432 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



Here, again, is the same result. With a hand-raking reaper the cost is in- 

 creased some three dolhirs on the twenty acres. It is probable that with a 

 ten-foot header, to carry the sheaves for a shock, it may require au extra team, 

 which will, of course, add to the cost, which may be set down at one dollar au 

 acre. 



TO II\UVEST BY H.VN'D TWENTY ACRES. 



Oue cradler, eight days *^6 00 



One binder, eight divys 1^ ^'^ 



Four days' ahockiug up ^ 00 



Total 38 00 



Or one dollar and ninety cents an acre. With a hand-wheel rake four dollars 

 can be saved on the above estimate. 



Should the contemplated improvements succeed, the labor and expense of 

 harvesting will be greatly reduced. In the use of horses and mules we have 

 charged their use at a dollar a span per day. Were it not for this work, they 

 would be nearly idle, while now we make them largely assist in the harvest 

 field. ' 



The cost of reapers is much too great, and the time cannot be distant when 

 it will be greatly reduced both from competition and in the expiration of 

 patents, the tees of which now amount to over twenty dollars on every reaper 

 and mower made. 



THRESHING AND CLEANING. 



We now come to the last branch of our subject. When a boy we threshed 

 with a hand flail, and have winnowed many a week's work with the hand-fan.' 

 If labor had been worth the same then as now, it would have cost over twenty-five 

 cents a bushel to thresh and clean our Avheat. The horse-power thresher is of 

 English origin, and at the time of its first appearance created no smuil stir 

 among the laboring population as infriuging upon their rights. It was sup- 

 posed to be a death-blow to the laborer who depended upon his winter work to 

 support his family. Yet this English machine was but a sorry thing beside 

 one of our improved ones. That Avas, hoAvever, one step out of the old beaten 

 track — almost the first attempt of genius to aid in the labor of the field. Since 

 then what glorious achievements has she not secured, and yet what a field is 

 yet open to her investigation ! 



It was a long time before separators and winnowers were attached to the 

 thresher ; but when once put into operation, they soon became general, and 

 now all machines have oue or the other. In time straAV-can-iers and bagging 

 apparatus were attached, leaving most of the labor to the team. At first 

 farmers owned their own threshers ; but now they mostly belong to jobbers, 

 who go about threshing and ckaning grain at a certain price per bushel, say, 

 for wheat and rye, five cents ; barley, three cents ; oats, two cents. The grain 

 thus threshed is ready for market, thus saving to the farmer the cost of a farm 

 fanning mill and the labor of recleaning and screening, as was the case until 

 within the last few years. 



The stacking of the straw was an important item, so as to save it for winter 

 feed. This is now done by straw-carriers attached to the cleaning apparatus, 

 Avhich deposits the straw on the stack. In feeding these stacks of straw the 

 stock are allowed to help themselves, making their beds on the lee side of the 

 stacks in cold weather. We have wintered our stock at such stacks of straw 

 for several winters, and have never had them do better, without any other feed 

 but the straw, even Avhen we have wintered them on shock corn without 

 husking. 



As the gi'^at mass of farmers on the prairies have no bams, this system of 

 threshing has great advantages. The farmer is at no outlay of capital for 



