472 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[November. 
Are Large Farmers Desirable P 
In conversing with farmers, and others also, as 
we journey through the country, we hear the fre¬ 
quent expression of a fear that the business of farm¬ 
ing will gradually fall into the hands of a few men—■ 
those who can employ large capital and machinery, 
and work at a greater 
profit and undersell oth¬ 
ers—and that the com¬ 
petition will “ freeze 
out” the smaller farm¬ 
ers. They point to the 
example of the Dalrym- 
ple, and Grandon, and 
Watson farms, etc. [See 
page 432, last month.] 
There is no cause for fear 
in this direction. There 
will doubtless be a num¬ 
ber of such capitalist 
farmers, just as there are 
a few large merchants. 
But the fact that there is 
an A. T. Stewart in New 
York has not lessened, 
but rather increased the 
number of smaller trad¬ 
ers. Machinery, system, 
and wholesale operations 
in farming are economi¬ 
cal under a man of extra¬ 
ordinary executive abili¬ 
ty. But the number of 
persons who can and will 
carry on such extended 
operations is very limited, in farming as in trade. 
The travelling jobbers who supply movable ma¬ 
chinery— harvesters, threshers, etc.— place the 
smaller farmers almost upon a par with the larger 
ones in respect to implements. The man with a 
single team can break and harrow his own land, 
acre for acre, just about as cheaply as it can be 
done by the man who runs a hundred plows by 
hired help, and usually more economically. The 
few great farmers, here and there, such as we de¬ 
scribed in previous Notes, have been a blessing in 
that they have been, in one respect, pioneers in 
showing the possibilities 
of the soil in certain local¬ 
ities, and called attention 
to the profitableness of 
soil culture as compared 
with other pursuits. 
"Working in Gangs. 
In our Notes sent for 
October (p. 423) we refer¬ 
red to the grand sight 
presented by 16 harvest¬ 
ers working together. On 
the steamer we met F. 
alay Haynes, of Fargo, 
Dak., returning from a 
trip to the Upper Mis¬ 
souri, where he had been 
taking photographs of va¬ 
rious interesting points. 
In looking over his port¬ 
folio, we found sketches 
of gangs of Harrowers 
and Seeders at the Dal- 
rymple farms, taken by 
“instant photograph,” 
which he kindly pre¬ 
sented to the American 
Agriculturist, and we for¬ 
ward them herewith. 
They will give the readers an actual view of these 
operations as seen on some great farms in Min¬ 
nesota and Dakota. [Engravings have been made 
from the photographs forwarded by Mr. Judd, 
and are presented on this page.— Ed.] 
Good Land Still Available in Iowa. 
During the last twenty years or more we have 
so often been into and across Iowa, and watched 
Its rapid development, that we had almost come 
to consider this superb agricultural State as “set¬ 
tled up and finished.” But not quite so. Last 
year we saw sundry good plots still open to pur¬ 
chasers along through the two southern tiers of 
counties. Yesterday, starting from Running 
Water, a new village in Dakota, on the Missouri 
River, opposite the mouth of the Niobrara River, 
we journeyed by the new branch of the Milwau¬ 
kee and St. Paul Railroad northeasterly over broad 
prairies now rapidly filling up by settlers. To¬ 
day we are passing through the second tier of 
counties from the northern line of Iowa, and at 
every Station find quite a number of farmers from 
the older portions of the West, who have just 
made new purchases of land, or are prospecting 
with that object. The crops in most places indi¬ 
cate good land; the prospectors speak well of 
what they have seen. We are a little surprised 
to find that there are still several hundred thous¬ 
and acres of desirable land to be had from the 
Railroad and others at $3 to $6 per acre, with 
large reductions in prices to those who buy of 
the railroad and immediately put it under culti¬ 
vation—amounting to $3 to $2.50 per acre. Con¬ 
siderable plots are held by capitalists and others 
in nearly all the north-northwestern counties. 
The larger portions of the railroad lands are in 
Clay, Palo Alto, Kossuth, and Emmett Counties. 
We should judge it preferable to examine the 
available lands in Northwestern Iowa, before going 
far into Dakota, though there are here no lands 
for “ homesteading.” There is plenty of such land 
in Dakota, but one needs the skill to select the really 
good, and to look well to the water supply. If 
there is a finer farming country in the world than 
one can find along the Chicago and N. W. Rail¬ 
road from Marshalltown eastward, we have yet to 
see it; and the region northward, as we have just 
seen it at this writing, scarcely falls behind. But 
these older farms in East¬ 
ern and Northeastern 
Iowa, and indeed in many 
other parts of the State, 
can to-day hardly be 
bought, acre for acre, at 
what ordinary farm land 
will sell for on the aver¬ 
age in the Middle and 
Eastern States of the 
Union. 
Prairie du Chien 
(Bog Prairie). 
Some 24 years ago, we 
visited this town after 
journeying across Wis¬ 
consin, in a tour among- 
the farmers, studying 
their wants, modes of 
culture, etc. It was then 
merely a terminal railway 
station whence we made 
our first trip on the Upper 
Mississippi to St. Paul.— 
Stopping here now for a 
night’s rest,we have visit¬ 
ed the town, or village, 
(or “city” we believe 
they call it), which is situ¬ 
ated so far back from the river and R. R. station 
that those merely passing through do not see it. 
We found it a flourishing place, with some 4,000 
inhabitants, and many fine business and other 
buildings, located on the bench land below the 
bluffs. Several large and successful Artesian wells 
are found here—the water rising from a depth of 
800 to 1,000 feet, with sufficient force to supply 
fountains, to run in pipes to the tops of the 
houses, and save the need of fire engines, and sup¬ 
ply power for manufacturing purposes even. We 
were most interested in a Linseed-oil Mill, just 
started here by Mr. Fa- 
mechon, on a small scale, 
grinding say 25 bushels 
of flax-seed per day, but 
to be speedily enlarged- 
Farmers are receiving 
about $1 per bushel for 
the seed. One bushel 
yields two gallons of oil, 
and this is now all sold at 
the mill for home use— 
the raw oil for 55 cents a 
gallon, and a few cents 
higherwhen boiled, which 
just about covers the cost 
of the seed and waste. 
But it is a profitable busi¬ 
ness nevertheless. The 
“ cake ” is loaded upon 
cars, and sent directly 
through to New York, or 
other Eastern cities, net¬ 
ting about $20 per ton. 
At the East it is fed to 
farm animals, producing 
a rich manure, and thus 
the prairie fertility is car¬ 
ried to and enriches the 
worn-out Eastern soils. 
There are numerous beds of coal throughout 
Northwestern Iowa, so abundant and easily reached 
that it is furnished at the railway stations for $2.50 
to $5.00 a ton, according to its quality and the loca¬ 
tion. It is a soft variety, and contains a good deal of 
sulphur usually; but it answers a very good pur¬ 
pose as fuel in stoves adapted to burning it—a most, 
beneficent provision for this prairie region. O. J- 
(Other Editorial Correspondence given elsewhere.) 
Editorial Correspondence. 
Fig. 1.— A VIEW OF WHOLESALE HARROWING ON THE GREAT WHEAT FARMS OF THE WEST. 
