa fields, or up at the stupcn.
dous grain elevators of Chicago, the
very idea seems impossible. Over five
hundred million bushels Of wheat
were grown in the United States in
1898; and yet the average yield is
| calculated to be only about twelve
bushels to an acre. We can surely
trust American wits to get 80 work to
raise that average to twenty-five bush
els by 1881! And, indeed. one opti-
mistic Yankee immediately answered
the British pcssimist by asserting
that the United States would contract
to supply Great Britain's utmost
orders for thirty years to come if the
price were only securely fixed at a
dollar a bushcl.
We must not forget. besides, those
whcatficlds Of the West that lie be-
yond the Rockies. Washington
already has an average yield Of over
twenty-five bushels to the acre, against
Minnesota's thirteen. Whole sec
tions in Oregon give forty bushels to
the acre, and California has her big
wheat farms, as golden as the sands Of
her old placer camps: Her giant har-
vesters cut swath fifty-two feet wide,
aud reaps, threshes and sacks the
wheat as it goes, covering hundred
acres day, aud turning out eighteen
hundred sacks or SO Of grain. Ii
seems as if, however the rest Of the
country may brag, the Pacific slope
| o1uayo bao tho 1sat word. ond thara