The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1901-12-04
IN THE BIG WHEAT Fields.
How HARVESTING Is CARRIED on IN
WHOLESALE FASHION.
my sweetheart"
TIE END.

The United States Department of
Agriculture has published a valuable
bulletin, No. 20, Division of Statistics,
on Wheat Growing and General
Agricultural Conditions in the Pacific
Coast Region Of the United States"
1t is prepared by Edwin s.. Holmes,
jr., of the Division of Statistics. We
reprint a few paragraphs, to illustrate
the important part which machinery
bears in the great wheat fields of the
West and without which the enormous
export trade III this source of national
wealth would be impossible
The wheat growing region of the
Pacific Coast is located in the States of
California, Oregon, Washington and
Idaho. The first impression made ON
The Eastern visitor by observation OF
the farming methods in vogue in This
region is that there is Il total difference
between them and those to which he
has been accustomed IN the East.
Everything relating TO farming opera
tons in this section, from the sowing
of the seed to the harvesting of the
crop, rs at variance with the methods
employed in his Eastern home, and he.
not infrequently makes comparisons in
favor of what he terms the more ecouo-
mlcal and thrifty sty lc of farming in
his w part of the country, but on
closer investigation he becomes CON
vinced that Eastern methods and poll
cies will hardly fit The conditions as
they exist on the Pacific Coast. Me-
thods which give the best results in
the East would often be totally worth
less on the Pacific Coast, and conse-
quently, owing TO its peculiar natural
conditions and resources, the Pacific
Coast region has n farming system
which is distinctivcly its own.
Tho use of machinery of great
capacity, which means an economy of
human labor, but which often means a
waste of grain, is another distinctive
feature OF this region, particularly in
the great valley areas of California.
Everything in the machinery line has
always been ON a large scale. Pioughs
are set i'll gangs, reapers and headers
are built with cutting bars of unusual
length, and every effort is made to
combine several operations into one,
thus enabling onc iuan to plough and
cultivate the greatest possible area of
land with as many horses as he can
control.
"The broad, level fields of the grain
country, particularly in the great valley
of the Sacramento and San JOAQUIN
rivers, favor the use of the most pom
dcrous and complicated machinery, and
this fact has led>to the introduction of
the combined harvester, by the use of
which il is possible for three or four
men to control the strength of tweuty-
four to THIRTY six horses in cutting.
thrashing, recleaning and @sackine
gram, and several operations being ac-
complishcd as rapidly as the horses can
pull the machines yer the ground.
"iThe Pacific Coast wheat region, as
c%onsidered in this bulletin, embraces
all of the wheat producing lands OF
California, Oregon and Washington,
and the northern portion Of idaho,
which is practically, Il continuation of
the great Palouse Valley. Methods
employed i'm cultiyatiOg and harvest.
ing. wheat in this section are radically
different from those in any other sec4I
ton of the country; in fact, even diff
ferent sections of the Pacific Coast re-
gion have entirely different methods
DO h of tIlling the soil and harvesting
the crop.
Sc Ploughing IN tho Sacramento Val
ley Is quite generally done by gangs Of
from four to fourteen ploughs, with a
six or eight mule team, and TO an aver
age depth Of about three inches. At
Ieched to The rear OF the plough and
dawn by. The same team is a Broadcast
Feed sower which sows the seed as. sast