WHEAT-GROWING BY STEAM.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 366, 8 May 1889, Page 4

WHEAT-GROWING BY STEAM.

Under certain natural conditions ot s country, soil, and climate, the posses- ( sion of capital enables certain cultural \ operations to be carried on at a minimum \ of cost. The jrigantic scale on which wheat c growing is carried on in certain' parts of c California has often been described by r various writers. The work could never be | done, and the wheat produced and harvested, j at the low rate of cost per acre which j these writers have quoted, but for the j aid of modern agricultural mochinery. If the rich soil of the great western j wheat-growing plains of America were , unoxhau3tible in their fertility, and if the . wheat-consuming population of the States { was not rapidly increasing in proportion to ] wheat production, small farmers all over the j world might despair of ever beincr able to , compete successfully in wheat-growing with ( the great ranch , owners of the West, , But owing to the system of cultivation pur- ] sued wherever man has found large areas of i rich virgin land roady to laugh with a harvest when tickled with a plough, the ' phenomenal fertility of a great part of the California!! wheat lands has been to a great , extent destroyed for wheat growing purposes. Besides this, settlement of population is pressing in upon the original occupiers of square miles of country, and thus the time must come some day when the conditions favourable to the gigantic system of wheatculfcure willnolonger existin America. Bub as long as it lasts it is interesting and instructive to notehow mechanical ingenuity is continually rendering it possible to produce wheat more and more cheaply. The combined harvester was wonderful eiouerh in the work it would do, and the reduction in cost of production it effected as compared with former machinery. Now, however, there is steam machinoy in use in California which, we are told, will plant and harvest a crop of wheat at a cost of between 6s and 7s per acre. A writer in the Town and Country Journal gives an interesting account of this steam harvester, which is the invention of Mr G. S. Berry, of Tulare County, California. Mr Berry, we are told, was induced to contrive his ptwjrful machinery through having noticed the great wear and tear on horses caused by working the ordinary harvesting machines with which he had been familiar for years, not to speak of the loss of time and money incurred by the delays resulting from breakdowns. " After studying the subject for about four years, he decided to build a traction engine, which would harvest a crop and also put it in the ground, and which at once should be suitable, convenient and durable. Having acquired considerable experience, and knowing what was wanted, he solved this very difficult problem. He built

His First Machine in 1886 ; and in thab year he harvested 2200 acres of wheat with it, at a cost of 3s per acre. In the following winter he ploughed and sowed the same area of land with it at a cost of 2s per acre. Last year he farther improved his machine until at the present time (as has been said) he is enabled to plough, sow, and reap a field at a total cost of 6s per acre ; labour, sacks, seed, and interest on investment included, ',

" The Machine for Hakymtiko consists of two engines, a header and separator, so constructed and connected as to cut, thresh, and sack grain at one operation. The boiler and engines are mounted on two traction-bearing wheels ; 4ft face, and 6fc diameter. This furnishes the whole motive power for the locomotion of the machine, and also works the header. The separator is worked by an independent engine, which is mounted on the same frame, and takes steam from the tractionengine boiler. The machine is guided by two wheels, operated by a steersman. The separator is of ordinary construction, and hinged to the side of the traction engine. The header frame is hinged to the opposite side of the engine, and the sickle and droppers are in front of the header frame, and pass along in front of the engine, and discharge the grain in front of the cylinder of the thresher. At the rear of the thresher is a straw dump to catch the straw for use as fuel while harvesting ; and it leaves any excess in piles over the field, to be gathered and used as fuel while ploughing in winter. In the rear of the traction engine frame is placed a large box for storing straw, enabling the engine to run from one locality to another, and also for setting up steam in the morning. The header cut, or knife, is 40 feet wide. It is in two sections of 10 feet and 30 feet respectively, jointed together, but booh worked by the same gear motion. The 10 feet knife is directly in front of the engine ; > and the 30 feet extends outside in the ordi- : nary way. The average day's woik while i harvesting is 80 acres per day. In harvest the machine is operated by seven men 1 (engineer, fireman, steersman, headerman, sack-sewer, water-hauler, and sackdrawer).

