FARM & GARDEN NOTES.

Waikato Argus, Volume IV, Issue 272, 9 April 1898, Page 2 (Supplement)

FARM & GARDEN NOTES.

Wheat.—The price of wheat at Honn has advanced Gd a quarter dining the Week. In Canterbury there is an absence of buoyancy and prices remain as last quoted, whilst; storing in anticipation of obtaining better prices late:' oi i--still oo. The low price offered the Victorian fanners for their grain (4s Id is the last quotation) is stimulating (he export movement and it is stated that 100,000 bags have now been promised for export. This was the amount estimated as necessary to be shipped before the gowers would secure control of the market, and it will he interesting to watch the effect cf this spirited action of the fanners on the local price of wheat.

Chaff and Oats.—These remain at quotations given last week. The new crop is coining to hand in Dunedin, but outside demand is maintaining the price. Canterbury is buying oats from Otago this season; and good prices are being obtained in Sydney for New Zealand oats, viz.. 2s od for best feed and 2s Sd for choce seed.

BuTTEB and EfiC.s.—Butter is none too plentiful and prime dairy is worth a shilling a pound retail. It is a great pity it hm ever to bo sold for less. Eggs are, as generally happens at Easter time, difficult to obtain, and Is 4d per dozen may be quoted as the wholesale price.

Tiik Milking Machine. —Mr S. Knight, of Rougotea, Ranagitikci has had fitted up a milking machine, which enables him to milk his dairy herd of fifty odd cows, with two assistants, in au hour and three quarters, whereas it formerly took him, with three assistants, three hours to milk the same number. The machine, which is fitted to milk eight cows at once, is the first in the district.

Food Supplies fok South Africa.— The barque Opawa, now at Newcastle (N.S.W.), has almost completed loading a cargo of meat and produce for Durban, South Africa. Her cargo includes 1100 cases tinned meats, 27 frozen pigs, 1400 bags wheat, 500 bags flour, 50 tons compressed fodder, 81 boxes kidneys and tails and 3000 quarters of beef. The remainder of the refrigerating space of tho barque will be occupied by frozen mutton. 'lho shipment i 9 being mado principally on account of tho scarcity of food supplies in South Africa.

How A Farmer Selected a Calling for His Son.—The following story was told at the Federal Convention :—A farmer had a sou, and did not know what business to start him in. So he put him up in a room in which there was nothing but a Bible, an apple, and a half sovereign. He decided that if he found the boy eating the apple, he would make him a farmer: if reading the Bible, he would train him to the church ; and if he had pocketed the money, he would make him a aharcbroker. Entering, he found him sitting on the Bible, and eating the apple, with the half sovereign in his pocket. His father decided to make a politician of the lad.

Tamwobth Pig.—Professor Shaw, an authority on swine, has suggested the following as descriptive of the form of a pure-bred Tamworth :—The frame is long and deep rather than broad, and is well sustained by strong limbs. Head is long, but rather light than heavy, possessed of but moderate dish, having the appearance of leanness. Jowl rather light than heavy. Ear moderute in sizo, pointing forward, and slightly erect. Body long in the coupling and deep, slightly but regularly arched above and straight below. Back moderately wide, with a gradual rounding descent until the side is reached. Shoulder large but not rough, and about equal in thickness to the ham. Side long, quite deep, and retaining its thickness down the belly. Ribs well arched and deep. Fore and hind flanks full, and heart girth and flauk girth good, and about equal. Hams rounded off rather than square. Legs medium in length, Btroug, and standing firmly. Skin smooth and covered plentifully with hair. Hair not coarse and no bristles, colour a red or bright chesnut, usually darkens with age.

