. The story of agriculture in the United States. s were included in each of these great farms. Theimmense fields were plowed by a dozen or a score ofsulky plows driven in a squad. The seeding was done inthe same manner. When harvest time came, a score ofself-binders, of the latest improved type, circled like afleet of ships around the sea of ripened grain. While in1880 Dakota produced less than three million bushels ofwheat, by 1885 its product was thirty-eight million, and in1887 it was more than sixty-two million bushels. Themost famous of the bonanza farms was the Dalrymplefarm, in which 55
. The story of agriculture in the United States. s were included in each of these great farms. Theimmense fields were plowed by a dozen or a score ofsulky plows driven in a squad. The seeding was done inthe same manner. When harvest time came, a score ofself-binders, of the latest improved type, circled like afleet of ships around the sea of ripened grain. While in1880 Dakota produced less than three million bushels ofwheat, by 1885 its product was thirty-eight million, and in1887 it was more than sixty-two million bushels. Themost famous of the bonanza farms was the Dalrymplefarm, in which 55,000 acres were included. It was dividedinto tracts of about 2000 acres. Each tract had asuperintendent, separate buildings, machinery, and ac-count books. THE WESTWARD MARCH OF WHEAT 217 Before many years it was discovered that these greatfarms were not as economical as smaller ones. As morepeople flocked into Minnesota and Dakota, land be-came more valuable. As its price advanced the farmerfelt that he had more money invested in his land, and. Area of Wheat Production in 1880 that he must therefore get a greater yield from it. Heknew that, in order to realize this greater profit, he mustcultivate more carefully and must add stock and varyhis crops, so as to keep the land in good condition. Thesmall farmer could do this better than the large was partly because the former, in tilling his o\Vnfields, and managing other parts of the farm work, tookmore pains and looked after the details better than thehired laborers of the large farms. So it came about thatthe small farmers could afford to buy parts of the bonanzafarms and the latter were broken up. 2i8 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES One effect of the great farms of the Northwest may beseen in the development of machinery. The sulky plowhad been invented earlier, but it was first extensivelyused upon the Western wheat fields. For these fields,too, manufacturers made gang plows, disk plows andharrows, twelve-foot see
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectagriculture, bookyear
