Year: 1876

FARMING BY WHOLESALE.


How Thirty.six Thousand Acres of Wheat


arc Headed and stored In Two Months.


Glen farm, on the Sacramento river,
in California, contains fifty-six thousand
acres, of which thirty-si1 thousand
acres are sown with grain. The ranch
is run by laborers, and constitutes lit
tie city Of itself. When work is in full
running order, say in July, it is carried
on from seven different points. At this
time the working force is nine hundred
people, and they have the latest i'm.
proved machinery to aid them. The
grain is cut with headers, leaving the
straw to be plowed in as manure. The
headers used have sickle blades from
twelve to sixteen feet long, and just
above this knife is revolving frame
that catches the tops of the grain stalks
and bends them over the blade. After
the sickle has done it's work, the heads
of the grain, together with the portion
of the stalk that has been cut off with
them, fall to the rear upon travelling
belt some forty inches broad, which,
running up over a shoot projected from
the left side of the header, carries the
grain out of the header and tips it over
board into header wagon, which is al
ways in attendance.


One working party consists of one
separator, five or six headers, one en-
CINE, some twenty-five header wagons,
seventy or eighty men, and the same
number Of horses and mules. Most Of
the men are Americans, but there is a
sprinkling of three or four other races;
among them, strange to say, the Portu-
guese.


The work is systematized thus: One
of these working parties places itself in a
certain position, and then cuts over an
allotted section. For example: in case
mile square of grain is to be cut and
thrashed, the area is divided, supposi-
tiously, into nine equal parts, and the
working force attacks each of these in
regular order, advancing from one to
another on successive days.


Suppose that upon one Of the many
davs Of the harvest season you get out
of bed at an unusually early hour, and
I again climb to the house top.


You will sweep the horizon with your
glass. Hardly to be seen, even with
that, are some curiously shaped dots,
moving slowly hither and thither. They
seem to crawl like insects, some going
north, some south, some east, and some
west. After while you will distinguish
that nearly every one of these dots is of
deep red color. A little later you
recognize the awkward shape OF the
separators, and the broad topped fun
nels of the engines. Throngs of people,
most of them in wagons, yet some
afoot, follow on behind. After while
all of these now widely separated groups
will come to q standstill. They have
token up their positions for the on
slaught upon the grainfelds as de-
iberately and with as much thought as
batteries take up positions for battle.


When one of these corps approaches
its station, q header, with its attendant
wagons, is sent forward to cut clear
place ir the center of the area to be
worked upon that day. The machine is
pressed upon the wheat, devouring it as
it goes, and then, having accomplished
proper distance, turns and works in a
circle, cutting out bare spot from
three to five acres in extent. This is
the point from which seventy acres of
wheat are to be hewed down, cast into
the thrasher, and sacked for market be-
fore sundown.


Then the separator aud engine, and
all the teams, move forward up the
lane, and into the circle. The first
comes to halt in the center, the second
takes up its position in the rear, and
the headers at once attack the wheat |;
the first taking the first swath of the en-
circling grain, the next the Sc ond, q
little in the rear, and so on.


The betting between the engine and
senarator is adjusted, and the engineer
starts his fires. The shoots that are to
convey the grain from the canvas on the
ground upon which it is pitched from the
header wagons are attached, and the bag
filters bring up their sacks. All the lids
that cover the inner works of the great
machine are drawn over and all is made
fast. The wheels are locked, as are
those of the engine. Great care is taken
to keep all things on as perfect level as
may be, to insure the proper economy OF
force.


They try the engine. It is all right.
The separator clatters in tune, and moth
ing is amiss. Now, then, for the grain
In moment the wagons begin to un-
load. Huge forkfuls are pitched upon
the ground, from which,it is borne into
the recesses of the separator. Then
there ensues a strange combination Of
tremendous noises-a sound of grinding,
q sound of brushing, sound Of thump-
ing, and sound of roaring. The entire
fabric shivers from top to bottom, and
from out every crevice there pours a
thin sheet of dust. The upper part
belches out the waste, hundreds OF
pounds and tons of chaff, and sitting
cloud follows it. In second everything
is on springs. The men who fill the
bags hang them at the edges of the
troughs. The brown flood comes pour
ing down-a stream of clear kernels OF
wbeat-and the days work fairly begins.
From the largest separator in the field
there run out six sacks, or eight hun
dred pounds of grain, fit for market,
each minute. This machine, one day In
August, 1874, thrashed five thousand
seven hundred and seventy nine bushels.
Its owner calls it the Monitor. All the
engines have names as well-Gladiator,
a,I Sbo l;l,a M nOa