1901 
4i9 
THE RURAL NEW-Y OKKi^R. 
THE NATION’S WHEAT FIELD. 
Wholesale Operations in Washington. 
Last week we gave a picture of a great wheat har¬ 
vesting outfit used in California. Two more pictures 
are given this week—both taken from Bulletin 24 is¬ 
sued by the Department of Agriculture. Steam and 
gasoline are used as motive power for some of these 
machines, but horses and mules are also employed, 
especially on the rough and hilly fields. Fig. 172 
shows a combined harvester and thrasher used on the 
hilly sections of California. There are 55 horses on 
this machine, which cuts the grain, thrashes it and 
leaves it in bags. Fig. 173 shows a smaller machine— 
a binder with a 12-foot cut. This is hauled by six 
horses which walk behind the binder. Of course, in 
these big operations, it is not considered important to 
get every head of grain or every straw. The straw 
is cut rather short, and there is a rush to cover as 
much ground as possible in a day. 
The bulletin from which these pictures ai'e taken 
gives an interesting account of the efforts made to 
improve American wheats. Certain Im¬ 
provements are necessary in the great 
western wheat-growing sections. For 
example, in the famous “Palouse coun¬ 
try” there is an annual drought which 
occurs about two weeks before harvest 
time. This often causes the wheat to 
shrivel—hurting both quality and yield. 
An early ripening sort is needed. It is 
said that if some good variety could be 
produced—ripening 10 to 15 days earlier 
than the varieties now grown, its culture 
would add from $1,000,000 to $3,000,000 
to the wealth of this one section. In 
like manner other sections require cer¬ 
tain qualities in new wheats. The ma¬ 
chinery for harvesting wheat has oeeii 
wonderfully developed; the perfecting 
of varieties must follow. 
ment on a farm, or anywhere else for that matter, 
put forth your best efforts with head and hands for 
your employer, work for him faithfully, honestly, 
and with your might. It is surely to your interest 
to do so. Every hour unnecessarily lost, and all care¬ 
lessness either in work done or neglected, will hurt 
you worse than your employer. There is always room 
for the man who makes himself so useful that he is 
missed when he leaves the farm for a day. On the 
other hand, employers who attempt to grind their 
help in any way are not worthy of the name, and 
will surely lose by doing so. It pays to treat men 
well, both from a financial as well as a moral point 
of view. Make your actions and habits such that they 
will command respect. You will then be in a position 
to require decency and respectability on the part of 
your hired help. }i. g. keesling. 
California. 
A cm MAH TURNS FARMER. 
Pakt VII. 
The Rocks of New England. 
.Vfter an interval of some weeks we open this subject 
again in order to answer some questions which have 
come from readers: 
The city man who is looking forward to going on 
NOIES FROM CALIFORNIA. 
We have a fine prospect for a crop of 
good apples. The Newtown Pippins, 
White Winter Pearmain, Wealthy, 
Bellflower and Skinner’s Seedling look 
e.xceptionally well. We shall have plenty 
of apples from tne time Red Astrachaus 
are ripe all through the season. So far 
no worms have appeared, although 
usually in thinning time we find plenty 
of them. We thin apples when they are 
as large as filberts if other work is not 
pressing. Bartlett pears are a failure in 
this section; other fruits except peaches 
are very light. Cherries are about one- 
fifth crop, and badly cracked by rain. 
The cracking of the cherries makes 
much work for the girls who pack them 
for shipment east, as every cherry must 
be looked over and any crack or imper¬ 
fection in the skin puts it into the cull 
box, and when the proportion of culls is 
large it means less boxes for the packer, 
and therefore less wages, as they are 
packed by the box. No one dreads to 
see the rain more than the cherry pack¬ 
ers, as it means more work and less 
wages. Cull cherries are sometimes sold 
in local markets, or driet. On the other 
hand, when there is a good crop and few 
culls the girls make good wages, and the 
work is not hard. When a box is com¬ 
pleted the packer carries it across the 
packing room where it is examined by an inspector 
to see if it is properly marked on the end, with her 
initials and the number of the orchard. The packer’s 
ticket is then punched and she returns to her place 
with an empty box which she wipes clean inside, 
marks her initials and number on the end and pro¬ 
ceeds to pack. This getting up to carry the box and 
get checked is a rest from too continuous sitting. It 
might be interesting to know that it takes on an 
average about 250 persons to pick, pack and deliver a 
carload of 2,000 boxes in one day. 
I am much interested in all I see in The R. N.-Y. 
about hired help, for it is a continuous problem with 
us how to get good help, and by good help I mean 
men who have no bad habits and are industrious. I 
have worked out, and have also employed many men, 
and can say from an experience that covers a period 
of about 30 years, that the curse of the working peo¬ 
ple is bad habits, and the worst of all is laziness. On 
this place we di-aw the line at cigarette smoking and 
drinking. If a man chews or smokes a pipe, and 
shows a desire to get rid of the habit, we give him a 
Rial. We have employed a number of soldier boys 
just back from Manila, and have found them gener¬ 
ally very poor help and full of bad habits. 1 can 
tiuly say to any young man who is seeking employ- 
settled community. There are over 100 miles of roads 
in this town and the voters are le.ss than 300. “Lazy 
farmers,” you say? No sir! New Englanders ai'e not 
noted for laziness, at home or abroad. Come up here 
and plow a piece of sod; then when you want to 
seed it down pick up the stones. You will need no 
other reason why more land is not cultivated. 
