Rensselaer Republican, Volume 14, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 September 1881 — WHOLESALE FARMING. [ARTICLE]

WHOLESALE FARMING.

A Thirty Thousand Acre Wheat Held Shipping Three Trains a Day—How the Big Dalrymple Farm is BonFargo Cor. Chicago Intar-Oeean. I stoOd this morning at the center of the largest farm in the world; the largest piece cf territory ever cultivated under the direction of a single man. As far as the eye could reach, north, south, east or west, there was nothing visible but the bluest of blue sky; the reddest of red barns, the great awk-ward-looking threshers, with their m o ke-begrimed engines beside them, he whirring harvesters and miles after miles of wheat. We asked for Mr. Dalrymple, and he came down from some room above, a slender, quiet looking man, with a pen behind his ear, w horn you would judge to be a schoolmaster or clergyman at sight. Hm hands were soft and white —more accustomed to the book or pen than the plow—and his face, where it was not covered with beard, was not burned so much as mine. He met us

cordially, invited us to spend the day and dine, and suggested that he would have a team hitched up to drive us over the place. I noticed he always called it “the place.” In the meantime I asked him a few questions. The first one was to the yield this year. “It was a late spring,” said Dalrymple. “At the time when we were usually putting in a crop the place for miles around here was covered with water from the melted snow, and you oould have sailed a boat over a field where now there is wheat that will yield thirty bushels to the acre. I feared at one time that the crop would be a failure, but am very positive now that the average per acre will not be below twenty bushels.”

„ “Have you sold your wheat?” “Our plan is different irom the ordinary method. We are sending about three train loads a day to Duluth.” “How many bushels is that?” ' “About 30,000 bushels. We load a vessel at Duluth every two days and send it to Buffalo, where it is sold on its arrival at the market price.” “What is that?” “The price to-day,” said Mr. Dalrymple, consulting the telegram, “is $1.27 at Butfalo. Freights are about .twenty-seven cents, so it nets us about $1 a bushel. “What will your crop amount to?” “I am expecting about 600,000 bush*els. Besides that we have about 90,000 bushels of oats which we keep for our stock.” “Do you jkeep stock enough to eat up 90,000 bushels of oats?” Mr, Dalrymple smiled pleasantly aud remarked that 800 horses and mules ate up a good many oats. “How much does your crop cost you?” “It costs us about $6 an acre to produce a crop when we use our own stock and pay our men by the .month, but when we hire men and teams by the day it costs us about $8 an acre.” “What do you pay your men?” “We pay S3O a month for regular hands, and $2 per day for extra hands during haivest.” “What amount of machinery have you going to day?” “Two hundred- self-binding harvesters and thirty steam threshers. These two hundred harvesters cut an average of 2,800 acres a day, and the threshers turn out about 30,000 bushelsaday. As fast as it is threshed we bag the wheat, cart it over then to the empty the sacks, and send away the train loads daily.” “Where do you keep your men?” “If you had been here at 6 o'clock this morning you could have seen 800 men at breakfast. We keep quite a hotel, with iorty cooks.” Mr. Dalrymple explained at length how this enormous business is conducted. The 30.000 acres under cultivation are divided into five divisions of 6,000 acres each, under superintendents, who are responsible directly to Mr. Dalrymple, the commander-in-chief. Each of these regiments are divided into batalions; with a foreman or major, who has charge of 2,000 acres. Under him are three companies, each having a caDtain, and cultivating a section, which «s 640 acres of land. Each superintendent plants his crop and harvests it, reporting from time to time to Mr. Dalrymple, who directs and oversees the whole, but spends the greater part of his time at tne office, planning and calculating for the best results from the smallest outlay. The superintendents are responsible for the good order of their men, stock and machinery, and there is a decided rivalry between them as to which can produce the biggest crop. When the plowing commences in the Spring the men go out in gangs, each taking 040 acres, under the direction of a foreman, who rides along on horseback to see that the work Is done properly. Everything is done in military "style. It is a battery of plows, instead of artillery, and before starting they all draw up in line and thoroughly inspected by the foreman and machinist, to see that they are in good order. The Elows are all 'doubled, and are drawn y four horses, At the word of the captain they start, add go round a field of 640 acres, which is exactly four miles in distance.ten or twelve plows abreast. At the end of the furrow, eight miles, the plowshare left in the soil, the men mount their horses and ride to headquarters for dinner. After the horses are fed they’ remount return to the plows and go around the 640 acres two or three times more before supper-time. At the close of the day the plows,and harness are inspected again, and if any repairs are needed, the blacksmith, saddler or iarrier.make them during the night. The same routine is followed at seed ing time and duriug the The self-binding harvesters throw the bundles of ripe grain upon the ground where they are picked up and plsced in large shocks to await-the wagops which transport them to threshers, which are always placed as closely as possible to the cars. After threshing, the straw Is carried away and burned. It sounds very large, but it is nevertheless a fact, that the plows and harvesters reeularlarly make a trip of four miles long without stopping. A furrow eight miles in length is considered a very fair morning's work,but ten miles is nothing for an afternoon’s diversion. As near the center of the farm as is convenient a store-house is placed, in charge ofacommissary|and book-keep-er. Each day the superintendent of a division issues requisitions for supplies of seed, or food, or machinery, and these are served upon the storekeeper, who keeps a double-entry set of ledgers for each, aud at the end of a days threshing the crop returns are made to him, so that M. Dalrymple, at any time, by examining the. books, can ascertain the exnenscsof every division and the crop it has produced.

This year it is expected that the 30,000 acres will produce 600,000,bushels of grain. The cost of production averages $7 an acre, or $210,000. The wheat is sold at an average net price of $1 per bushel, therefore the profit of Mr. Dalrymple’s little garden in 1881, which if said to be a poor year, will be the disference between $210,000 and $600,000, or the trifle of of $390,000; more than 200 per cent, upon the entire investment. / There will be natural induiry in this connection as to whysteamis Dot used instead of horse power. I asked Mr. Dairymple. He said: “We nave experimented with steam, but have not found it practicable except in the way of stationary engines: and ftgftin oats are cheaper than fuel. Wood is very scarce. Coal costs us practically I nothing. We sow and reap our oats, between times, when the men and stogk would otherwise he Idle, The

cost of norses and mules is no greater than the price of machinery , the -wear and tear is lees, and during the winter time we send our men and horses to. the lumber regions v here they more than pay for themselves. a