The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, October 30, 1898, Page 21

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, NDAY, OCTOBER 30, 1898 If this big wheat field were laid out in a strip ONE MILE WIDE it would stretch from San Fran- cisco pearly to San Jose. e R R R R R R R =R E-F-F-F - F-F-F-F-F-2-1 ? MADERA, Oct. 27.—Oné¢ of the-largest bodies of land g ¥ everplanted to wneat in the San Joaquin Valley is being & sown by Colvis Cole of Clovis. ' Over 25,000 acres are in < & the plece, which Is situated.on the Madera and Fresno < ~ County side of the San Joaquin River. Planting began o :A last July me of the grain is up and looks well. The o O Lrospects for o good grain crop is good at present. o ABGOOO0O DHCODUODAVVUDOV O LR in Cali- g planted makes the .. It covers over forty square miles. field he.San Joaquin River of Clovis, in. Madera field part in Fresno Madera C y n who is-putting i he has under- ! t jobs that any done-in California. rue that larger acreages > been planted by certain rs in the e seems to cord of an exact parallel to the case. On the Miller & Lux 2 County 50,000 acres were ear, -but the fields were in -different places. v a series of fields, lo- r there was a fertile spot. fields of over 2000 instances Tt LIk 00C00000C000000000000200 LONDON TO NEW YORK IN 8 DAY S: NEW VESSELS BEI is now being built at -on-Tyne a boat of 10,- 000 horsepower, designed to run the amazing rate of forty- an hour. and to cross in forty hours. ary scheme, but a commercial = venture, well with the solidest kind of financial back- fng. The British- Admiralty, a ‘very conservative body, have ordered one like her for their own purposes, and she is now be the first one. Plans have already béen drawn up for the formation of a giant transporta- tion company, which, if the new boat proves a success, wiil at once order a fleet of the same kind. Simultaneously there will be begun the construction of a submarine tun- nel between Ireland and England, so g constructed alongside ous field of grain is located | there | be the largest %“% not be called a wheat acres any more than all th in the State could be cla: head. The Clovis field, however, is an ideal wheat field. It is almost as flat as 2 floor, with a gentle slope toward the river. The outer lines of the field make it almost a perfect square. Each is a little over x miles and if th is clear every part of the field « seen from any other part. It will be a beautiful sight worth seeing when all ain is up and waves gently in the breezes of spring time. There > no roads through the Clovis wheat field. is to be one solid stretch of grain and every square foot of land is_to be utilized. Plowing and planting began in the big wheat field about the middle of last July and will hardly be compieted for the next two months at least. But the run through from Lon- which is intended of this sur- that trains may don to Galway Bay, to be the point of departure rising line. IJOn tghp American coast the summer harbor is intended to be Halls Bay, in Newfoundland. Between this place and the west coast of Ireland the Tun- ning distance across the ocean is only 1650 miles, or about half that between Liverpool and New York. At Halls Bay trains of Pullman cars will be in waiting for the new swift steamers. The new railroad construc- h will be necessary to connect tion whic : {his place with the railroad system al- teady in existence will be compara- tively slight. ‘Then a fast in readiness line of steamers will be on the western coast ol Newfoundland to carry the traveler to the American continent in six hours. By means of this astonishing system New York will -be brought within a tri- fle over three days of London. When the new trans-Atlantic line is put into operation, as is now thought to be likely, you can eat your breakfast in New York on Wednesday morning and take dinner in London the following Saturday evening. This new boat, which is expected to revolutionize the navigation of the world and bring London nearer in point of time' to New York than New Or- Jeans or San Francisco, is being con- structed upon the turbine system ot propulsion. She is a development of the sturdy little Turbinia, which was invented by C. A. Parsons, and surprised everybody OF THE CITY oF SAN grain will all mature at about the same time. Then will come the herculean task of harvesting it. To get an idea of the enormous size of this great wheat field let us imagine tnat it is close to San Francisco. one end of it one mile wide touched on Market street the rest of the fleld would stretch one mile wide almost to San Jose. This same wheat field is over four times the size of the im- proved portion of San Francisco. The whole city and county of San Fran- cisco, inciuding all the outlying dis- trict, is about the same size. With the big improved machinery it does not look as though