The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1903-07-19
WHEAT CROP N
SOUTHERN KANSAS
Visit to the Fields South of
Wichita a Treat.
CHANGE IN FARM WAYS
How the Golden Grain Is Put
Up for the Market.
CHANGE IN FARM WAYS

The wheat in the Kansas wheat belt
ts in shock and probably half of it is in
She stack. The hum of the threshing ma
{ chine can be heard on every hand. Very
little wheat was standing the middle of
the week south Of a line touching the
north line Of Rice county and most Of
the oats was in the shock before the
! middle Of last week
In the two southern tiers of counties
stacking and threshing began in earnest
the first Of last week and by the middle
OF this week there viii be few shocks to
be seen in the great yellow fields while
stacks OF grain will appear in all direc-
lions.
Two sections Of Kansas will not raise
very large crop of wheat this year ow-
ing to floods and the Hesslan fly. but
these localities are few ard far between.
while the general wheat crop could not
be better; in fact, some sections never
saw so much grain raised per acre as
this year and the sheckles have already
begun rolling into the farmers Golfers
In three days of last week two Sumner
county banks paid forty thousand dollars
in wheat checks.
The Kansas farmers harvesting is done
with a well-developed system. OF course
there is a great deal of wheat headed,
especially with the men who have fields
of several hundred acres. but it is with
the small farmers of a community that
a cooperative system is employed which
puts up a quantity of grain in a short
time.
Not every man can stack wheat. Wheat
must be stacked that there will be no
leak in its top and a good wheat stacker
will climb off the ricks with feeling
that not more than the top row of bun
dies will be rotted and unfit to throw into
the machine. He knows that there will
be no holes that viii let water seep
through into the center of the stack. Two
men can stack wheat, but it is slow work
and most stackers prefer that their
stacks will not remain open over night
IL il has reached any height. The aver
age farmer has possibly three hands in
his family. Four men, two ffteen-year-
old boys and three teams can take pref
ty good care of from fifteen to twenty
acres of fair wheat in a day. The farm
or forms a cooperative society with his
neighbor and one of these men is a
stacker. There is one man on the stack,
i another to throw the bundles 10 him,
dies on the wagons while the two boys
load them One good pitcher at the stack
with a man who understands placing the
bundles in the stack, can keep two fell
lows busy in the field because they have
70 walk from one shock TO another.
Many farmers and their families be-
gin in one field and finish it and then
move to the neighbors and put it in the
g. IL, IT,
Sometimes three to four farmers go to-
gether and run two full gangs, two stack
ers five wagons. two men at the stack
and three in the fields with three boys
10 load and drive the wagons to the
stack
When the wheat is in stack the farm
ers begin preparing for another crop.
Usually he is not in very much Of
hurry to thresh. unless he absolutely
needs the money, so he waits until a
machine comes his way.
The threshing machine man hates to
move his rig but when he starts to work
.ariv in the season he is compelled to
move great deal because many farmers
do not care to take the extra trouble
and expense of threshing their grain from
the shock. Six or eight years ago the
ten horse and a thousand bushels day
was big run. This season engines or
twenty and twenty-five horse power with
self feeders and wind stackers thresh
fifteen hundred to two thousand bushels
between sunup and shutdown, which is
che thresher day. Formerly two men
were required to feed the machine. one
fed the machine a certain length of time
oil hp A
feeder is an extra good man about a
machine as the amount OF grain threshed
On a day depends on how well he puts
q into the cylinder There were two band
cutters working then. Now one man
takes the place of four with the aid Of
little machine which cuts the bands
ena feeds the wheat into the cylinder
faster and faster and better than by
,a,a one man takes care of the ma
chine.
In the DAYS Of the straight or circu-
,.r stacker one or two men were re-
o,,;red on the stack. according as TO how
we'll the farmer wanted the straw han
ed and stacked They made a pretty
srack and the straw kept well With the
VINO stacker a man could not live on
straw stack ten minutes He would
he blown fun Of holes. When the wind
stsckers came into use the separator ten
der would delight in showing his machine
10 visitors TO raise the bill on the end ana
b1ow the straw a hundred feet way from
the machine and the straws stick into the
ground man on a straw stack under
the wind stacker would be filled with
straw in two minutes as experiments
have been tried when the straw went
through heavy overalls.
The old-tine feeder has developed INTO
a machine pitcher under the new conal-
lions; that is. he pitches the bundles
into the feeder An experienced man al
this work draws two-bits day extra ior
his work
II The farmer wishes to thresh his grain
<ror, the shock he hires his neighoors
60 helm him. Ten men with wagons ana
teams are REQUIRED 10 haul the grain TO
Che machine. The thresher furnishes
two pitchers. separator. tender ana
engineer; also a water hauler and nve
men 10 pitch in the field The farmer
furnishes ten men with wagons to maui
che grain TO the machine and three men
~ haul the grain away and scoop II into
-. <razsxSs& The shrsshinE machine