EXPERIMENTAL CROPS AT DoOKIE : Oats and Barley.—At Dookie agricultural College (Victoria) experiments have been made during the past year with oats and barley, the oats including a number of varieties imported from Europe.—Although the growth was strong it was evident that most of the varieties were too late for this district, and in any case they were not in early enough. Of the imported oats, the golden oat gave the best return with 16 bushels with no manure, and 35A bushels per acre with superphosphate, and bushels per acre with complete manure at the rate of 2c .vt per acre. The Caljutta oats manured at the same rate with superphosphate gave 53 bushels, and were the first to ripen of all. The barleys looked well, but were put in earlier, viz , in the beginning of July. Tiie yields were all satisfactory. The highest of the malting barleys was that of a Chevalier barley. 57 bushels manured with an imported superphosphate at the rate of 1 cv\t. per acre. That not manured gave 24 bushels per acrp. Of the feed barleys, the Algerian gave 62 bushels manured with Thomas' phosphate at the rate of 2 cwt per acre, and 31$ bushels when not manured. The Oregon barley manured with 9, cwt superphosphate gave CO bushels. In every ca'ie with oats, barley and wheat, the phosphatic manures gave the Lest results.

Experiments in Feeding.—New facts about cow feeding have been learned by a remarkable experiment conducted by Director Jordan at the New York station, the results of which, soon to be published, will make a seusation Selecting a good Jersey cow, and getting her in proper shape for the test, he fed her for 60 days with prepircd foods that contained practically no fat. Everything that she consumed was weighed and analysed, also the milk and all the excrement, solid and liquid. The figures show that this cow gave in her milk 401 b more fat than she consumed, while she added 301 b to her weight, and was iu a good fleshy condition at the close. This indicates that the vital force in the cow has the ability to convert sugar and starch in the food into fat. Should this fact be courirmed by repeated tests, it may upset some of the accepted theories about balanced rations. Indeed, some intelligent western breeders contend that they get, better results by feeding their cheap corn, grain, or meal with corn fooder—a ration that is quite deficient in protein or nitrogenous matter, though rich in fat—than they do when a well-balanced ration is given. Now, if a cow can convert starchy elements into fat, as Jordan believes, why may she not increase the per cent, of solids in htr milk, according as her food is varied ? The fact is, wc are beginning to find out that a cow is " fearfully and wonderfully made " —and but little understood.— Cable.

The Complaint Against WattleTanned Leather.—The embargo by the Brittish War Cfhce upon colonial leather tanned with wattle bark to by a correspondent in a letter of 11th February, He says :—I had a long interview on Bth insfc. with Mr Samuel Barrow, a leather mcrcbat of Bermondscy, about the quality ot colonial leather, aud the alleged refusnl of the \Y f ar Office to accept colonial tanned leather in their contracts. He told me that in his opinion the best leather was retained in the colonies for home consumption. None of that sent to Luglaud was suitable for accoutrements,

and ha had never heard of it being used for such purpose?. Leather tanned with mimosa bark, of which a very small quantity is shipped to England suitable fur dressing, is too soft and spongy to bo used for army purposes. It is leather which stretches very much, and is not tanned in such a way as to resist wet and moisture, and is therefore unreliable for the purposes of harness. The greater proportion of colonial leather sent to Knglaud for bojt making is used up for second class domestic work. It is not suitable for the army, tho police or other work, where strength and durability are required, inasmuch us it is too expensive for inside work, and not good enough for making Holes on account of tmnnge and thinnitge of salt. Mr Barrow said he could not understand why the War Office should have inserted this clause in their tenders, as ho had never heard of any colonial leather being used by that department.

The Potato Makkkt. —On potato market prospects, the Tasmaninn Fanners' Association states thai "recent exports have been above tho average, partly owing to harvest and thrashing operations being sufficiently advanced in some districts to permit attention to be turned to digging, partly through the continued dry weather having iipened many of tho crops off, but principally through tho satisfactory prices consignments aro realising, bringing a profit even to those whose crops nro turning out as low as a ton to the acre. Deliveries are likely to be heavier now, but we do not look for much diminution in value, as Queensland will be entirely dependent on Tasmania for some time, while Sydney will soon bo very nearly in the same position. Victoria, usually at this time a heavy exporter to West .Australia, Queensland, and New South Wales, is experiencing a good deal of difficulty in supplying her own needs, willi not much prospect of improvement for some months. South Australia is apparently phort, and will probably draw from Tasmania should values decline. West Australia and Queensland also will now draw lvgularly from us, so we can now look forward to a satisfactory outlet for from 8000 (o 10,000 sacks per week, beyoud that, bearing in mind tho shortage in crop now being dug, and the more considerable shortage certain to be disclosed when the late crop is placed on tho markrt we thiuk that Tasmanian growers should not go."