But is this stony soil against New England? On 
the contrary, a prominent authority says that is the 
very reason that it can stand constant cropping for 
200 years and still yield more bushels of shelled corn 
per acre than any other section. I have seen the 
United States statistics, which give 30 bushels per 
acre for New England and 27 bushels as the highest 
average elsewhere. Of course there are exceptions; 
land on the river, where hardly a stone can be seen, 
and pushing farmers who raise big ci*ops, but the rule 
is as I have written. On the low lands, however, frost 
comas two to three weeks earlier, and as much later 
in Spring, so that those who want to raise peaches 
and tender things have to go to the hills. There is 
splendid air drainage among these hills, and water 
that fairly sparkles. A man will live 20 
years longer up here than he would in 
the city. These mountains should be 
dotted with the Summer residences of 
the rich. Such scenery! I have stood 
on Willington Hill, and looking to the 
northeast, where great billows of hills, 
covered with the glory (no other word 
will answer) of their Autumn foliage, 
have brought tears to my eyes. g. a. g. 
HARVESTER-THRASHER AT ’WORK NEAR WALLA WALLA, WASH. Fig. 172 
' ' ..cm 
HARVESTING WITH WIDE-CUT BINDER NEAR COLFAX, WASH. Fig. 173. 
a farm some time, and who reads these articles, will 
be quite likely to have in his mind some questions 
perhaps like these: 
W'hat did you plant that next Summer after you 
bought the farm? W^hat did you plan for a money 
crop? How many acres did you plow? What pro¬ 
portion of your hay and grain did you raise? How 
much did it cost you to live that year? In other 
words, “How did you get along?” “What mistakes did 
you make that I can avoid?” Most of the above ques¬ 
tions are based on a misconception of this part of the 
country. One of the first questions asked by a visitor 
from Long Island, New Jersey or New York is, 
“Where is your plowed land? I don’t see hardly any¬ 
thing but grass.” 
Dairying is the main business, and cream is the 
“money crop” of the great majority of the farmers 
here. Since the silo came into use more corn is 
planted than formerly, and some farmers raise 50 
or 100 bushels of potatoes to sell, but nearly all de¬ 
pend on the monthly check from the creamery for 
means to buy what costs money. Nearly all the grain 
used comes from the West. I have heard it stated 
that at the two railroad stations where grain is sold 
in this and the adjoining town, over $40,000 was re¬ 
ceived in one year for grain, and this is a sparsely 
EVERYBOOrS BARDEN. 
A WINTER .JOB.—In an editorial, 
page 3G0, of The R. N.-Y., this subject 
was so admirably discussed that it well 
deserves more than a casual reading. 
The problem of profitable Winter work 
is a serious one, and confronts the far¬ 
mer and gardener alike. To those favor¬ 
ably situated for engaging in the work, 
I know of no more effectual remedy 
than growing Winter rhubarb. No 
costly structure or apparatus is requir¬ 
ed, and considering the cost of produc¬ 
tion there is no work for the gardener 
or small farmer that will give as large 
returns. The work of forcing is so sim¬ 
ple that very little skill or previous ex¬ 
perience is required, and being grown 
in the dark the work goes on regardless 
of the weather. Since discussing th.s 
subject two or three years ago the added 
experience only proves more conclu¬ 
sively the entire feasibility of the work. 
The enterprise is growing more exten¬ 
sive each year, and the profits are en¬ 
tirely satisfactory. Any gardener 
might be satisfied with a return of over 
$500 from one shed consftructed simply 
of old boards and manure. Yet that 
was done by one of Detroit’s enterpris¬ 
ing market gardeners the past Winter. 
On February 15 a neighbor of mine sold 
a load of 172 dozen rhubarb to a com¬ 
mission merchant, at 50 cents per 
dozen, or $86 for the load. These are 
not fairy tales, but actual experiences. 
Of course the industry is yet in its in¬ 
fancy, and the question of demand, or 
a market for the product is a vital ques¬ 
tion. The history of tomato growing 
will answer this very readily. So we 
might recall the history of forcing let¬ 
tuce, radishes, cucumbers, or any of the vegetables 
that have been taken out of their regular season and 
changed by forcing to a Winter produce. But ail 
these require the use of expensive greenhouses, or 
acres of glass, while the finest quality of rhubarb is 
grown in the dark, at a very trifling expense, either 
for structure, or heating apparatus. Location as to 
market must be considered; also the root supply. As 
to the latter problem, begin preparing for the Win¬ 
ter s work now, by the careful culture of whatever 
roots you may have on hand; procure as many as 
possible from your neighbors, to be taken up after 
freezing in the early Winter. To many this enter¬ 
prise may prove a very satisfactory solution of the 
vexing problem of a M7inter job. j. e morse 
Michigan. 
I have always left my stock In the orchard when spray¬ 
ing and have never known of any being poisoned, al¬ 
though I have always been careful not to let a large 
quantity run out of the tank In one place. The bloom 
on our fruits would now Indicate very few Baldwins, 
one-half crop Greenings, full crop Twenty Ounce, Pound 
Sweet, Roxbury Russet, Wagener, etc., full crop of plums, 
peaches, pears and grapes. More spraying Is being done 
this year than ever before. More tent-caterpillars than 
I ever saw before, and people generally are trying to 
tight them. Canker worms are just commencing to hatch 
out. Wayne County fruit growers organized with a mem¬ 
bership of 48 on April 6. We expect to have a Summer 
meeting on some of our farms this month. b. j. cask. 
Wayne Co., N. Y. 