there was much work spent on planting and harvesting the field. But suppose one man had to handle the crop, if such a thing were possible, how long would it take him? fleld was one mile wide Suppose the N 1S 4 TIMES THAT .. | row twenty-four inches wide. He would | eighty miles for the round trip. | side of the forty-mile t | soing around the e Saat ~ [N il AREA V0000000 and forty miles long, and the one man had a double gang plow cutting a fur- start at a corner of the field in San Francisco and plow south toward San Jose, a distance of forty miles. Then | he would come back and cut another furrow to Francisco, making | n This amount of work would only be a | tiny scratch four feet wide along one field, and the | process would have to be repeated at| least 1300 times, making a total dis-| tance of about 105,000 miles. Suppose that the plowman worked at the rate of twenty miles a day. To get over the 105,000 miles would take 52 days. To plant would take about the same time, making a total of 10,500 | days, or nearly thirty years. It would | be like spending a lifetime, and the dis- | tance traveled would be equivalent to world four times. | And all in one California wheat field. | To accomplish the necessary amount | of work within the time at his disposal | the owner of the Clovis wheat field has | to employ over 200 men, over 1000 horses and several tons of big machinery. The | men are working early and late now, | | and if the whole acreage is planted by | January and a sufficient quantity of rain falls there will be such a crop of Wheat as has never been heard of, for | the land is good land ¥nd the seed is good seed. Then will the bread-eaters of the world give thanks for the exist- ence of the largest wheat field in Cali- farnia. ! 1 — = - emancipation of woman proceeds As nothing is s: cred to a sup- apparently there is no calling, | however masculine in its nature, which per, the up-to-date young woman is not prepared to tackle. Take the case of the lady highwayman—if the bull is permissible—narrated by the St. Pe- | tersburg correspondent of the Daily Telegraph. Barbara Danelia is her name, she disappeared some ten years ago from the village of Bandza, and | since then has held a whole country- side in terror by her operations on the road. |" “This curious highwaywoman,” we are told, one of the most artistic | riders in a country which has produced the best human substitutes for Cen- taurs t the world has yet seen. She will jump anything. She is also an ex- cellent shot, and can hit the edge of a Russian silver coin, smaller than our sixpence, with a rifle bullet at a dis- tance which would make the eyes of the Bisley candidates start from the sockets were 1 to mention it. The num- ber of men, able-bodied, strong-armed men, whom Barbara single-handed (she loves to “work” alone) stopped on the highway and robbed is legion. And, be it remembered, not unarmed men only. Many of these lords of creation not only possessed but used their - -eapons, too, as certain marks on Madame Danelia’s | arms and body prove beyond a doubt. But the moral and refining influence of | this fearless woman on the hitherto | cruel bands of Caucasian highwaymen | is among the most eloquent proofs of DLAND Froposed Rou at the great naval review here a year ago by her swiftness and novelty. She has no engines. She has three propelier shafts, each with three screws —nine screws in all. They enter the water at a slight downward slant, about twenty-five feet forward of the extreme stern. The screws are driven by a Jet of steam direct from the boiler. This jet of steam acts directly upon hun- dreds of small turbine blades geared directly to the shaft, which is thus driven with amazing rapidity. The Turbinia was a mere toy, weighing only forty-five and a half tons and measur~ ing only 100 feet in length, with a nine- foot beam. She flew away from every vessel at Spithead a year ago, leaving the fastest LAUDE DUVAL 00000000000 00000000000000000 000000 te to Iake the Trip From London superiority of women in all walks of life. Before Barbara took to the hills trav- | elers used to be rudely knocked on the | head before they knew where they were, and if they ventured to speak or squeak on coming to their senses, had their hands or heads cut off altogether, | and were generally dealt with as if ut- terly devoid of merves, sensation and | self-respect. To-day everything is different. Blood | is seldom shed, and never ‘‘unneces- sarily.” If your pleasure or duty takes | you along the roads of the wild dis- | tricts of Kutais you are politely stopped | at a very convenient spot by a party | no more nuwmerous than your own. You find a well-dressed “gentleman” of re- fined manners, on a splendid charger, who rides gallantly up, raises “his” hat, and in a few polite words, pro- nounced in a most insinuating voice, explains that to ‘“his” regret circum- | stances beyond his control render it | necessary that he should deprive you of | Your money, horse, and valuables, but that he will do so with as little discom- fort to yourself as possible. ‘Would you kindly turn out your pockets and | take off coat and vest? When it is nll" over and done the ‘‘gentleman” re- quests you to remain on the spot for an | hour or so until he and his friends have | had time enough to get clear away, and | he adds that should vou disobey one of his men has orders to blow your brains | out, which he sincerely begs you not to | have carried out. | Barbara Danelia is a Georgian, and | her beauty, therefore, may be more | easily imagined than described. She is | very popular among her own people, whom she seldom attacks . in person. | ago, PRy ( Wy AN Special to The Sunday Call RAVELING on the luxurious train of the President of the United States, through the fer- tile fields of Towa, which. line the Burlington road, a few days I talked with the Secre- tary of Agriculture about the predic- tion of Sir William Crookes of England, that in a few years the world’s pro- duction of wheat will be unequal to the world’s demand, and we shall have to turn to artificial food products for sus- temance. Secretary Wilson says Pro- fessor Crookes is all wrong and there is no cause to fear that the wheat supply will give out. “Crookes’ theory,” said Secretary Wilson, “is based on the belief that the fields of America are losing their productiveness because they are giv- ing us only twelve bushels to the acre. That is a mistake. The fields of Towa could produce twenty-five bushels to the acre if the farmers could afford to sow them in wheat. Iowa alone could produce thirty or forty million bushels of wheat. o could Illinois. But the farmer of Iowa finds it more profitable to sow his fields in something that will make meat in his herds or flocks or milk for his dairy. It is only the pio- neer who can afford to grow wheat and his land is not the most produetive. | That is the reason the average of pro- duction is so low. Put the price of wheat at a dollar and the Iowa farmer will cultivate it.” “What could the United States pro- duce at a pinch?” I asked. “A couple of hundred million bushels more than it does now. Crooke: theory is like that of Malthus, who liv- ed a hundred years ago. He claimed that population increased in geometri- cal ratio and production in arithmetical ratio, and that in a certain time popu- lation would be out of proportion to production and the world would starve. | He wrote a book to prove this, but time has shown that he was all wrong. You can’t base any theory on popula- | tion, because it does not follow any rule. “As men grow rich they are less likely to have large families. In the rich quarter of the town you will find | few children. In the half-starved quarter they are few. Among the common people you will find many chil- dren and in the country they have large families. The increase of population is governed by conditions. In France | there is no increase of population and ‘there has not been for some years.” “What is the annual production of wheat in the United States?” “It will be about 650,000,000 bushels this year. The commercial agencies make it 700,000,000, but we don’t agree with that estimate. We have ten agents in the field to their one and we won’t do any guessing ahead at this time of year to please any one. I have no doubt the people who want to buy wheat would like to have us make a big esti- mate, but we won't do it. The wheat crop of the world is going to be splen- did this year. But it finds us with empty bins and no reserve. For that reason I believe the price of wheat will go higher. “Another thing the theorists about crop conditions don’t consider,” said the Secretary, “is the improvement In OOOOOOOOO0OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO NG BUILT TO CUT TIME INHALF ATV ANTIC OCEAN. 1.630 MILES. Now torpedo-boats of the British navy far behind, and she developed the wonder- ful speed of thirty-four and a half knots an hour. This amazing record, however, was subsequently beaten by the Turbinia. She is reliably stated to have reached forty-two miles an hour. Exactly what her highest speed has been Mr. Par- sons declines to say. Some of his to New York in Three Days and for Which Vessels Are Being Built. friends, however, assert that from what they know of the recent improvements he has made in the turbine system of propulsion, and from the plans of the new boats, they will make fifty, and possibly sixty, miles an hour. The Tur- binia had 2100 horsepower, so that the two new boats will each be five times more powerful. The steam of the Turbinia was pro- duced by a water tube boiler. The <o- tal weight of other machinery, includ- ing turbines, auxiliary engines, con- jonsers, boilers, propellers. shafts, tanks