How the State can Assist the Dairyman.—Though at 'the present time the State assists the industry in many ways yet there is one point entirely neglected and which urgently needs immediate attention. We refer to the necessity for direct help being extended to the dairy farmer. Though we have an expensive Agricultural College, besides one or two experimental plots, yet of information as to breeding cattle, for milk production there is none. Nothing in fact of interest to the dairyman, who needs this state-acquirted knowledge more than any other class of farmer. What is to prevent one or two high-grade herds of dairy cattle being built up at Lincoln College or at some other less aristocratic establishment? Bulla from such herds >— guarantied as to breed and health—could be sold to dairy farmers at moderate prices, and an appreciable improvement would be thus effected iu our dairy herds. Experiments in ensilage might also lie made. The Lincoln institution has, we believe, made such experiments but the results, as far as we know, have not been circulated. The information is badly needed and we would impress upon the Agricultural Department the necessity of doing something in the matter at once. Let the experiments, however, be conducted on as simple and as economical a basis as possible—the one most requiring the information is the man with limited capital, and elaborate information is quite useless to him. We hope the matter won't be overlooked by the Department during the coining winter.— N. L. Dairyman.

CJ-cod Rams are The Cheapest.— The fact that so many worn-out and cull rams are used every year is my excuse for reminding my brother firmtrs each tupping srason that it is an invariable law of nature that " like produces like," and that so surely as a thin and shrivelled corn seed can only produoe a weak and stunted plant, so surely will an old ram or a duffer ram of any age beget inferior lambs. As lambs are now the mainstay of the sheep farmer, it must be extremely bad policy to jeopardise the quality of 50 lambs for the sake of saving a few shillings is the price of a ram that is to be the father of those 50 lambs. A well-bred ram, though old, may not do so badly when coupled with young and lusty ewes, but ago is not by any means the only fault to be foutid with tho rams employed by shoit-Bighted farmers. Now-a-days a really good ram cau be be got for a guinea or two, costing less than a shilling per head for the fiist crop of lambs, and yet farmers aro satisfied to procure for a few shillings a miserable nondescript thing that no decent, self-respecting ewe would look at if she had any choice in the matter. Give a lamb good parents and good feed will do the resr, but good feed is thrown away on lambs that are to be seen by tho thousand in saleyards at this time of the year, showing no breeding in fleece or in carcase. It is customary to talk about culling for wool and culling for frame, that a good frame rarely carries a bad fleece, and a fuzzy »woolled back and hairy breech aro generally found upon an ill shaped carcase. It becomes more evident year after year that it is the quality that attracts the buyers, and therefore it pays* to produco the best quality possible, and tho first thinsr to remember that out of duffers duffers come.—Agricola in the Otago Witness.

Hard Duluth No. 1 W t hfat.—Mr H. Pye, the principal of the Dookie Agricultural College, in his annual report states ; " The Hard Duluth No. 1 commands in tho English market a much higher price than either Californian No. 1 milling or Russian cargoes, owing to some special quality it possesses. Is it not possible, then, to grow a special class of wheat which will command a price above the general market price, especially when wo export such a small fraction of the wheat on the English market ? The Hard Duluth No. 1 is a wheat that 90 per cent, of our farmers would not look at a second time, yet this is the wheat thatcommands tho highest price of the above three quoted. It is a small, hard, dark wheat, quite the antithesis of the bulk of the wheats grown in Victoria, and, if shown to a Victorian wheat grower ho would probably remark that it was about the poorest sample of grain he had seen. It would be interesting to have exhibits of tho different grades of wheat from different countries sold in the English market with the selling price attached, and other desirable information connected with them. They may tave the effect of impressing upon the general wheatgrower that tho largo whito wheats, unless they possess special qualifications, do not necessarily comramand the highest prices. We are all more or less disposed to favour them, henco a comparative test in the P'nglish markets would be both practical and convincing. Our wheats grown in tho northern area have a reputation and bring good prices, but it is possiblo to increase those prices when it is made worth while for firms, either acting for farmers or themselves, to count on fairly consistent samples and quantities, as far as the seasons permit."

