GRAIN FARMING IN NORTH DAKOTA. 
13 
the shock to the machine, four or five field pitchers, two "spike 
pitchers," 1 one man and team hauling water and fuel, an engineer, 
and one or two separator men, one of whom is usually foreman of the 
crew. The farmer usually furnishes the necessary teams to haul the 
grain from the machine. In some cases the crews are boarded by the 
farmers for whom thrashing is done, while in others " chuck-wagons " 
or boarding cars are maintained by the crew. 
The practice is becoming very common in parts of the State for 
farmers to stack grain as soon as it is sufficiently cured, so that the 
crew for thrashing is considerably reduced and thrashing is done at 
a smaller cost per bushel under these conditions (fig. 7). 
Fig. 7. — Many farmers now put up their grain in stacks. 
Table II shows the charges per bushel in 1913 for thrashing from 
shock and from stack the four chief crops in eastern North Dakota, 
as reported by over 100 farmers. 
Table II. — Thrashing charge per bushel tvhere done from shock and from 
stack (1913). 
[Cents per bushel] 
Thrashing method. 
Wheat. 
Oats. 
Barley. 
Flax. 
From shock .- 
10.4 
6.1 
6.4 
3.8 
6.6 
4.0 
25.7 
11.4 
Difference . . . 
4.3 
2.6 
2.6 
14.3 
Information was secured from 110 farmers regarding the amount 
of wheat of average yield that was stacked in an average day's work 
with different crews. Two men with one team stacked 10.7 acres, 
and three men with two teams stacked 14.3 acres. Assuming average 
1 Spike pitchers mount each loaded grain wagon as it comes to the machine and assist 
in pitching to the feeder of the separator. 
