BONANZA FARMING.

Timaru Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 1833, 7 August 1895, Page 4

BONANZA FARMING.

There are now a good many large socalled " Bonanza " wheat farms m the United States. One of the most frequently mentioned is a farm of 27,000 acres near Casselton.

I Low prices have put the Aineiican farmers on their mettle, and the more enterprising of them are trying their best to lessen the cost of production. In managing the affairs of a "bonanza farm " the most rigorous system is employed, and the cost of cultivation averages about one dollar (4s) per acre less than smaller estates. The plan adopted by the "bonanza" men is to divide the land into tracts of 6000 acres each, and these are subdivided into farms of 2000 acres each. Over each 6000 acves a superintendent is placed, with a bookkeeper, headquarters' building, and a storehouse for supplies. Each division of 2000 acres is under the charge of a foreman, and is provided with its own set of buildings, comprising boarding houses for the hands, stables, a granary, a machinery hall, and a blacksmith's shop, all connected with the superintendent's office by telephone. Supplies of every description are issued, only upon requisition, to the several divisions. Tools and machinery are bought by the carload from manufacturers, farm animals are procured at St. Louis and other principal markets ; stores of eveiy description for feeding the vast army of labourers are purchased wholesale ; and the result of the thorough system and intelligent economy m every department is found m the fact that wheat is raised and delivered at the railroad at a cost varying little from 35 cents (Is sd) per bushel. The net profit on a bushel of wheat is seldom less than 10 cents (sd), and the average yield per acre may safely be put at 15 bushels, although it often exceeds that quantity.