and the water in the boilers, was (wenty-two tons. Thus, about one hun- ired horse-power was attained per ten of machinery, and nearly fifty horse- power per ton of displacement. This beats all records. Turbinia, New Style Forty-Seven Miles an Hour Vessels Designed to Reduce the ‘Tlm Between London and New York to Three Days. . OUR NEXT WHEAT BY UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE WILSON, 00000C0C000000000000000000000000000000000000000000CCCO0 methods of production which is being spread among the farmers every year by the Agricultural Department and through the agricultural colleges. The farmer is learning every year how to get more out of his land. He is learn- ing for example how to conserve the water supply. Irrigation is going to make fertile some of our barren land, but only so far as the water supply will go. We can dam the rivers whose waters are now going to waste and store up some against a future need. But more than that, we can make fertile now without Irrigation land which a few years ago would have been called a desert. Science shows that soil needs no more than six inches of rain to make it productive. All else that falls on it is evaporated. If six inches of rain fell in a day much of it would evaporate in the natural course and only a small | part would remain. But the farmer to- day spreads dust over his newly watered field and so keeps the moisture | from disappearing. Besides, we are in- vestigating constantly to find what kinds of grain will grow best in certain climates with a view to increasing pro- | duction. 1 have a man in Rugsia now getting seeds for experimental planting in this country.” ‘When Secretary Wilson took charge of the Agricultural Department he un- dertook: a number of investigations through special agents. He tells me that the eighteen months’ experience of the department has proved the entire correctness of his ideas. “We have proved to the people of England,” he said, “that we can send them the best dairy products they have !ever seen. Just now we are introduc- | | ing American butter and cheese into | | China and Japan.” “Do you think the Chinese can- be persuaded to eat our butter?” | “Certainly. They don’t eat any but- | ter now, but when they have tried it they will want it as they will want our | meats and other food products. Give | a man something good to eat and you cultivate the taste for it. The Chinese will take our butter and in time our | cheese. You must remember, too, that not all the people of China are natives | of that country.” In scanning the columns of thedaily press the majority of people give the| | news of the crops in official form bare- | ly a passing glance, but to the student | of the crops of the United States these | form the pages of the text book, by means of which he gains the necessary | knowledge upon which to predicate an | intelligent opinion. Secretary Wilson and his staff of experts are students of | just this sort of knowledge, except that | they have far more laid before them every day than any newspaper could possibly print. ~Mr. Wilson’s statisti- | cian is John Hyde, and it is his duty to | collate all the figures that come from | the department’s agents throughout | the country, discard the chaff and pol- | ish the kernel of the grain so that it | will attract the attention it deserves. Mr. Hyde says that the total pro- | duction of corn in the United States last year was 1,902,967,933 bushels, or more than 16 per cent less than the | yield of the year before, while the area | of production was almost a million acres less. Yet, in spite of these facts, | on the basis of the farm price, the net | | value of that decreased crop was more than ten millions of dollars greater than the big crop of 1896. Of course 00C000000000CO00000 The Turbinia, as exhibited last sum- mer, was unable to stop, unable to turn and unable to go backward. Mr. Par- sons therefore withdrew her to New- castle-on-Tyne. There he has succeed- ed in pgoducing a turbine steamer which can reverse as easily as the or- dinary steamer. The Turbinia has been given a public demonstration before a board of naval experts to show what she.can accom- plish. Mr. Parsons recently brought her to a standstill within thirty-seven seconds while traveling at the rate of thirty knots. He has also recently made the Turbinia, with her new re- versing system, go at the rate of seven and a half knots backward. He has also proved that she can turn as easily as the ordinary steamer. The Parsons system of turbine pro- pulsion is highly ingenious. Inside a steel case or tube five feet long and only eight inches in diameter there is arranged a small regiment of tiny tur- bines. These are so set that as each revolves it comes in contact with partitions fixed to the interior of the steel case or tube. Between the revolving blades and-the fixed ones