"BONANZA" FARMS.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1917, 16 April 1880, Page 4

"BONANZA" FARMS.

A writer who spent some time last summer in visiting soma of the " bonanza " farms of the North-Western States, gives the result of his observations in the current number of the " Atlantic Monthly." One of the farms visited contained 40,000 acres, of which there wa3 under cultivation 5300 acres, including 4855 acres in wheat. It was expected that the yield of wheat would be at least 20 bushels to the acre, and that some parts would produce more The number of men employed on the farm varied in different parts of the year. During harvest it was 250. In Kansas, Minnesota, and Dakota there are many farms ranging in size from 1000 to 50,000 acres. They are owned and operated by wealthy capitalists, who use the most improved machinery, and employ day laborers at low rates of wages. The writer gives figures showing that when wheat is worth 70 cents a bushel on the farm, it may be grown at a good profit for less than 40 cents a bushel. The profit realised is usually from 40 to 50 cents a bushel, which is between 7 dole, and S dols. per acre cultivated, and sometimes as high es 55 per cent, of the capital invested. The result is triEt those who have gone into wheat growing on a large scale are making colossal fortunes by virtue of their capital, improved machinery, and chsap labor; while small farmers, depending ,<i».inly on their own labor, without the advantages of capital or improved machinery, are not making a comfortable subsistence, but are running behind, and must go under. It is hopeless for them to contend against the powerful combination of capital, machinery, aud cheap labor. A direct effect of the operation! of the extensive land owners is to prevent the country from being peopled, and built up with towns, churches, school houses, &c, except is necesaary to provide for the scanty -wants of tho farm laborers and the stock. Not a dollar of th 3 vast amount realised from the products of tho soil is returned to the land from which it is taken. On one farm of 5300 cultivated acres there was not one permanent family, where there should have been at least one family to every 50 acres of land, or 106 families. This would have given at least a population of 500, with about a hundred dwellings, besides barns, other buildings, improvements, &c. These facts are vitnlly significant, and they become more suggestive when it is considered that tho system referred to is yet in its infancy, and gives signs of extensive growth. The number of farms in the North-West States having 1000 acres and upwards, was, as reported by the Federal ensus, about GOO in 1860, and about 1300 in 1870. During this decade the number doubled. It is stated that the increase dnrir.g the last decade in the number of these extensive farms has been alarming, and that the increase is likely to be still more rapid in the future. Tho development of this large farm system, which is specially marked in Kansas, Minnesota and Dakota, is by no means confined to tho north-west. The same feature is seen in a striking degree in Texas. California also is noted for its extensive farms, some of them containing tens of thousands of acres,