The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-10-15

- members represent one of the eisgest businesses in the United states. Fhe American farm annually produces over 4,Uoo. 900. 900 bushels of grain. The crop this year. when the last bushel is to- tailed up, will be found to amount 10 about 4.5o0 ,000, ,eO0 bushels. In other words. if you were to load the sTqln crop of the United States on raiIroaq trains. 1t would take 36,0O0 tweDty-nvs car trains to haul it It would take all of the freight engines in tho uhitea States and. half of the passanger en- gines to move these trains. counting but one engine to the train, and would re- quire more box cars than there are now In operation in the whole country.
 To get at it another way. reckoning the population of the United States, at S5.0o0.00o. the crop of grain the farmer offers the country this year amounts to nearly fifty-three bushels for every man, woman and child. Its value Is enormous. The crop last year was be- low the average. yet even at that 1t was worth. $2,37S,000,o ,o0o,, or nearly $2S per capita.
 The American corn field is almost as big as the whole of France or Ger many. It gives to the world seven, out of every eight ears of corn that are grown, Eight such crops as the one of this year would pay for duplicating every mile. of steam railroad in the United States. with enough left to buy all their terminals, rolling stock. and other holdings. Thirteen such crops would replace the banking power Of all the4 banks in the United States. which includes all their capital. sur" plus. deposits and circulation. In sev- etnesfs years t would replace the banking power of the whole world.
 The American wheat field contains 70. 900 squa re- miles. and Is as big as Roumania and Servia together. It yields, nearly nine bushels for every person withins the United States. and furnishes one-fifth of all the wheat grown In the world. Though man does not live by bread alone, that article Of. diet figures largely in the rations of civilized nations. Statisti- clans estimate that s00.0o0. .00o of the earth'b people eat wheat bread. The annual wheat harvest of the world amount to about 3.o00.000 bushels a year. This means that every man. woman and child of the bread eating nations eats about five bushels year. or about loaf of bread every two days.
 The oat fields of the country yielded
 
 year. and it's value will be oyer s35e,- 000,00D. Two crops like 1t would be enough to give the country every im- portant deep waterway projected. AL though the oats field is only little plat of 30.000.000 acres, 1t is yet big enough to make the oat fields of most countries look like little school gar. dens. Barley contributes two bushels per inhabitant, and each of us could enjoy the bread made from half bushel of rye from the years crop. Buckwheat and faxseed contribute their proportionate share. and the rice fields offer a bushel for every family in the country. The United States grows one-fourth of all the cereal crops of the world, although only one acre out of every ten of its domain is devoted to cereal growing. Yet great as Is the cereal harvest of the United States, Secretary Wilson sees the day within the time, of the present gener. alton when the yield per acre VIII be increased 25 per cent. Couple win that an increase in acreage ot an equivalent percentage. and the resglt would be enough cereals to meet the demands of half of the. worlds present population 5-. It was the dawnlng of the Age, of Horticultural Machinery that made these vast crops possible. Before the dawning of this age the Old Farmer had to work over three hours Tor eV. cry bushel of wheat he produced. ana 1t cost him eleven hours of hard l2oor to cut and cure a ton of hay. The New Farmer can offer. you a hushel of wheat for every nine minutes he works today, and can sell you a ton or nay for every hour and a half ne worAs' No wonder when he rides out he can now take his choice between an Au, tomobile and a Kentucky saddle. horsei No wonder he has a bank account that is "comfortable!" No wonder his sons | and daughters are the best educated children in the community! Who has not seen a lot of cradlers at work in a harvest field. and watch | cd the rythmic sway of the fingered blades, as they leveled the swaths of | wheat? And who has not watched the others who raked and bound after | them? Who has not seen the fellow who led the cradlers enjoy hls extra drink of brandy at noon and evenfng2 And who that was born on farm and Is much past his majority has not | had to help thresh when threshing time came? That was a time when all hands had to work. The neighborhood was raked with a fine-tooth comb. so to speak. to get hands enough. And l the women of the farm,-what won 1 uSI lul lOl UT GOOhlIlS tHey Hdu tO QO to feed the hands!
 That was the day of the Old Farmer. l The New Farmer does things differ entity There Is a man in the neigh | borhood who has a combined har- vester and thresher. He has his own force to operate it. HeI has his own | cook tent.-everything. He moves the whole outfit to the New Farmers place. and in little while the entire crop Is transferred from the waving grain to the bags ready for the miller or | the market. This outfit can cut.t hresh and bag 2.5O0 bushels of wheat in a | single day, and do 1t with less human effort than it used to take to cut the | wheat of a single acre of ground with | a cradle
 | While the crop is being thus gath cred the New Farmer and hts family | have little to concern them. He may | touring car to sell his crop, and his wife Is probably at the home of some equally progressive neighbor at an af- ternoon tea or a meeting of the Wo- mans Club. This New Farmer who manipulates the steering wheel of hls touring car with a debonair air that would do credit to a New York mii- IIonaire probably yielded the cradle or the rake himself in his youth. lie owes the change to the dawning or | the Age of .aachinery. an age which brought about more real progress on the | farm in fifty years than had been made | in the fifty centuries before
 This age of agricultural machinery | h1s not only brought improved metn 1 .Ae nf harvesfInR the crop, but equal