The New Fodder Plant : Polygonum Saciulinense. Mention was made a short time ago of a new lorage plant "Sacaline" having been successfully grown in Taranaki, and the Dairy News, New Plymouth, now states that some leaves of the plant, grown on Mr T. Rowe's Farm, at Bell Block, have been brought to the office. The plant from which the leaves were taken is 50ft in circumference, 14ft high, and is loaded with fodder. It is said that cattle are

very fond of this plant, and, in fact, will not leave it for gr.iss or other feed. Sacaline is looked upon a" being particularly useful in .1 dairy fanning district like Taranaki, as it will do aw ay with the necessity of growing root crops, &c , for winter use. Concerning this plant, the Gardem is' Chioiiiolo says:— 'The cultural difficulties are not worth ni.-u----tirning, and during winter no protection in needed. We may add tint the Sacaline is a forage plant with an assured future. Ch'.mical analysis lias demonstrated it 3 superiority in nutritive principles over other frdders. Compared with dried el <ver and lucerne, wlrch contains only 16 per cent of nitiogenous and 3 per cent, of fatty matter, the analysis is very favourable. In fact, it is shown tha l ", without culture, care or manure, sacaline prospers in all soi's and all climates, cold, damp, dry and by the reaside, and that its yield is so much mote considerable as its growth is prolonged until the autumn. Its vegetative powers are the same in sand, on banks, slopes, or in flat marshes. lis success in the South, as well as in the North, is assured in spite of its northorn origin. The Government report from South Austral:a declares that " the cattle and sheep relish it." How well it thrives in Taranaki may be gathered from the fact that in November last Mr Kowe out a patch, and weighed the product, which worked out at a rate of 128 tons to the acre. The second cutting, made on December 18th, gave SO tons to the acre, and the third cutting, on January 29th last, 85 tons.

Milk Production. —At a meeting cf the Glasgow Dairymen's Association, held in February last, Mr John Daysdale, in the course of a lectuie on milk production, said a bad cow was worse than no cow, because she may be incurring a loss to her owner every day she lives. From his own personal observation and experience, the lecturer gave several instances of the different yields to be obtained from different cows. Two cows may be standing in the tame byre, one producing 500 gallons per annum, another producing 800 to 900 gallons, and the difference in money returns per annum, taking it at the low price obtained for milk sent by rail, was about £7 10s per annum. But, aga : n, the 500 gallon cow may give milk showing only 3 per cent, butter-fat, whereas the 800 gallon cow may show 5 per cent, butterfat, which for butter making purposes means a difference of £lO per cow por annum. Milk and butter yielding propensities can be inherently bred in the cows by great care being exercised in selecting and mating, aud only using bulls that have dams and granddams with good milk records and butter-fat tests. They should only rear calves from cows that showed good records, and, having got the right cow and right bull, they should rear the calves well. They should treat them generouly, aud grow them big and vigorous. In this way, they were likely to prove far better milkers than too many, unfortunately, of the young cows bred out of dams that have never had their milking propensities developed or stimulated, and who are stunted in their growth though being half starved in their youth, He had found from experience that the cow that has been well reircd and generously treated from her youth proves a fatbetter milker than the stunted, starved, undeveloped one, always provided, of course, she be bred properly. In too many cases bulls were bought at haphazard out of stocks where milk is not the aim and object, but rather fancy and unimportant points.

