216
AGRICULTURE
so great that even horseback communication is too slow. The farms are separated into divisions, and lodging-houses and dining-halls and barns are scattered over them, so as to keep the workmen and teams near the scene of their labour. The men living at one end of the farm may not see those at the other for months at a time. Even then it is necessary to take the meals to the men in the fields rather than allow them to walk or ride to the dining-halls. It is not an unusual thing for a working crew to find themselves at the dinner hour two miles from their hall. First, after burning the old straw of the previous year— which is real labour in itself, so enormous is its bulk— comespl theghploughing. This begins in October. Ploughing. The 0U USed has a 16-inch share, turns two furrows, and is drawn by five horses. Each plough covers about 250 acres in a season, travelling an average of 20 miles a day. The ploughing begins in October, and continues a month or six weeks, according to the season. The ploughs are driven in “gangs” under the eye of a superintendent, who rides with them. From eight to ten of these ploughs follow each other around the vast section. If one stands a few rods ahead of them they seem to be following one another in a line; but, if one stands to the right of the “gang,” one sees that the line is broken, and that the second plough is a width farther in the field than the leader, and so on for the entire number. Experience shows that it costs about 70 cents an acre to plough the land in this way. About forty men are employed upon a farm of 5000 acres during the ploughing season. The men are paid by the month, and receive about $25, including their board. They breakfast at five o’clock, take an hour for their dinner at noon—usually in the field—and have their supper at seven. At the end of the ploughing season these particular men are usually discharged. Only eight or ten are kept on a farm of this size throughout the year. The other men go back to their homes or to the factories in the cities, where they await the harvesting and thrashing season. The eight or ten who remain upon the farm are employed in doing odd jobs, such as overhauling machinery, or helping the carpenter and blacksmith, or looking after the horses. The wheat region is a country of heavy snows, and of severe, dry cold; but when March comes the snows begin to melt away, and by April the ploughed land is dry enough for the harrow. The harrowing is done with 25-foot harrows, drawn by four horses, and operated by a single man. One man can harrow 60 to 75 acres a day. The seeding follows immediately with four-horse press drills that cover 12 feet. The harrows and drills are worked ” as the ploughs were. Each drill will Seeding. in ^ “fgangs When the rom 20 to 25 miles a day. weather is good the seeding upon a 5000-acre farm will be .done in twenty or twenty - five days. It is usual to seed a bushel and a peck of wheat to the acre. The wheat used for this purpose is carefully selected after the harvest of the previous year, and is thoroughly cleaned of foreign seeds. Through years of cultivation, varieties of wheat have been produced which are particularly well adapted to the soil and climate of this region. It has been found more profitable to use the native “ blue stem ” or “ ScotchFife ” wheat than the seed from any other country, or even from the neighbouring States. Counting the seed, wheat, and the labour, it costs about $1 an acre to harrow the ground and plant the wheat. When the planting is done the extra labourers are discharged again, and the regular ones are put to work on the corn, oats, and millet, which are grown to Labour. £ee(j f-pg horses. The men who do the most important work are all temporary labourers. They come from the cities of the east or the farms of the south.
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They begin with the early harvest in Oklahoma, and work northwards up the Missouri and the Red River until the season closes in Manitoba. They are not tramps, but steady, industrious men, with few bad habits and few ambitions. On well-managed farms drinking and gambling are strictly forbidden. The work is hard, and, as there are few amusements of the farm, the men spend their resting periods in sleep. Their dormitories are usually comfortably furnished, their dining - halls clean. The bonanza farmers find it good policy to feed their men well. Many a strike has occurred in the midst of the harvest because the quality or quantity of the food served was not what it ought to have been. The largest part of this food is brought from the eastern States. Some potatoes, turnips, and beans are grown upon the farms; but the corned beef, bacon, and groceries come from the cities. It is estimated that it costs 35 cents a day to feed each labourer. Farmers say that a good name in these respects enables them to get the choice of workmen, and that no money brings such sure returns as that expended in the bedrooms and upon the food. The harvest labourers begin to arrive from the south about the middle of July, and by the end of this month the harvest is at its height. A farm of 5000 acres will use 75 or 100 extra men. With the harvest. men comes the new machinery in train loads. It is estimated that at least $5,000,000 worth of agricultural machines is annually sold in this region. The wheat farmers say that it does not pay to take undue care of old machinery, that more money is lost in repairing and tinkering an old machine than would pay for a new one. The result is that new machinery is bought in very large quantities, used until it is worn out or cannot be repaired without considerable work, and then left in the fields to rust. Heaps of cast-iron can be seen already upon many of the large farms. Of course a great many extra parts are bought to take the place of those which break most frequently, and some men are always kept at work repairing machines in the field. One of the big 10,000-acre farms will use up two car-loads of twine in a single harvest, enough to lay a line around the whole coast of England, Ireland, and Scotland. The harvesters vary in size according to the character of the land. Upon the rougher ground and small farms the ordinary binders are used; upon the great plains, like those of California, a great harvester is used, which has a cutting line 52 feet wide-. These machines cut, thresh, and stack the grain at the rate of 1600 sacks a day, and cover an area in that time of 100 acres. These machines can only be used where the wheat ripens thoroughly standing in the field. The harvest labourer earns $10 a week everywhere in America. The bonanza farmer expects one machine to cut at least 250 acres, and three men are required for each of them. The harvest lasts from ten days to three weeks, according to the weather. Including the labour and the wear and tear, it costs about 60 cents an acre to harvest wheat. The wheat is not stacked as in the eastern States and in England, but stands upright in shocks in the field. The grain cures very rapidly in the dry climate, ThresbI so that by the time the wheat is all cut and shocked on one end of the division, it is ready for the thresher at the other. The shocks of wheat are hauled directly to the thresher and fed into the self-feeder. It usually takes a day and a quarter to thresh the wheat which it took a day to cut. The farmer estimates that a threshing-machine can thresh all the wheat ordinarily grown upon 2500 acres, so that a 5000-acre farmer would have at least two machines running at the same time. Time is a very important thing in threshing, since a rainfall might spoil enough grain in one night to buy several
