Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1908-11-26
NORTH DAKOTA FARMING
METHODS BEHIND OURS.
As Elmer BRADSHAW saw Them

the garden spot for wild carrots, until, going
up the Lehigh Valley on my way to North
Dakota last August, ! saw the fields and
cred with snow,'' said Elmer Bradshaw Of
the Institute last week. 'The potatoes they
grow on those lofty slopes haye the same
color as OURS, but they are shaped for their
conditions; they are long, and big at one
end, while il they were round like ours
as soon as they we're dug out Of the ground
would have to sort his own out Of she pile
in the valley below.
81 saw at the New York State line, COWS,
hay, corn, oats, buck wheat and small patch
es Of cabbage and white potatoes with wild
carrots everywhere, at Geneva Lake the
land for quite distance is level and fine.
There is there grown oats, corn, apples,
peaches, pears, grapes, and fields Of beans :
After describing his "trip to Niagara, on the
Canadian side, through Ontario, she land
was leyel, and much OF it damp. The
appearance does not denote progress. The
oats and hay are fairly good; corn, small
and grassy = poorly cultivated. There
were few apple trees and fewer apples.
The farm buildings were small, and houses
smaller. with no buildings whitewashed
and few painted, Dairyipg and stock rails
ing was in the lead Nearing Detroit the
conditions improve very much, with the
land better, better building and good crops.
| The whole 230 miles to Detroit has the
same general appearance. Occasionally the
land is rolling, but not nearly SO much SO
as in Gloucester County.
'.In Ypsilanti, Michigan, which is col
lege town, the streets were all paved, but
had no CUTTERS, and You could walk across
the street on almost the same level.
after leaving Chicago, the land through
Illinois is level, with green fields, evidently
very fertile. We thought it was the best
we ever saw, with great many cattle, much
corn, and very fine large barns, hip rooted,
usually painted red with white trimmings
The houses are smaller than in Jersey. The
farms when sold bring 800 to $50 per
acre, but not many are for sale, save when
farmer gets the western fever and moves
on to the wheat country. In Iowa the land
is very fine. The farms are we'll titled, on
which, both in Iowa and Illinois, there are
lots of pigs; willow trees were on all the
fat lands viii black oaks on the hills In
all the states west of Chicago in the fat
lands willow and cottonwood trees are
planted about the buildings for wind breaks
but there are few fruit trees west of Chicago
In parts of Illinois, Iowa and Dakota there
is no woodland
When we arrived IN Dakota the cutting of
grain was nearly done it and was in shocks.
They were threshing in North Dakota on
September 5, and there the task is done by
what is known as 'threshing rig. The
one essential thing about threshing rig is
the cook car, to provide meals for 25Smen
These threshing rigs go from place 30 place
furnishing all the help. Teams haul the
sheaves to the thresher and the rigs do
everything down to running the clean wheat
into she farmers tight-body wagons, holding
| 125 bushels. The cost Of the ''rig" to the
farmer is ten cents for every bushel Of grain
threshed The wheat is not Ragged, but
put into these tighB-body wagons and the
farmer, with four horses hauls it to the ele-
yator, where it is run onto the scales,
weighed, then tilted, the back lifted aud in
about 10 seconds the grain is stored
"a full threshing rig consists Of an en-
CINE. separator, water wagon, and ~ teams
TO haul the sheaves There are two wagons
unloading at time with two men on each
wagon. pitching into the thresher, which
tbreshes 100 to 200 bushels an hour. About
| 100 acres of wheat can be threshed out n a
day Wheat trains, consisting of So cars
loaded run over the railroads to various
points, and the ground seems fairly to
tremble with the load of golden harvest.
when we drove over to the farm where
we stayed, we were impressed with an end
less line of teams going north, and asked
their meaning. We were told they came
form Minnesota. Every year these farmers
who live on poor ground hitch up their
teams and go to the southern extremity of
the wheat belt, and join tbe threshing
rigs. The men get paid for their own la
Dor as well as for their teams, and as the
season advances they move farther north,
following the lowest, until they work their
wav, sometimes far into Canada. Then
they drive back home, we'll repaid for their
summers work.
BURNING THE STRAW.
s'Out there the farmers have not yet learn
ed the value of straw, and as the wheat is
| threshed the straw is burned. r yniohs