The Ward County independent., 1922-08-10

Farming on Big Scale in California
MADEIRA, Calf, July 81, 1922.
Ward County Independent,
Messrs. Truax & Colcord,
Gentlemen:
| l have been wanting to write you
for some time and enclose the amount
due on my subscription and to thank
you for your kindness in continuing
| the paper as it is very welcome
visitor to our home. But on account
of being so busy l have neglected it.
I think editors are endowed with an
extra amount of patience and extend
grace to more people than any other
class Of men.
| am enclosing a few newspaper
clippings which may be Of interest.
There are lot of things l would
| like to write about but time will not
permit me to do it. l will just jot
down few things which you may
| fix up and print.
| think great many people have
a wrong conception of California, as
to its agricultural and fruit growing.
Especially when they think of
it being mostly done in small tracts.
do not know of place where farm
ing and fruit growing is carried on
in so large a scale as in California
and especially in this Valley. l will
just give few figures Of some of it.
1t does not pay to farm grain on a
small basis here, and from some of
the following figures you will doubt
if it pays on large scale. There are
few farming less than GAO acres. One
man has out 21 sections, IA sections
Il .f 4I,ol I'D STAT fol/
men 70 days to cut their crop. l was
told recently of one man that was
cutting an average of 80 acres day.
They use the combined harvester
which cuts and threshes at the same
time. They cut 20 to "a and as much
as 80 feet wide. One man is running
\ 1000 bags (2A bu. to the bag) of
barley in a day. The yield per acre
varies greatly, much worse than Da-
kota. The general yield this year
is from 2 bags to bags, most of it
1 to S bags. But one man has
record crop on the lake. His wheat
averaged 81 bags (2A bu.) and barley
So bags per acre. He has sold 115,O00
bags of barley already. His combin
ed crop of wheat and barley will be
100000 bags. The grain is mostly
delivered to the warehouse by mule
CedIHS 0 W. Il, oC1uHS ou' III ptt!l D
with to a wagons coupled together
and one man driving, bringing in as
much as 400 bushels at trip. Some
is delivered by large trucks.
Now Q little about the fruit farm
) ing and melon growing.
Last year they shipped 20 cars of
watermelons day from here in their
season. They are not shipping so
many this year on account of the
strike. The farmers of Turlock had to
! haul home 8 carloads recently on ac-
count Of no cars for them. They de-
liver the melons in trucks with trail
ers attached bringing in 10 tons at a
trip. One truck driver told me he
brought in 16 tons Of figs at a trip.
The melon season is about over now
: and the peach season is on. One man
near this town has a 160-acre peach
orchard which is said to be the or
chard in the state. Not the largest
but the best.
There have been some vineyards put
out of 800 acres and one fig orchard
: of $4,000 acres. From the amount of
vineyards that are being planted a
person would wonder where they
would find sale for all the grapes and
raisins. And now with all the fore
going figures, "it is not all gold that
glitters". I have never seen place
that there are so many things to con-
tend with and so much work to get a
crop. Everything has to be sprayed
and no end to the cultivation and just
recently the army worms have come
in and wrought serious damage to
vineyards. One man spent $150O.OO
in fighting them. So we need not be
discouraged fighting the grasshopper
in North Dakota.
In war time there was great boom
here in raising rice, and some got rich
at it, but since then more have gone
broke at it.
could give some more figures of
various things that. are carried on
here on a large scale such as dairy
farm Of $50 cows. Some large chick
en- ranches and large herds Of sheep
and the honey bee business, ETC., ETC.,
but I see my letter is beginning to
lengthen.
Miss Mabel Stake of Surrey, N. D.,
is with us and her sister, Gertrude,
; will soon be here.
We are surely glad for the encour-
aging news we have been receiving
of the crop prospect in North Dakota.
With kind regards to yourselves and
to all my old friends, am
Respectfully yours,
w. A. w. CULBERTSON.
P. S.- There are only 6 or 8 states
in the union that have as many auto
mobiles as Los Angeles county.