THE POSSIBILITIES OF AGRICULTURE. 77 



of North America, where land could be bought from 8s. 

 to 403. the acre, and where spaces of from 100 to 150 

 square miles in one block could be given to wheat 

 culture, special methods of culture were applied and 

 the results were excellent Land was bought not 

 rented. In the autumn, whole studs of horses were 

 brought, and the tilling and sowing were done with the 

 aid of formidable ploughs and sowing machines. Then 

 the horses were sent to graze in the mountains ; the 

 men were dismissed, and one man, occasionally two or 

 three, remained to winter on the farm. In the spring 

 the owners' agents began to beat the inns for hundreds 

 of miles rofind, and engaged labourers and tramps, both 

 freely supplied by Europe, for the crop. Battalions of 

 men were marched to the wheat fields, and were 

 camped there ; the horses were brought from the moun- 

 tains, and in a week or two the crop was cut, thrashed, 

 winnowed, put iu sacks, by specially invented machines, 

 and sent to the next elevator, or directly to the ships 

 which carried it to Europe. Whereupon the men were 

 disbanded again, the horses were sent back to the 

 grazing grounds, or sold, and again only a couple of 

 men remained on the farm. 



The crop from each acre was small, but the machinery 

 was so perfected that in this way 300 days of one man's 

 labour produced from 200 to 300 quarters of wheat ; in 

 other words the area of land being of no account 

 every man produced in one day his yearly bread food 

 (eight and a half bushels of wheat) ; and taking into 

 account all subsequent labour, it was calculated that 

 the work of 300 men in one single day delivered to the 

 consumer at Chicago the flour that is required for the 

 yearly food of 250 persons. Twelve hours and a half 

 of work are thus required in Chicago to supply one man 

 with his yearly provision of wheat-flour. 



Under the special conditions offered in the Far West 

 this certainly was an appropriate method for increasing 



