FARMING IN AMERICA.

Gisborne Times, Volume IX, Issue 804, 20 January 1903, Page 3

FARMING IN AMERICA.

AS SEEN BY A NEW ZEALANDER,

A remarkable exploit has just been accomplished by a young Canterbury farmer anxious to see more of the world and to study the American methods of farming, which are said to he in advance oi colonial systems. Mr W, .G. Mclntosh, a son of Mr Kenneth Mclntosh, who holds farms at South brook, Kaiapoi, and Loburn, paid a recent visit to the United States and Canada, Recognising that it was no use going to the best hotels, or to the. Agricultural Bureau and agencies at which farms are i let or sold, nor to those who are pushing tiie claims o£ the States and Dominion as places fur settlement, for the information he required, he decided to do a little practical exploiting upon his -own account. Reaching San Francisco, he was "not long in passing through Salt Lake, Denver, and on to Chicago. There he took a rapid tour through* the implement yards. .The ploughs ot the States impressed Mr Mclntosh as being very suitable implements, as he found by practical experience, for their own country,, but they would not answer in Canterbury The implements are very light, and turn an average furrow of idin..while those in Canterbury work at lOin. to

12in« But the United States land is light and easier ol tillage, and the idea is not to thoroughly cultivate, but to get over many acres quickly. The “croppers,” who take land on terms, for which they pay a third of the crop rent, and out of the twothirds pay expenses and take what little profit they, have, do nob stop to consider how farming should be done to the best advantage. “ Most of the ploughs,” said Mr Mclntosh, “ were riding ploughs, and, with smart teams of mules, a considerable area of land per day in the Western States is scratched, if lie might so speak, not tilled.” In Chicago, he went through McCormick’s largo factory, and got some insight into the making of the machines. The implements for husbandry all through were lightly made, as viewed from a colonial standpoint, and not always likely to endure many seasons. This is probably due to the fact that improvements are continually being made ; and very handy and ingenious some of the methods arc. The lands of the United States to the cast coast

arc by far the richest and best attended to ; the Western tracts —Oklahama, Kansas, Nebraska, and North and South Dakota—were only equal to the production of 12 bushels per acre for the wheat crop,; These

crops) grow on straw 3ft in height, and m Uic Kansas the farmers prefer for autumn sowing I lie hard Russian wheat., which conics early and <|inckly in Dakota, the Idue stem wheat and hard Dakota wheats have the preference. There are very few patches of oats, and little or no stock-feeding crop, and no mixed farming. The best lands in the best agricultural districts in lowa, Illinois, and Michigan are worth from £2O to £25, and the majority in the Western States from £3 to £0 per acre. For cropping, the seasons are not reliable. Many farmers go on a one in three, and invariably deal with averages of ten seasons. Harvesting, which Mr McIntosh was in time to follow round and take a hand at, is performed on the light crops by “ headers.” These machines clip off the ears of grain, and elevate (hem into a box waggon or header barge. The header lakes a 12ft cut, and with a team of six horses, reaps, as stated, 35 acres day. The team in Ibis machine push it. before, them towards the grain. Another staple crop in the States is sorghum, or eaue-growing. It grows to a height of 7ft, and, yield ng six lons per acre, forms an acceptable feed for cat He, and a plant from which quaillit: cs of sugar syrup are extracted. As the climate seemed the same Mr Mclntosh thought a trial of sorghum in the North Island might be at tended with perhaps fair results, Imt lie considered the, South Island would not produce the crops which he saw in Missouri. There were no sheep further west than Western Kansas, the country being taken up with cattle and horse ranches. The most noticeable point in that part is an absence of fences, cowboys and ranchmen keeping the stock within limits marked hv some natural feature or along a furrow-line In the Dakota district, the harvest was fairly good, the “headers” retaining 12 bushels as the average. “ And these header machines,” said Mr Mclntosh, “ certainly save time. The straw goes to waste, as no chaff is used for feed.’.’ The best land lie saw, in the Red Valley, North Dakota, carries 20-bushel crops, and he was told by the harvest men that for It) years the average was 15 to 17 bushels. Here is what lhey call the r bearing crops. Two kinds ol reapers and binders—namely, McCormick and Dcering—were generally used, and some thousands were in operation on Ibe miles and miles of crop which were to lie seen from Ibe railway lines. For 15 years, the ploughmen said,, they lmd seen Ihe Red River Valley cropped in succession it was cultivated by quick

superficial ploughing, and no one had used any, fertiliser or allowed a fallow. The farmers there did not lake anything like such an interest in their

cropping as the Canadians, whom he visited later. With a disc-drill, the crop is sometimes put ,in without the ceremony of ploughing, and weeds rankle and choke the grain, while the wild suntlower is seen growing all through the areas of corn in Kansas. The McCormick reapers were, he noticed, all right-hand mils. (The kind sent to the colonies are all left-hand culling reapers.) In the States',they use different kinds of threshers, Imt the Buffalo Pitt machine in the handiest. It takes in three times more straw ; it can lie fed from waggons on hot h sides’ by two men on each ; it, however, does not grade the sample of wheat, nor place it in sacks. The engine of the Buffalo Pitt thresher burns the straw, and thus the whole product of the land departs in quite a summary manner. Tiie idea formed by the novice that America is full of large farms is a mistaken one. There are the large tracts, but not the number of large farms under decent husbandry which Mr Mclntosh expected to find. For a {j.T? he put in some work in lowa, on one large block such as came up to his standard of a farm. It comprised 6100 acres, of which 5000 acres were well planted tinder Indian corn, 1000 in wheat, and <IOO in pasture, well laid and carefully weeded. On it were employed from Hi) to 100 men, with an overseer to about every

eight men. Here there were 30 cornpJaniine and 75 teams kept for corn-ploughs of . lio There were (id niaehiiies for stalk-C." 11 - 11 '.? and 20 McCormick reapers and hinders, which were the best suited lor dealing with heavy crops. No less than 30 gang-ploughs, for six mules each, and 20 ordinary ploughs, for three mules each, were on the estate. The men (including Mr Mclntosh while there) earned a dollar a dayequal to -Is 2d, or 25s per week —and were supplied with food. The stable (225 ft by 75ft) had four rows of stalls and a loft holding 100 tons of provender. There were three large implement sheds, and as soon as a machine was done with il was cleaned, repaired, or painted, and put in its proper place. The farm had its own blacksmith and machine expert, and two large elevators, on which Indian corn and wheal respectively’ were stored. The country, like the rest of the States, is surveyed in square mile sections of 6-10 acres, and round each such block there is a road and usually a plantation of poplar trees. Upon this farm there were about JOOO breeding ewes and a few milking cattle and store cattle, which when killed supplied about liuilb of beef per week. The owner, Dir W. P. Adam, had a manager, Mr Id. 11. Barrows, who is a specialist on cornraising, and under him were a number of foremen. A three weeks’ stay at this place gave Mr M’litlosh some insight into the methods which he thought quite came up to those of Ihe kite Mr John Grigg's estate at Longheaeh.