"Ix Ploughing five men operate the machine, and 40 acres . t are an average for ten hours' work. Last season the machine was worked night and i day ; and 75 acres was the average work . for twenty-four hours. Water is carried on . the machine in winter while ploughing ; but 5 in harvest time, a tank, mounted on inde- > pendent wheels, travels along behind the • header frame. Water can be taken in r while moving along, without any stoppage j whatever. Such is Mr Berry's description [ of his machine, which he values at $7,000 or i about £1,400. j "At the time oi my visit 1 found Mr . Berry in the field, superintending the - operations of his machinery. His brother i is engineer, and he himself general manager. In the field the whole apparatus looks like a huge pile of machinery moving along. Yet, so well placed is every wheel, j and so evenly jointed every bearing, that it moves along over the natural hillocks of [ the plain (' Bay of Biscay country' as we 1 call it in Australia) without a iar or creak. ' The whole machine is 50ft wide ; and, as ' the knife is 40ft long, it takes a swathe of that width before it each time. While E witnessing its operation, and how well it • did its work, I thought of the old days of I the sickle and the scythe — days of hard 5 work and slow progress. Here we have ■ half a dozen men, seated comfortably under ■ an awning, handling their machinery, • and cutting and threshing their eighty r acres per day. This surely is r

r The Very Acme of Ingenuity in connection with agricultural machinery, 3 and is calculated to place hopelessly in the shade unprogressive communities and ignorant and cheap labour. Mr Berry, by 3 his invention, has placed in the hands of 3 the California!! farmer a great source of strength and power ; for all the great plains y of the San Joaquin and Sacramento valleys 3 are eminently htted for the operations of his f machine. The enterprising Americans 3 will not be slow to profit by Mr Berry's inj vention ; and, with the vast area of land at 5 their command, and wheat placed in the pack at a total cost of 6s per acre, the ' r profits on wheat farming will still be very x considerable. What will be the influences r of M? Berry's invention on Australia still ! remain to be seen. Millions and millions of acres of land in Riverina, and in the

Wimmera and Terrick regions of Victoria are just as suitable for, the operations of steam harvesters as are the plains of the California!) valleys. Indeed, the soil upen which I saw the harvester at work is the very counterpart in formation and material of the land about Jerilderie, Deniliquin, and Hay ; and, if wheat can be grown and reaped in these regions at a total cost of 6s per acre, and the average yield is 12 bushels per acre, who will not say that our vast inland plains will not speedily become wheatfields instead of sheepwalks." The writer ol this description then declare 3 his opinion, founded upon a per&onal observation of the machine at work, that it is a pronounced success. "The steering wheels are at the rear end of the machine while harvesting, and in front of it while ploughing. The centre of the face of the wheels was sharp, knife-like flanges, about 6in. deep. These flanges out into and grip the soil, and will turn the machine around as sharp a corner as a buggy can turn round. The header man can raise and lower the knives to suit the inequalities of the ground or the length of the grain, just the same as in other machines. While harvesting, the engine may be said to be driven backward ; but when ploughing the header and separator are taken off, and five4in. gang ploughs attached to the_ rear of the machine, all so arranged that the draught comes in in the proper place in all, and furrows ot any desired depth can be ploughed as with ordinary ploughs. When ploughing the engine moves foiward ; and only the main traction engine is used. While ploguhing at night two lamps, like the headlights of a railroad engine, are employed— one beforo and the other behind, to show the operators the furrows, and how to steer. " There does not seem to be much

Danger, of Firk from the online in the harvest field. The smoke stack or funnel is protected by a wire netting, or ordinary spark extinguisher, as in a locomotive engine. As has been mentioned, straw is uacd for fuel. Wood or coal might just as readily be employed, only they are heavier, more costly, and prone to omit heavier sparks. With straw the sparks are invariably light and feathery, and eisily extinguished. To guard against fire from the furnace, a water basin is formed directly in front of the ashpit, and kept constantly full of water from a tank placed alongside the boiler for that purpose. The dying embers of straw are raked out in this water ba&in, and thoroughly extinguished before being thrown overboard." Mr Berry gives the following figures as cost of cultivation, the ploughing, seeding, and harrowing being done by one operation : Ploughing, Is 8d per acre ; seed (about 401bs per acre drilled in), 2s 8d per acre; harvesting, 2s 4d per acre. The only animal labour employed is that of a team of mules required to draw water to the engine. Mr Berry cultivates about 4,000 acres.