there is just space enough for steam to steal through. This steam is admitted to the tube by means of a valve. After turning the first turbine it is projected on to the next, and is whirled from one to the other with ever in- creasing force until, by the time it escapes from the opposite end of the tube, it has by its pressure on the blades turned the shaft on which they are placed at the rate of 2500 to 3000 revolutions a minute. Mr. Parsons in a recent interview safid: “I believe that a liner of 15,000 tons can be bullt with engines like the Turbinia’s capable of running between Sandy Hook and Roches Point in three days. “‘She will burn pretty well three times as much coa. per day as the present | cured . ’ 000000000OOOOOOOOOOOOOO00000000000009000OOOOOOOOOOOOOO; CROP AND ITS PRICE. 000000 the crop of 1896 is the largest o and the crop of 1897 has gnnlv Qe;rexcg;‘f ceeded in the history of this country, six different years. - The experts claim that these facts in< dicate more than proof of the oftmade statement that a le is more profitable than a gre They show: a stronger; a wider and a constantly; developing’ market for American ce- reals that comparatively. few of the sharp-eyed people of this country real- ize. Another very interesting fact that was demonstrated by Mr. Hyde is that there has been a big. increase in corn crops of the cotton States west of Ala- bama, as well as in Illinois, Missouri, Nebraska, Kansas, New Mexico and California. The only great increase in acreage, however, was in Kansas and Texas, the latter State increasing its corn drea by more ‘than half a million acres. All these facts pertain to the corm crop. Mr. Hyde tells us even more in- teresting facts than those quoted about the wheat crop, facts that demonstrate very clearly the truth of what Secre=~ tary Wilson said to me. For instance, the wheat area actually harvested in 1897 was nearly five miilion acres more than had been reported as under cuiti- vation. So thoroughly did this fact throw the calculations of the depart- ment people out of plumb that it was found to be impossible to make a satis- factory comparison of yields with the results of the farmers’ labors in 1896. So Mr. Hyde says that the best thing we can do is to go back to the eleventh census and with the figures there se- make comparisons that have nothing about them which could be termed odious. This action brings out in strong re. lief the continued western movement of the center of production, and also the continued tendency toward concen- tration. Take the country east of the Mississippl, for instance. Only six States show a larger wheat acreage than they had the eleventh census, and the total of such Increase is only 377,462 acres. On the-other hand, every State west of the Mississippi, with the single exception of Missouri, shows an in- crease. Kansas’' acreage is greater by 1,500,000; Minnesota, 0,000; Nebraska, 1,000,000; Oregon and Oklahoma, 500,« 000 each; Washington and California, each 400,000. It is a curious truth that appears when the yield in the two Dae< kotas is contrasted. ihe northern is apparently at a standstill, while the southern comes to the front with an in« crease of over 400,000 acres. Looking back again at the increase the position of the Pacific Coast 13 worthy of note, for the wheat crop of California, Oregon and Washington ag- gregated 70,673,690 bushels, or 13.3 per cent of the total crop of the eountry. —_————— The Mark Lane Express tells of the Insectivora Food Company of London, which is selling a new food product called preserved tropical flies. These flies are caught in the swamps and lakes of South American countries by spreading nets cover the water during the night. The flies are then dried, pressed and shipped to England to be sold as poultry food. The eggs of these flies, which are about the size of PoppY seeds, are also collected and sold as chicken food. 0C000000002000000 models, say 1500 tons; she will save weight and space in boiler and engine- room, which will enable her to carry about the same number of passengers and the same cargo as a 15,000 ton steamer carries to-day.” — e They were sitting on the porch in the gloaming, says the Cleveland Plain- dealer. They were alone, save for the neighbors with long ears, who sat on lhhelé‘ porches in the immediate neighbor- 100d. The solitary pair on their porch are new in the matrimonial business. Perhaps that Is why they preferred to be alone. Especlally in the gloaming. And the neighbors sitting quietly on their porches overheard this tender little dialogue: He—How soft yvour cheek is, dear? She (submissively)—Yes, George. Brief_stlence. He—What a- growth of hair you have on your face, love. She—Yes, George. He—Why, dearest? She—Because sweetest peaches always have a fuzz: Long silence. Neighbors finally sigh and break the oppressive stiliness. You know why.