USA > California > Merced County > History of Merced County, California with biographical sketches of prominent citizens > Part 19
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CATTLE STAMPEDES.
One of the groat causes of loss to which cattle men are liable, is stampeding. This is a danger to which all large droves of stock are ever subject. Stampedes are caused by a sudden fright which instantaneously spreads through a whole herd, and starts them off in a moment on a mad, head- long, rosistloss rush to escape from some imaginary peril. Stampedes usually occur at night, but sometimes iu the day. In Paradiso valley, Nevada, last winter, 1,300 cattle confined in a number of corrals, took fright one night and broke out of thoir inclosures, rushing off in a body. A
1L
BAXTER RANCH, RESIDENCE OF ROBERT BAXTER, IC
1
ROBERT
BAXTER
GANG PLOW, PAT. 1664.
TRAVELING THRESHER, PAT. 186 3.
HEADER. PAT. 18GG.
TRAVELING STEAM' ENGINE, PAT. 1868.
MILES EAST OF PLAINSBURG, MERCED CO. CAL
93
HARVESTING SCENE IN MERCED.
number of them were killod in gullies. Many were not recovered for weeks, and some have not yet been found. They wero fat oattle, ready for market, and the loss to the owners by tho stampedo was in the neighborhood of $10,000. Cattle lose enormously in weight by a stampede, and are left in a very had condition. And having once stampeded they are liable to do so again on the slightest provocation. They do not recover from the original frigbt for weoks, the wild run leaving them in a state of nervons exhaustion, Cattle will stampede even when yoked to wagons. In 1849 sixty teams of cattle, five yoke to a toam, all drawing emi- grant wagons, stampeded on the Sweetwater, in Colorado, and ran sevou or eight miles before they came to a halt.
Horses and mules are also subjected to stampede. As might be supposed from their well-known eccentricity of im- pulse and tenacity of purpose, mnles make a worse stampede than either horses or cattle,
HARVESTING SCENE IN MERCED COUNTY.
A California harvest field is a scene of raro activity, and a strange and interesting sigbt, especially to persons directly from the east, where a header is unknown .. The following description will, therefore, interest them, although to a farmer in Merced connty it is a common affair :
A space has heen cleared by the headers, in the center of a mighty field of yellow, waving grain; a field so vast that its area may he more readily compntod in square miles than square acres. To this spot has heen drawn what appears at first sight to be an old-fashioned locomotive, but which is, in reality, a steam-boiler upon wheels. In front of this stands the engineer, with a fork, stuffing waste straw (the only fneł nsed) into the voracions fire-box, under which a tank of water catches the sparks, and serves as a gnard against fire. A tight-box water wagon supplies water from a distant spring, or woll, and this heing speedily trans- formed to steam, canses a large driving wheel to revolve rapidly.
The " Separator," called in the East "thresbing machine," stands some thirty feet away, connected with the rovolving wheel of the engine by a long belt.
HOW HEADERS ARE MANAGED.
The reapers are pushed, each by eigbt, twelve or twenty- fonr horses, according to the size and width of swath cnt, harnessed hehind, and each accompanied by its consort wagon, npon the quivering mass of bearded grain. These reapers are a practical illustration of " the cart bofore the horse," tbe macbine going first and the team following, push- ing instead of pulling.
Last of all, the driver rides upon the tongue, behind his borses, his hand npon a lever, and bis eye npon the grain, that ho may raise or lower the scythe, according to its height,
and thus secure all the beads. The rovolution of the wheels canses the reel to revolve, and also shuffles the scythe, while an endless helt carries the severed heads (each with its six or twolve incbes of straw attached) np a slanting gangway, and into the attendant wagon.
THE HEADER WAGON.
This wagon, having a box very high on one side and very low on the other, looks as though the hnilder had started ont to erect a mammotb packing-case on wheels, hut had run out of material after finishing the bottom, both ends and one side,
Each wagon is manned hy two persons, ono to drive, heing very careful to koep close alongside the reaper, the other, armed with a fork, to pack the heads away, as they fly into the wagon (over tho low side of the hox) from the gangway of the reaper. A very few minutes serve to till the wagon, when the full wagon drives away to the separator, and an empty one takes its place, to be filled as was the former.
At the separator there are generally two wagons being nn- loaded at the same time, one on each side. Two men, with forks, pitch the wheat heads upon a platform, some six or eight feet high, while four others, from the platform, feed it to tho separator. If regularly fed, a steady satisfied rumble attests the fact, hnt tho quick ear of the manager detects on the instant any complaint from his mechanical pet, and he chides his men accordingly.
At the far end of the machine, a clond of threshed straw and chaff, settling upon the ground, is dragged away by a team of horses (wearing canvas hoods to protect their eyes) attached to a twelve-foot wooden sbovel.
