The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1909-12-31
SUCCESS OF GOLDEN
VALLEY FLAX king
PROFIT ON SEASONS WORK $780,
e15-HAuLED GRAIN TO MAR
kET WITH MOTORS.

49, WV SnSs
Beach, N. D., Dec. 31.--Strangers in
Beach last fell were considerably as
tonished at seeing a huge gasoline en-
CINE come putting into town, drawing
train Of eight huge wagons (known
as tanks) each loaded with 1875 bushels
of the slippery little seeds-an even
1000 bushels of food for the linseed
oil mills, at a trip.
That is the way the FLAX King
marketed his crop, and his crop was
not small, either, being 10000 bushels,
which he sold at an average Of $3.50
per bushel, yielding him the sum of
$4,000. Deducting the cost of break
ing, sowing, harvesting, threshing and
hauling to market-$11 ,095-leaves
him a profit Of something like $s6,915
for his seasons work-enough to keep
the wolf from the door for another
year, and by that time, with good luck,
he will have eI1ed out some more.
Mr.. Smith is certainly entitled to
the appellation FLAX King" and the
story of how he gained the title will
surely prove interesting to all inter-
ested in the now famous Golden VAL
ley.
Mr.. Smith was prior to the past
year, never an actual farmer, but
confined his efforts, during his seven
years residence in this locality, to
land dealing. AS a member Of the
Golden Valley Land and Cattle Co. of
st. Paul his land deals were large
and numerous, his headquarters being
at Sentinel Butte. When Beach be-
gan to show symptoms of becoming
something more than a whistling post
in a supposedly arid region he trans
ferred his office to It, and continued to
sell land and bring in settlers. OF
the latter he has brought in more
than any other person or company,
and in this respect has done more for
the Golden valley than anybody or
anyrhing-the railroad not excepted.
In his dealings Mr.. Smith obtained
title to several large tracts of land,
and after the sale of the Golden VAL
ley Land and Cattle Co. to the Ston-
dali Land and Investment Co, he
continued the land business as an in
dependent operator, and with the be-
ginning of 1909, found himself pos
sessed Of a tract Of seven sections
just over the border in Montana, seven
miles southwest Of this city.
He determined to turn farmer af-
ter investigating the merits and pos
sibilities of the gasoline tractors and
ascertaining that, by good manage
ment, breaking and pulverizing could
be accomplished for about $3.50 per
acre, and that the crop could be put
in, harvested, threshed and marketed
with engines muck cheaper than with
horses-hence the elimination of the
equines from his agricultural scheme.
He purchased two gasoline engines
rated at 22-horse power, two six-bot-
tom Emerson gang plows, five twelve
foot sod crushers, three twelve-foot
disc drills, ten binders, ten wagons
and separator-the whole outfit cost
ing about $4,000, and which is now,
after one seasons work, practically as
good as new.
He commenced breaking on April
Is, with two outfits, each consisting
of an engine, gang pillow and crush
CT, and worked night and day until
1900 acres of the virgin sod had it's
roots kissed by sun and wind. Then
one outfit was taken off and the en-
CINE used for seeding by day. but re-
turned to the breaking stunt" by
night One hundred and thirty-six
acres was the largest days work for
the one engaged in seeding, and
shows how puny the efforts of horses
and men would be in comparison.
When the seeding was finished on
the 23d day of June, 1000 acres had
been broken and sown to flax. In the
interim, between seeding and harvest.
another 1000 acres was broken. but
neither the cost OF this nor the price
Of machinery equipment figure in the
expense account given below, for OBJ
vious reasons. At most, 10 per cent
is all that should be deducted. from
the cost of the equipment to make up
for the wear.
When the flax was ready for har-
vest each engine had a complement
of five binders and the sight was well
worth trip out to the farm. The
binders are equipped with flax at
tachments, but do not bind the grain,
dropping the bundles loose on the
ground instead Because Of the dew
the binders were unable to get to
work early in the morning, but at
that, each outfit harvested 100 acres
per day
Threshing was begun as soon as
the harvesting was well under way.
the machine running out an average
of 500 bushels per day The wagon
train made one trip per day to town
with 1000 bushels, often getting here
in the middle OF the night, SO that
the engine could be used in the field
during the dayIight--thus continuing
the three operations OF harvesting
threshing and marketing simultan-
eously, as 1t were.
Mr.. Smith sold his flax, as has been
stated, at an average OF $3.50 per
bushel, considered at the time to be
very high price. At present the
price frolics around s1.70 so that his
loss by selling at $3.50 is very easily
computed.
His flax yielded sixteen bushels per
acre, his return, therefore. being SEA