The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-07-19
IN THE KANSAS WHEAT FIELDS
WONDERS OF THE UP-TO-DATE
THRESHING OUTFIT.
Automobiles Of the Plains That Take ALONG
with Them Houses on Wheels, Coal
and Water Wagons and separatOrs--A
Hundred Million Bushel Crop to Handle

HAYS CITY. Kan. July 1s.-Thjs is thresh-
ing time in the wheat belt. Harvest Is
practically over. Since June 20, when
the reapers began to buzz on the lower
side of Oklahoma, the rush has been on.
The work has been rushed day and night.
The farmers in some places wanted to
use the elf-binders and wagons all the
time. so they hired two sets of men and
two sets of horses One shift went on at
I in the morning and worked until in the
evening: then the other worked until
morning.
The latter, when darkness came, hung
lanterns on the harness OF the horses and
on the machines, then went on with the
cutting. Full moon came during harvest
bhis year and helped out wonderfully.
So the farms were quickly sheared OF their
golden fleece.
The merriest Of the laborers were the
college boys who sought the harvest fields
by hundreds Fresh from the class room
they went among the sheaves, donning
blue overalls and wide straw hats costing
10 cents each at the country stores. After
the days work was over they sang college
songs and made love to the farmers
daughters.
Now for the threshing comes the auto
mobile Of the plains 1t is huge clumsy
affair, with wheels six feet high and tires
10 inches across, a canopy over the long
boiler and platform in the rear, where
stands the blue-clothed chauffeur. He
guides the machine with a wheel like his
city cousin and he toots his warning whistle
with as keen a delight in the antics OF the
country horses.
But what a train he takes behind him.
The other day a traction engine and It's
equipment went through the streets of
Kansas City Where it came from nobody
knows--or WHY il was 40 far from the grain
fields could not be told. But 500 people
gazed in wonder at the strange procession.
This sort of thing is common here. and
often in the still prairie night the boot and
soar of its passing awakes the population.
This is it's equipment: First, the huge.
numbering engine from whose smokestack
pours roll of black soft-coal deilement;
next an odd-shaped teetering coal wagon
on two wheels; then towering separator,
or threshing machine, big, red and rattling;
behind this house on wheels; then "A water
wagon and last a buggy. in which slowly
rides the proprietor of the outfit, 80 TO
speak. in his private car attached to the
rear of tire train.
Something to DO proud Of. amt it,
said Tom Whitney as he halted the train
at the foot OF a hill while the engineer raised
the steam pressure higher in the gauge
preparatory TO the climb. I've been
workin' ten years to get this together.
Cost me $1,000 81 800 for the engine and
separator and the balance for eXtrys. I've
got ten good men in that there cook shanty
and a cook who can beat tn band. IF
don't make money this year it amt my
fault"
He will make money all right all the
threshers will this year. They have a
trust. combine. community of interest. =
All through the spring they have been
holding meetings behind closed doors in
the country towns, arranging for the COM
ing of the harvest. Heretofore every
farmer has made his own contract with TIE
thresher and every thresher has charged
what he pleased. As a result some made
only trifling wages; Others lost money.
Practically every thresher in the West
now belongs to the Thresherman's Protec-
tive Union, and schedule Of prices is fixed
from which the farmer cannot escape if
he hires one Of the threshing outfits. II
ranges from four cents bushel, when the
farmer furnishes and boards the hands,
to seven cents when the thresher does il all.
The latter is the common and popular way.
1t means ease for the farmers family and
better times for the crew.
Out against an Usage orange hedge on
the Cooper place was get the cook shanty.
1t is a great oblong kitchen on wheels.
The outside is painted red, and a long win
dow extends from front to rear, its upward
opening forming a screen from the fierce
SUN.
Down the middle of the floor inside are
two wide boards on saw-horses, the
threshers' table white cloth is spread
over it and long benches on either side
make the seats.
The mistress Of the cook shanty stands
near the oil stove at the further end, pic
turesque figure in her clean blue calico
with elbow sleeves and wind-tossed hair.
She rings a bell and the lunch time rush
begins.
The buzz of the machine stops; the smoke
dies down from the engine; a long, shrill
whistle sends It's echoes to neighborng
farms where 1t is answered by other whis-
ties as clear and loud and shrill. Down
from the stacks tumble the tired and dusty
men. OF the loads of wheat come the boys.
The horses are quickly fed, hasty wash
at the water wagon and then the gathering
Mt the cook shanty.
1t is an odd assembly that congregates
around the pine board table. There is the
gray-haired man who has failed at farm
ing and now works for others, the boy
who has never before been in the country,
the half dozen young men, all more or less
in love with the cook: the jolly boss whose
smooth, sun-burned face wrinkles with
perpetual smiles,
Before them is set an array of heaped-up
bread and butter, roast beef, cabbage.
cheese, creamery buttor and coffee, that
would make an expensive meal at first
class restaurant And they do it justice.
They clean up their plates. 1t is no fun
pitching straw all day and there is no better
appetizer on earth than "a position at the
business end OF wind stacker.
1T WIS straw-stacker in my boy days
back in western New York said the boss,
az he showed the workings of his handsome
machine
The new method is better than the old
On the former an endless belt with Stats
across carried the straw up an incline
md two boys were kept busy pushing
II away.
The modern machine has long zinc OF