The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1901-01-25

the victim Of careless and indiherenl
work. am not rejecting on the thresh.
erman's honesty or good intentions when
say this; but the force Of men and
teams he has invested in his outfit makes
it almost impossible for him to pay at
tention to those little details which mean
so much to the small farmer. He knows
too, that someone else is anxiously watt
ing for him; he is therefore, THINK.
somewhat justified in rushing and hurry
ing the work, because in threshing, UNI
like most anything else, it is better to
have poor job done than not to get
threshed at all. Added to this is the
heavy price farmer must pay to have
the work done. There are other faults
to be found but those stated are | think
the most important ones. Admitting
then that those objections exist, how best
can they be removed? There is an old
saying ''that God helps them that helps
themselves" My application of that
maxim to the present question would be,
''let the farmer do his own threshing."
That would, as we have proved by ex-
perience on our farm, remove most OF
the objections of our present system. In
the first place, instead of waiting as we
formerly did for machine, we start our
threshing machine just as soon as we
stop the binders. Last year the binders
stopped at noon and the thresher started
after noon, and i'll about ten days we had
ten thousand bushels safely in the gran
airy, so that when the rains came and the
torrents fell, we could remark, as that
famous individual did when he saw
Noah sailing by in the ark, "that it wasn't
much of a shower anyhow" While
there was lots of satisfaction in knowing
that the concaves hadn't slipped down
several times day and allowed lot OF
heads to go through without being
touched, there was satisfaction in know
ing that the scattered grain was gathered
up around the settings; it was also some
satisfaction to know that we had done
it cheaper than by the old method and
that there was no $500 threshing bill to
pay.
While personally look upon the abb
sence of bill as being small part of
the advantages, for any farmer would be
willing to pay good price for good and
satisfactory work and having that work
done just when it wanted doing, and it is
on those points that the greatest amount
of satisfaction is realized. Still the ques-
ton of price is one of the factors in de-
termning whether or not it is feasible
and profitable for the farmer to thresh
his own grain. Now it is a common ex-
preston, that a dollar saved is dollar
earned, and we found we could actually
thresh onr grain for less than two cents
bushel of money outlay, that is by
throwing in our own work aud that of
But In order to make a per.
fectly fair estimate of comparative cost of
threshing our own grain and hiring it
done will estimate OH the basis of pay.
ing the farmer the going wages of the
season for himself and teams, although
you will see at once that a farmer can
afford to work at home for less than he
can get five or ten miles away, for if he is
delayed by bad weather or any other
cause he can start his teams blowing or
doing some farm work. Now We found
that with 15 horse power gasoline en-
CINE and 33-inch cylinder separator we
could average thousand bushels day,
using about 20 gallons of gasoline cost
ing at IL cents gallon $40. We had
bundle teams with basket racks, each
man to 10 I'd and unload his own rack,
costing $A; one straw team with boy So;
two men to run machine and engine and
feed, IS; two boys to cut bands, 81; two
grain teams, So; board, S.; interest on
investment and wear of machine, $40 a
day, making total of 1852, or slightly
over 6 cents bushel to take the grain
from the shock and put it safely in the
granary. Now this believe to be the
actual outside cost. We have never
failed to do it for less and there is no
DOUBT that when people hgve had little
more experience with outfits of this kind
that the cost OF running will be decreased
and the amount of work done increased.
Now from these figures. which l think
are conclusive proof that it pays. without
saying more about the other advantages
OF doing our own work. Is it not rea-
sonable to suppose that it would be
better for the farmer rather than to 20 to
the expense of stacking and then having
his stacks exposed to the weather and
stray Cattle, while he puts in time Of
misery waiting Tor a machine, that he in
vest in small gasoline threshing outfit,
l say gasoline outfit because believe a
gasoline engine to be the most economi-
cal power that is as yet practical for that
purpose, say s, 10, II or Is horse
power, according to the size Of his farm,
and thresh his grain instead of stacking
when it can be threshed for practically
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