El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-05-28
By
Frederic
J. Haskin


states 1t costs fully double this amount
TO thresh the crop alone. while the har-
Vesttng operation represents perhaps
much more.
The modern civilization of the world
IS practically built upon the sowing
and harvesting machinery. Without
! these implements il would be impossible
| to furnish the hundreds of millions of
urban residents with the food they re-
quire. So great is the demand for
such machinery, that a completed har-
Vcster is turned out for every two min
utes of every year. 1t is estimated
that the American people require seven
bushels of wheat to the person. Odt
Of which they make 40 loaves of bread
each year. One begins TO realize how,
under the reign OF the farm machine.
bread has been made cheap when he
considers that the average man gets
30 lOaveS bread for a days wage. and
spends the price of 80 loaves for
| theatre ticket and the price of three
loaves for shave
Harvesting Machinery.
The romance of the introduction of
harvesting machinery is one of the
| most attractive in the entire history
| of man. No sooner had Mccormick
perfected his reaper until there were
many imitatOrs and for years there
vas an unending succession of bitter
! fights in the courts. One of these
fights may be said to have been the
cause of the election of Abraham Lin
coin as president of the United States
In the suit against Nanny by McCor-
I mick, Lincoln was retained as counsel
for the defendant, and his $1,000 fee
enabled him to participate in the ia
nous debates with Douglas. which
| made him a figure of national poIit-
zeal Importance.
After the days of litigation came
the period of field tests and cut throat
competition Whitley, originator of
the Champion, was the greatest figure
IN these tests AT one time he had
competition with another machine, and
after failing to outpoint his competi-
tor with two horses, he took out the
one and continued with the other. His
! competitor followed suit and still held
/ even ground. At last, Whitley, in a
moment of desperation. declared that
he could pull his machine himself
He took out the remaining horse and
did actually cut a swath around the
plot with the horse collar on his own
neck One of those who reported this
great field day was Whitelaw Ried
I then a young newspaper writer. and
now ambassador to England.
BY pulling his machine for ten min
utes. Whitley effected a deal with
Warder and Bushnell which Melted him
S2.Oo0,O00. or 100000 a minute After
TINS Whitley shipped seventy car
loads of machines in a single shipment.
I and the present president of the Penn
: sy lVania railroad made capital out OF
this great consignment by sending
them forward in one long, fIag-bedeck-
ed train.
Harvest Contest.
one OF the most unique co1tests ever
pulled off in the introduction Of har-
veSting machinery was that which
! took place some years ago on farm
: owned by the German emperor VII
/ liam The harvester agent offered TO
PIT his machine against forty Polish
women IN a grainfield on the emperor's
! tState- The offer was accepted
{ and the race began. From the
first it appeared that the harvester
would come out ahead It was an easy
winner and today the American har-
vesting machine has no stronger admir-
er than the German ruler
For many years economists figured
thaI the day must come when the Dl1m-
Der OF bread eaters would MAXI tho
demand for wheat greater than the
worlds supply. But with the advent
or the Argentine Republic and Western
Cahada as great wheat growing re-
slonS, these gloomy forebodfngs have
only one-half of the available terri
tory IN the Argentine were sO7Nn in
wheat and the crop therefrOm should
De only ten bushels TO the acre II
would produce an amount equal to one
naI OF the entire crop of the world to-
cay In single season. northwestern
canada produced over 25 bushels to
the acre from nearly 100000 acres of
ground The largest recorded WELD of
wheat on 1000-acre tract is hell h.
the state of Washington. with pro
auction OF 81 bushels to the acre
Hhe1t's Origin Mystery
The geographical origin of wbas+
winch is by long odds the vorl7,s
Erea'est milling crop. never has been
determined Evidence seems 70 noio+
10 Mesopotamia as the home Of n II
once grew Wild in the valleys Of the
IiSrls and the Euphrates. The bo+-
anIst asserts that wheat is a member
o. the grass family, while the eyoIutfon-
Isl declares II to be a degenerate n
black sheep of. the lily family.
He tells Us that before If vas da,-a,o,,
INTO seeding plant by unitarian in
Iluehce@' II bore a flower akin to the
one borne by the ancestors of the cal
Ia lily II the next hundred wears
shaH bring about as great progress in
ire development of the wheat cron aS
mas been brought about in tho nast
hat century. the world will SEP an era
OF bread so cheap that the five cont
toaI OF today may become the penn1,
loaf of that time
Monday-The Riots in Chipa.