Milford chronicle., 1927-07-01
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AN AMAZING CHAPTER OF
WHEAT HISTORY

| its first SWath OF WneaI is noW ndp-
nening in the Wheat Belts. The NC
Cormick reaper could do the work
of many men. 1t hurried the bewild-
eringly swift passing of the Old
Frontier and the Wild West. Will
liam H. Seward said that because OF
the reaper "the line of Civilization
moves westward thirty miles
year."
The self-binder took the place OF
the old reaper and now the com
bine harvester" is taking the place
of the binder. This combination OF
harvesting and threshing machinery
cuts and threshes the grain at one
operation as it is drawn through the
wheat.
It comes roaring across a sun
drenched field. The throaty chant OF
the tractor blends with the silver
song of the combine"
A cloud of dust from the earth
and of chaff from the separator CYL
inders moves with it under the blls-
tering sun. 1t rumbles on and halts.
Wagons pull up alongside the pom
derous machine. A shining stream
of new wheat pours into the wagon
boxes.
There are no numbering wagons
hauling bundles to the machine.
There are no bending pitchforks, no
blackened, sweat-drenched slaves
laboring to keep the threshed-out
straw from smothering the threshing
machine. The new machine cuts and
| threshes the wheat where it stands
and leaves the straw trailing behind
it.
1t took a long time for the first
reaper to conquer the Wheat Coun-
try. It was patented in 1884, but not
until after the Civil War did it come
into general use. The combine" was
tried out first back in the eighties,
out on the Pacific Slope. They took
long time to get over the Rockies
into the great Wheat States. Eight
years ago there were only fourteen
of them in Kansas. Last year Kansas
boasted no fewer than 1874, and
hundreds more of them will be used
there this summer.
They are moving eastward into all
,, the wheat-growing States. Illinois
had about eighty of them in 1926.
Their harvest song was heard in In
diana, Wisconsin, Ohio and east of
the Blue Ridge in'Pennsylvania. The
engineers of every agricultural col
lege in the Middle West, Southwest
and Northwest are experimenting
with them. The general verdict is
tina tthey have come to stay and that
they will profoundly influence the
agricultural outlook of the Nation.
This seems very probable. Here
is machine pulled by a tractor and
driven either by power transferred
from the tractor or on the bigger
machines by motor carried on the
combine" itself. Some of the giant
combines" slash down ad thTesh a
twenty-four-foo "cut" as they move.
When the wheat pours out of them |
it is ready for the bin or the eleva-
tor.
Their average savings over the
older methods amount to from sew
enteen to twenty cents bushel.
Each and every machine eliminates
three high-wage harvest hands.
They save more grain, they save
much labor and they hurry the
wheat from the head on the stand
ing stalk, straight to the elevator.
Beginning away down in the South
west, these machines are now sing
ing their summer grain song, and
before the last field is harvested
along the Canadian border not less
than 10000 of them will be in ac-
ton.
These combines" are opening up !
new lands in Canada and in the !
American West. Railroads are build 1
ing out into the 100000 acres of
sod country that lies along /
the Colorado-Kansas border, in
North Texas, Western Oklahoma and
parts Of New Mexico. Old-time wheat ]
growers are discovering that far {
mer and two boys can grow and har- i
vest 90 to 600 acres of wheat.
Overproduction, now great in good {
wheat years, may be greater. This {
will be bad for the Wheat States. t
On the other hand, labor costs will {
drop. The crop will cost far less to i
produce. This will help the Wheat !
States. I
Fifty years ago the new wheat S
lands west of the Mississippi and /
The Mccormick reaper upset the ag- I
ricultural balance of the world. To- '
lay the combine" is roaring across {
she small grain areas from the Pa {
,ific to the Alleghenies and is threat
ening second turnover that may c
nave a thousand industrial, social I
md political echoes. I
Populism, Grangerism and Free h
Silver all rode out of the Western @