Agricultural Crecit Banks.—Agricultural credit banks, our Loudon correspondent informs us, aro being legislated for in France. He writes :—The French Bill for the institution of district agricdtural credit banks has been puplished. It is proposed that these institutions shall be eubject to the law of Noveinbei, 1894, which authorised the grafting of credit banks upon the agricultural syndicate.", and that there shall bo at least one in each large agricultural district. They are projected as the complement of the small local credit banks, upon which their functions will depend, and which they will support, and they are to be based upon the principle of mutuality. Their functions will be twofold. In the first place, they will discount and rediscount the bills of the local banks of their respective districts ; and, secondly, they will make direct loans. To facilitate their institution, the sum of lodged in the Treasury of the Bank of France, free of interest, in virtue of the Convention of October, 1896, will be lent to the district banks as they are formed and require the capital, No interest will be charged, and the advance may bo retained up to the year 1913, by which time they must be entirely repaid. The advantage of the free advance of this large sum is valued at 1,200,000 f. per annum at least. This resource, however, will not be sufficient by itself, as it will be both temporary and limited. It is expected the 40,000,000 f. will soon be absorbed, and other capital which will expand with the growth of the new institutions, and remain after the loan has been repaid, will be needed. This is to be provided by special bonds, which the dit-trict b:uiks will bo authorised to issuo in accordance with the particular regulations laid down by the administration for the control of operations of agricultural credit. These bonds will be secured by the bills discounted and the agricultural products upon which advances are made, and they must never exceed in amount that of the transactions just mentioned ; nor can they be of longer duration than two years at the outside. It is expected that, when the people get accustomed to them, the bonds will circulate readily like Treasury bonds, and that on account of the good security for them, they will be taken up at a premium. For the assistance of the local banks, the turn of 2,000,000 f. per annum, which the Bank of France bas engaged to pay into the Treasury for the duration of its privilege, will be available, free of interest, and for the same period as that during which the advance "of 40,000,00 Cf. to the district banks will be made. —Leader. TWO HUNDRED TONS OF FEED FOR SIXTEEN POUNDS. A WELLINGTON DAIRYMAN'S METHOD OF MAKING SILAGE. The following article, which we reprint from the New Zealand Dairyman, describes a method of making ensilage adopted by a Wellington dairyman, which is to some extent identical with the tower system advocated by Mr J. W. Ellis in these columns a few weeks back : When a man has to provide winter feed for one hundred cows he naturally has to " hustle," as our American friends term it, during the golden summer time. Mr A. Fitchett, the Leviathan dairyman of Wellington city, found himself face to face with this problem a score of years ago, and when the first articles on silage appeared he made an experiment at the Ohiro farm with the then new-fangled scheme. His first attempt was on a very modest scale, A small concrete-lined pit was made, about 10 feet long by G feet wide and about 7 feet deep. Into this he put tho few tons of grass required to fill it. Covering and weighting it, he left it till required for winter. When opened tho ensilage was found to be in splendid condition, and it was greedily eaten by the cattle. Encouraged by his first success to go in for a much larger supply the following winter, he had to cast around for a much cheaper silo than the concrete pit iu \»hich his first experiment was made. Ohiro farm, let me say, is on the hill-tops overlooking Wellington city, and the plan its enterprising and genial owner adopted was adapted to the site and conveniences at his command. For his second attempt he excavated a foundation below the brow of the hill in front of I the bails, Ou this excavation he pro-

