The Chickasha daily express. (Chickasha, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1899-current, 1906-05-09
FARMER AND PLANTER
EMPLOYING NEW METHODS.
The One-Horse Piow and the Patch
system Must Give Way 10
Advanced Methods.

dDle OF else ulucLy-uNe PET ccHl. VI
farmers would 90 broke on account OF
the obsolete methods we employ In the
conduct Of our business. In almost ev-
cry other business we might name,
economy Of productions is given the
very closest attention. A great many
of the consultations we hear SO much
Of to-day are brought about for the
avowed purpose OF making possible the
production Of one thing or another at a
smaller cost for labor. But the av-
erage farmer goes along using the same
old methods employed by his father,
and even in some cases by his grand
father. in the conduct Of his business.
This thing must be changed II we ex-
pect to keep up In this twentieth CEN
tury race. We must do away with the
one horse tools.
And we must do away with the meth
cd of patch farming SO much practiced
by our southern farmers. Our fields
must be cleaned up. stumps and other
distractions removed. Then the fields
themselves, as far as possible, must be
laid off in long, narrow strips, so we
may do our work of plowing, planting,
cultivating and harvesting, with. the
less waste of time. and by this means
be enabled to perform twice the amount
of work in the same space of time. We
thus make our crops at one-half their
present cost, as far as the labor item
is concerned.
Take your pencil and figure the ex-
ira time consumed in plowing one hum
dred acres Of land in little patches of
irregular shape over the time neces-
sary to do the work with the same
teams. the land having been laid of
in rectangular fields, say so rods in
length. In plowirg this amount Of land
In sections so rods long your teams
will make about 5000 turns at the ends
Of the lands. This means about 40
hours. or II days time, consumed In
turning wnile plowing the 100 acres
with a two-horse plow. This time
ought to be worth s2S Now If the work
had been done with four-horse gang
plow, turning two furrows at once.
about $12 Of tEis could have been saved.
On the other hand, IL your fields are
only 20 rods long, your turning will
cost you four times as much, or s112,
supposing you are using two-horse
plows and can get man who will
turn his horse and get started back
across the field in one minute.
When we come to the use of the one
horse plow and the furrow only six or
eight inches in width, in connection
with the snort fields the problem is too
complex for u.s., We would be safe to
guess. however. that the time consumed
in useless turning would cost a. round
$500, as against s14 worth Of lost time
by the use Of the four-horse gang plow
and the long fields.
Now consider this matter a little
further: This one hundred acres, II
planted in corn or cotton, will have
to be gone over seven or eight times
at least during the season. Just think
of the extra expense incurred by the
use Of the one-horse .ools. A man with
a one-horse plow working short, ir-
regular shaped fields will be doing
good work II he cultivates one and a
half to two acres per day. while the
same man with q lwo-horse cultiva-
tor and another horse Cat an extra ex-
pense Of rs cents per day. will work
nine to ten acres OF the long fields. The
expense Of the cultivating in the one
case being fully four times that of the
other.
The writer Of this visited the eastern
part Of North Carolina some time ago,
where he saw fields Of the finest black
sandy soil being plowed with the one
horse plow at cost of not less than
81 acre. where the same man with the
gang plow and five horses could have
performed the same work, only In bet
ter shape. at rs cents per acre.
The same rule applies to all our
farming operations. One man will cut
hay with three and one-half or four
foot mower, while another with the
same team will work n six or seven
foot machine doing half more work
at tho same expense.
The hand-working of our crops is be-
ccmiLg too expensive with the labor
al our command to-day. We must pre-
pare our fields better before planting
use accurate machines do our plan
ing that will drop correct number
seeds at the right place, then depend
on the smoothing harrow. the weeder
and some small tooth cultivators to
keep our crops free Of weeds. keeping
acres Of land clean. while the man
with the hoe is working rods.--A. l..
French In PrngrasNiua Earrnnr