The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1911-07-21
N2lG2N RADGE M4GOYOP KZ7XzW on NIzZZZS

forgetting the disadvantages of the harvest
season. 1t has quite escaped his memory,
most likely, how he was routed out of bed
at daybreak or earlier when there was har-
vesting to be done and how he turned in with
the chickens and slept like log from sheer
exhaustion. He has lost all recollection of
the nerverackng anxiety, shared by every
member of the family, lest it rain before the
harvesting was finished, and he passes lightly
over the "reminiscences of those weary hours
under scorching sun with no protection save
broad-brimmed straw hat, it's lofty peak
filled with leaves to help break the force of
old Soils shafts.
harvest time on the farm, past and present.
marks the climax of the year in hard work
and In worry-in short, in nerve and muscular
strain generally. OF course, it will be under
stood that reference is made to the season of
the grain harvest. To be sure, there are what
might be termed harvest seasons at intervals
all through the season, from the time the
Strawberries ripe in the spring, only the
farmer never thinks of dignifying the garner
ing Of these crops by the name Of harvest In
the eyes of the tler of the soil harvest time
means the crucial juncture for gathering the
grain-particulary the wheat-and storing it
away in barns and elevators, or mayhap load
ing it direct the railroad cars that are to
carry 1t to the -four mills or to the ship which
Will carry IL overseas to supply the bread
eaters OF Europe and the Orient.
In the old days practically every farm in the
land had it's harvest time and 1t held the secret
of the profits of the whole years work on the
farm. That this is true no longer is due
simply to that tendency to specialization which
has invaded the farmers occupation as it has
every other field. Nowadays we have chicken
farms and truck farms and fruit farms and
other kinds OF FARMS where attention is so
concentrated upon the one product in hand
that the proprietors do not raise enough grain
for the needs Of their own stock On such
special farms the once universal harvest
time" is unknown. But to make up for them
we have vast farms in the west and on the
Pacific slope. where wheat is the product
specialized, and in consequence we see on
| these big farms harvesting operations which
| IN magnitude and picturesque features so far
| overshadow the corresponding operations on
| the old-fashioned farm east Of the Mississippi
that there is literally no comparison.
| One odd thing about harvesting is that al.
| most all methods are yet in vogue in one
! section or another Of the country The ex.
PLANTATION is found, of course, in the fact that
| the first cost and the operating EXPENSE n,
| the great steam harvesting outfits designed
for the bonanza farms of the west are such
as to make them impracticable for the farmers
controlling small areas. Consequently. these
| farmers are getting along, and getting along
very we'll. with the old-time equipment, modern
| lied by the introduction of some of the i'm.
proVsments devised originally for the big
power machines. We are not any longer har.