ceeded to build tlie silo. Expense, of course, being a material consideration, lie used whatever happened to be bandy, and this accounts for the fact that rusticating was chiefly used for the side., of the feed store—" feed-store,*' by the way, boiujf a much more appropriate name for the new place than " silo," which I understand is simply the French niiino for ''pit." But let me not go before my story. I want my readers to understand when they have finished reading this how to build a si'o feod-store for their own use without any further instruction or advice than is herein contained. We have jrot then lo our foundation. On this was laid the ground plates, 6 x 4, and from these the studs, (i x 2, were raised, just in the same way as for an ordinary wooden house. For ihe walls, as I have said, tcat'd rusticating wis used ; because it happened to be at. hand : but tonguod and grooved flooring would bo much more suitable. Mr Fitchett nailed the rusticating inside instead of outside the studs, and when the necessary height (20ft, studs were used) was reached, an ordinary gable roof of old galvanised iron was put on, and the silo was finished and ready to be filled. At the present day the silo is 50ft. long, 18ft. wide, and 20ft. deep ; but it was not half this size at first. For many years it was enlarged each year, until it was brought up to its present capacity of 200 tons. The silo is, of course, filled from the upper side, and equally of course there is no lifting to bo done as the drays and sledges used to come up a road level with the top of the silo. In front of the doors and on a platform overhanging the immense pit are three steam-driven chaffcutters, through which the green fresh-cut grass is passed, and from the machines it falls into the pit beneath, where one hand is employed spreading and tramping it until tho 200 tons are completed. A very simple, cheap and easy method of weighting is adopted. A sufficient number of homemade boxes, about the size of an ordinary porter case, filled with clay, is all that is required ; and when the pit is filled srdinary inch hoards, Bxl, are laid down over the entire mass of feed, and on these the boxes of earth are placed, to remain until the contents of tho pit are required for use. On one occasion Mr Fitchett found that he had a crop of oats that, he hud no immediate use for, and although he had closed the silo six weeks before he decided to ro-open it and put in the oats, and in the wiuter the oats, which were cut half green, turned out quite as well as the meadow grass silage, In fact, his men said '"it was difficult to tell t'other from which." Having got thus far, I hope my dairy farmer readers will not say, " Oh, yes, that's all very well, if a man had the capital to buy 6ceam-enginee and chaffcutters, and all the rest of it; but at sixpence or sevenpenco a pound for butter-fat, it is out of tho question." Not at all. If you read between the lines, you will see, " plain as tho holes in a ladder," that these somewhat expensive items are by no means indispensable. If you have an ordinary farm building, all >ou have to do (if the be fairly strong) is to line the shed with ordinary one-inch flooring ; or, if that is too dear, then ordinary rough-pawn 8 x l's. This will answer tho purpose equally well; foi the moisture in the grass will swell tho timber and make everything as tight as a drum. Though the chaffcutter is an improvement it can be dono without. If 3 r ou haven"t got one and can't afford to buy, then make your ensilage without. It will bo a little moro trouble—not much —to cut out; but not much less valuable for feed purposes. Mr Fitchett mixes all his ensilage with brewery grains, and thus has to have it chaffed, but tho silage is of the highest value as a feed stuff without cutting. Thistles, oats, cocksfoot, Indian corn, or ordinary meadow grass may be put in indiscriminately. In cutting out for use, you remove, say, six of the Bin. boards and cut straight down with the hay knife till the bottom