The Columbus journal., 1909-07-28

ne ~ Ill Gu
{" the drop of wages. Young Rankin
b-ught IN axe for his father, manu-.
hctured in Sheffield, England, paying
$3.50 for it. As good an axe can be
had to-day for sixty.6ve cents.
Wheat was harvested and threshed by
the same methods that obtained in
the time Of Moses, cutting it with .
sickle, and threshing it with fail.
but it sold for twenty-five cents a bus
bel, and one.fourth of the price was
paid in cash, and the balance in trade.
And the balance Of trade wasn't in the
interest Of the farmers. Calico sold
at forty cents yard, while the mer.
chant bought homemade linen from
the farmers wife at ten cents q yard.
In those days. coal oil was regarded
Is . reliable cure for rheumatism, and
the way of collecting it was to take
the bed blankets and soak them in the
streams where oil had run over the
surface of the water, then wringing
out the blankets and obtaining the oil.
To get their -four, the Rankin fam.
lily sent their wheat to . mill operated
by horses, hitched to sweep, and each
patron had to furnish the power to
grind his grist. At one time young
Rankin made seven trips to the mill,
= week apart, before bis grist could be
attended to, going fourteen miles each
trip with q yoke Of oxen. In the
meantime the family lived on potatoes
and bread made from wheat ground
in q coffee mill, or corn pounded out
in q mortar.
In those days, the mail was for.
warded without postage, but the one
getting the letter had to pay twenty
five cents to get it out of the postofice.
That meant it cost q farmer four bus
hels of wheat to get q letter out of the
postofice, since only one-fourth Of the
price of wheat was paid in cash.
As the price Of farm products was
cheap at that time, it is not strange
that farm land was low. Mr.. RAN
kin's father traded . COW and q filley.
worth about $50, for quarter section
of land. Another farmer did even
better, obtaining as good a quarter as
as there was in the country for $50,
and he traded u yoke Of oxen for the
land, as he had no money.
1t was along about 1856 that the
farmers got the cradle a. successor to
the sickle, and this was q great i'm
provement in wheat culture. Wheat
also advanced u 80 cents q bushel,
but the price was paid in Mexican sill
yer.
In 1916, having attained his MAORI.
ty, David Rankin started out for him.
SELF He admits he chose farming be-
cause he was unable to get job as q
clerk. No one, he says, seemed to
think he was smart enough to make q
good clerk. 1t is hardly necessary 20
say he has never regretted his choice,
even if it was forced upon him. Mr..
Rankin began his career with one bull
as assets. He purchased another to
complete the yoke. paying So for the
animal in work. A new pillow point
cost S., and he had to 60 in debt for
that, and couldn't get it until he found
a friend to 60 his security. However,
Mr.. Rankin never begrudges the
money invested in farm implements.
In 1847, Mr.. Rankin drove a bunch
of cattle to Chicago, driving them
across the prairie, 50 they could feed as
they travelled. There were no regular
packing houses in. those days, except
in the winter. They were all closed in
the summer. as there was no such thing
as cold storageand refrigerating plants
in those days.
In 1848, Mr.. Rankin, ever on the
alert for improved machinery, bought
one of the earliest types Of reapers.
1t wasn't to be compared with the mo.
dern selfbinder, but it was a great i'm.
provement over the cradle. 1t cost
1925, and cut five.foot swath. Three
men were required to operate it.
One of the advantages of the new
machine was that it enabled Mr.. Ran:
kin to carry on his harvest without
whisky, for the first time. Whisky
had always been considered as stimu-
liant to the harvesters, but Mr.. Rankin
with hia new machine nroved II wasn't