The Dickinson press., 1910-01-08
RAISING FLAX At BEACH
MAKES OWNER 1885, 100000

Dakota has heard of J. X. Smith, the
FLAX King of Beach. The follow
ing interesting article from the Golden
Valley Chronicle deals with the meth
ods he employed in clearing up over
$50, 600 during the year just closed and
is good criterion of what energy and
brains may accomplish in this section
of the country.
Strangers in Beach last fall were COLI
siderabIy astonished at seeing a huge
gasoline engine come putting into town.
drawing train of eight huge wagons
(known as tanks) each loaded with
125 bushels of the slippery little
seeds-an even thousand 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, which he sold at an
average of $3.50 per bushel, yielding
the sum of $4,000 Deducting the cost
of breaking. sowing. harvesting. thresh
ing and hauling to market-$11 .O85-
leaves him $50. for his season S
work-enoueh' to keep the wolf from
the door for another year and by that
time. with good luck, he will hive eked
out some more.
Mr.. Smith was. prior to the past year,
never an actual farmer. but confined
his efforts, during his seven years. re-
sidence in this locality to land dealing
As member of the Golden Valley Land
and Cattle Company of St Paul, his
land deals were LARGE and numerous,
his headquarters being at Sentinel
Butte When Beach began to show
symptoms of becoming something more
than whistling post in supposedly
arid region he transferred 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
any body or anything-the railroad not
excepted.
In his dealings MIR. Smith obtained
title to several large tracts of land,
and after the sale of the Golden Valley
Land and Cattle Company to the Ston-
dali Land and Investment Company he
continued the land business as an inde-
pendent operator. and with the begin
| ming 1909. found himself possessed of
seven sections, just over the border
| in Montana, seven miles southwest of
Beach.
He determined to turn farmer after
investigating the merits and possibili-
ties of the Hart-Parr tractors and ascer-
tanning that, by good management,
breaking and pulverizing could be ac-
complished for about ST. so per acre,
and that the crop could be put in. har-
vested, threshed and marketed with en-
gines much cheaper than with horses
hence the elimination of the equines
from his agricultural scheme.
He purchased two Hart-Parr engines
rated at % horse power, two six bot
tom Emerson gang plows, five 12-foot
sod crushers, three 12-foot disc drills,
ten binders, ten wagons and separa-
tor-the whole outfit costing $40, 900,
and which is now. after one season S
work, practically as good as new.
He commenced breaking on April IS
with two outfits. each consisting of an
engine gang plow and a crusher, and
worked night and day until 1. 200 acres
of the virgin sod had its roots kissed by
sun and wind. Then one outfit was
taken off and the engine used for
seeding by day, but returning to the
breaking stunt" by night. One hum
dred and thirty-six acres was the larg-
est days work for the one engaged in
seeding, and shows how puny the efforts
of horses and men would be in compar-
ison. When the seeding was finished
on the 23rd of June, %. 900 acres had
been broken and sown to flax. In the
interim, between seeding and harvest.
another 1000 was broken, but neither
the cost of this nor the price of machin-
cry equipment figure in the expense ac-
count given below. for obvious reasons
At most, IS per cent is all tina, should
be deducted from the cost of the equip
ment to make up for wear.
When the flax was ready for harvest
each engine had complement of five
binders and the sight was we'll worth a
trip out to the farm. The binders are
equipped with flax attachments. but do
not bind the grain, dropping the bum
dies loose on the ground instead. Be-
cause of the dew the binders were un
able to get to work early in the morn
ing, but al that, each outfit harvested
100 acres per day.
Threshing was begun as soon as the
harvesting was we'll under way. the
machine running out an average of
800 bushels ner dav The xadon train