is reached, commencing again at the top. Care should be taken to keep tho cut as plumb as possible. If you have tho good fortune to have made more than you want leave the weights on and keep it for next winter. But, perhaps, you will say, "I have heard there is a great deal of waste. The top and the sides and the ends of the silo are often mouldy for six or eight inches in." Quite true. But hear what Mr Fitchett has to say about this : " Wo throw the waste outside into the yard," he says in reply to my inquiry as to waste. "And what happens then?" " Just this. When the cows get outside they lick up every scrap." Horses, too, eat it greedily ; pigs also. The cost of filling the silo is £l6, that is for mowing the grass and carting it. All the plant required is provided by the proprietor, and the work is done by contract. THE BUSINESS OF A WHEAT FARM. " Scribner " of last month gives from the pen of William Allen White an interesting and instructive article on wheat-growing on a large scale in America. Tho information which it conveys, although not altogether novel, is undoubtedly, up-to-date. When read with "J. P. D's recent description in these coluransoflhemillionsof virgin acres in the north of this colony which are suitable for wheat-growing, this American article bears peculiar significance. It illustrates very clearly the fact that the business of wheat-farming on a large scale on areas which are from three to ten thousand acres has, during the last 20 years, been c;rried on profitably in America. There is a clear 8 per cent, or more derivable from it, and it appears to be as sound a speculation as any at present available for the operations of the capitalist. What we notice as taking place here on the lauds near the Murray, a kind of transformation for squatting to farming is in full force in America, but with the material difference that the landowners there have not waited for the share men to come and cultivate the lands The old time farmer is disappearing before the incoming of farm machinery of a wonderfully effective kind. 'l'he modern farmer has to be as much a business man as a scientific agriculturist. Tho obtaining of suitable land, the purchasing of machinery, the hiving out of the work, the provision for all the requirements of the labour, and the marketing of his produce, all come under the head of business. Tom Clod, with his hobnailed boots and smock frock, his massive proportions and dogged perseverance in tho matter of handling the "turmuts," has no place at all in the American farm life of which Mr White says : The smallest implement upon a big wheat farm is a plough. And from the plough to the elevator—from the first operation in wheat-farming to the last—one is forced to realise how the spirit of the age has made itself felt here, and has reduced the amount of the human labour to the minimum. The man who ploughs uses his muscle incidentally in guiding the machine. The man who operates the harrow has half a dozen levers to enlighten his labour. The "sower who goeth forth to sow " walks leisurely behind a drill and works brakes. Ihe reaper needs a epiick brain and a quick hand—but not necessarily a strong arm, nor a powerful back. Ho works sitting down! The threshers are merely assistants to a machine, and the men who heave the wheat into the bins only pnss button?. The most desirable farmhand is not the fellow who can pound the " mauling machine " most lustily at the country fair. He is the man with a cunning brain who can get the work out of a machine without breaking it. The farm labourer in the West to-day, where machinery is employed, finds himself advanced to the ranks of skilled labour, and enjoys a position not widely different from that of the mill-hand in the East. Each is a tender of a machine. The big farms described by Mr White are on the Red River Valley. The land was given in grants to railway companies, who in turn sold it to what are known, as the wheat kings. Many of these are nothing more than capitalists who

employ competent mamgrrs to conduct their great farms. The farm, say, of 7000 acres, is usually valued at 175,000 dol, or in our money £o per acre. The improvements cost about £7OOO. Hen', then, in two items, there is capitil amounting; to £42,000 employed. There are three divisions of tho farm, each divi-ion Inning iis division superintendent. Upon each division is a large white-washed dining hall and dormitory. In the front of this building is a largo smokinsr and leafing room for the men. The beds are clean—better than those in the average American farmhouse, The kitchen is not a large affair, but it is arranged with that nice economy of space which makes the dining-cnr kitchen on the Pullman train a delight to house wives' eyes. Every kitchen utensil has its place and two men cooks prepare the meals in it. At each division house there are stables and implement barns. In each divisionstable are about 100 hoael of horses, and it niny bo noted in passing that Rtuble hands are employed tin year round to look after (he horses, and tho men who work the horses in tho field are never allowed to iced the horses. In the machine shed upon each divisi m are 10 four-horse ploughs, eight four-horse drills, half a dozen harrows, and seven binders of the new " right-hand - binding " pattern There are three steam motor threshing machines on the place, but except when they are in use they are kept at the division nearest the manager's house. 'this is all tho big machinery. But, of course, there are waggons, carts, wheel-barrows, and small farm tools in proportion to tho number of the birge machines on the place. A blacksmith's outfit, and a woodworker's shop is maintained oi tho place the year round. Two elevators, ono with a capacity of 10 ; 000 bushels, and the other with a capacity of 60,000, are located upon opposite corners of tho farm by the railroad track which runs through the groat field. A central office, wherein the bookkeeper find the manager conduct the business of the farm, is connected with the three division houses and with other important points of tho farm by telephono. Tho first step in raising a wheat crop is tho burning off the straw of tho previous wheat crop. This is done in the early fall just before the ploughing season. All the wheat grown is from wheat planted in the spring. A double furrow plough with a 16iu. shear is drawn by four horses and does daily 20 miles. It does 250 acre-sin about five week*. The ploughmen ride at their work and aro paid £5 per month, with beard and washing. The ploughs work in gangs one after the other. The cost of ploughing is about 2s Gd per acre. The harrowing is done with 25ft harrows. A man can harrow 65 acres a day. Tho seeding is done with drills which cover lift, which put in a bushel and a peck per acre, usually a Scotch Fife wheat. The cost of harrowing and sowing is about 3s Gd per acre. A regular staff'of farm hands is kept on all through tho year. The greater part of labour is of the casual kind, just a 3 in tho wool shearing of Australia. Tho harvest usually begins about July 20. This year it was a month late. Tho sweet-peas in tho garden by the superintendents' houses were in the glory of their full bloom, when the men began to come to the bonanza farms. Many a fanner used 100 extra men. A few farmers used mure. The wet weather in July damaged the crops on other fields which usually gave work to harvesters by the score, so that they were employed this year only by the dozen. With tho men camo the new machinery. Train loads of it went into the valley this year. At Fargo they sell a few thousand dollars less than 3,000,000d01. worth of machinery annually. The item of machinery each year is almost as largo as that of labour. City folk, who know nothing of farming, have much fault to find with farmers, great and small, for leaving expensive machines to stand unsheltered in the fence corners. The Dakota farmers, who buy machinery by the carload, say that many times it does not pay to take a machine to the shed after a hard season's wear and tear. They say that where one employs much labour, more money is lost in time repairing and tinkering with an old implement than would pay for two new ones. They who have figured it out say that if a man keeps repairing a machine long enough—not counting the lost time of his emplo3 r ces —ho will have paid for just five machines and still havo an old machine, And in farm machinery breaks are certain to occur. More breaks occur during harvest than in any other season, because of the rush and confusion that come with it. When 10 or a dozen machines are eating through a field of wheat in a row, when the men who shock it aie working liko beavers behind the line of binders, wheu the hurry and bustle of this scene is being duplicated at threo or four places on a farm, something is bound to break. During August the binders on one farm in the bonanza country used up one carload of twine—enough to tie two New England States together and anchor them to Minots Ledge Lights out in Boston Bay. In putting all that twine around wheat-sheafs, the wonder is that more lerers and screws and bolts and nuts and bars and pivots are not broken than the records at the bookkeeper's office show. Yet with all tho ruinous waste of castiron which must inevitably occur every season, it is by the use of machinery, and the careful use of it too, that tho profits in wholesale wheat-growing come. The harvest hand earns from 9dol. to 12dol. a week. This he gets all over the nation. But in tho small farming country the farmer generally has about half a ma;: more than he needs ; yet the farmer cannot economise. He needs a binding machine if he has 40 acres of wheat, or if he has a quarter section planted. But the bonanza farmer figures that in a harvest one machine will cut exactly 250 acres, and it will take exactly threo men to two binders. This ratio will work the men and the machines to their limits.

Threshing commences the day harvesting ends. It takes a day and a quarter to thresh* what has been cut in a day. A bonanza farmer has a threshing-machine to each 2400* acres. It costs about 6s per aero to thresh the gr'iin and put it into the elevator. 'J ho total cost of growing an acre of grain is 15s, and the average yield is calculated at 19 bushels per acre. But to this estimate has to be added several other expenses, interest, &c., so tho total cost per aero is brought up to about 23*. The average price obtained per bushel of Avheat is 2s Id, or about £2 per acre. It appears at first sight that the capitalist makes a profit of 10s per acre, but when all subtractions are made this dwindles down to about Gs clear profit, which, although small, gives a very fair interest. Of course everything in this farming is done on an economical scale. There arc no bags used. The wheat is taken in great tank waggons to elevatois, and from these discharged into tank railway cars. It is in the h mdling and caniage that Australia's practices aro defective.