At the side, protected from the dust and chaff by a canvas awning, a steady stream of clean, ripe grain is received into new sacks by one man, while another deftly stitches np the montb of each, as filled, and with marvelons colerity carries it out and deposits it npon a fast-increasing pilo. Anon, those are loaded upon immense donble wagons carrying from six to nine tons, and are hanlod by teams of eight to sixteen horses (all guided by a single line) to the great warehouse of the proprietor, there to be stored till shipment.
Yot even in this apparently simple matter of storage, system must he followed, and every sack must bo laid so as to break joints with its fellows, or a leak in some of tho lower tiers may cause the pile to totter and fall, wrecking not only the warehouse, but also a goodly slice from the ample fortune of their enterprising owner.
HOW LABORERS ARE TREATED.
Far away stands the white camp of the harvesters, where at early dawn thoy breakfasted. No eight-hour systom bas yot abbreviated the day, nor prolonged the night amid theso mountain solitndes. "Sun to snn" is the golden rule, and
94
HISTORY OF MERCED COUNTY.
as the lurid orb peeps o'er the eastern hills, all hands are stirring fer the day's contest. In some cases a cooking car is used for the hands, and, being on wheels, is moved about from place to place. It is a kitchen on wheels, and as neat as any housewife's ordinary kitchen, and is probably twice as convenient; for the size is ample, having a long center table, capable of accommodating twenty men; tho range is a fine one of the latest improved pattern. The car is one of the prominent features of the outfit, and is admirably ar- ranged for the comfort of tho crew, giving them a cool and comfortable place to eat in; no flies to bother them, but a breeze to fan them while they eat.
The idea of throshers providing their crews with " grub," and in fact, supplying all the necessaries sufficient for the carrying out of their threshing contract, is giving entire sat- isfaction to our farmers, aud ero long all threshing outfits will be carried on under the same excellent idea, doing away with the vexations worry to the farmer's wife in preparing food for the "horrid threshers."
Many farmers stack the grain as fast as ent, and after- wards thresh from the stack. This plan has advantages, but we are not sufficiently posted to explain them. A derrick is used to carry the straw from the stack to the separater. The derrick is fitted with two handy Jackson forks, which are of a convenient size, and by the use of horse power ale operated, and the straw fed to the machine. There are also sometimes traveling stables, with mangers and hay racks well arranged, giving room for sixteen to twenty-four horses to feed around.
The great separators, which have of late years been intro- duced into this State, have been marvels of mechanical skill and ingenuity, until ene would imagine that the skilled mne- chanic had left nothing undone in the construction of these masterpieces of werkmanship.
MORE WONDERFUL IMPROVEMENTS,
The publisher of this work was last season (1880) travel- ing through one of the immense whoat fields of Merced county. We say immense, as we had been traveling for hours through a vast field of wheat. In every direction was wheat; not a house, tree, er object of any kind had been in sight for a long time-only wheat, wheat. At last our eyes canght sight of a queer looking object in the distance, and curiosity, as well as a desire to see something beside wlicat, led us towards it.
We were astonished at the sight, and looked long in wonder and amazement at a combined header and thresher. Twenty-four horses were pushing this immense machine over the ground, and as it passed along dropped sacks filled with wheat. The horses wero six abreast-twelve each side of the tongue-and the swath cut was 24 feet wide. The grain heads, in the meantime, instead of passing into the hoader-
wagon, went directly into the separator, and the grain was sacked and thrown off. It was worth a long journey to see this wonderful machine with its twenty-four horses trained like circus animals, aud all moving at the command of the man "at the wheel" who guides the beader by a tiller at- tached to a wheel at the end of tho tongue, which aets as a rudder for this "agricultural ship." While watching its operations the writer wondered if on his next trip that way he would not also see the grist-mill attached and the ma- chine throwing off sacks of flour !
COMBINED HEADER, THRESHER AND MILL.
Well! our dream of wonder we learn is nearly a realiza- tion! We are informed that to some of these machines have been attached a barley mill, which grinds (coarse for feed) the barley as fast as ent. So then the reader will un- derstand that the barley is cut, threshed and ground as fast as the machine proceeds. The Eastern reader must remem- ber that the grain often stands, after ripening, from one to two months, and is hard and dry when cut.
M. D. Atwater, one of the large aud successful farmers of Merced, uses what is called the "Little Patent " harvester. It cuts a swath twenty-four feet wide, sacking the grain as it proceeds, using a force of five men and twenty-four horses. The editor of the Argus thus describes a visit to this ranch: "A ride of six miles over a saudy road to the great farm of thousands of acres, where we found the new machine, consisting of a twenty-four foot header and thresher all in ene machine, run by five men and twenty-four horses, iu full operation, finishing up the harvesting-cutting, threshing, sacking and housing the straw of fifty acres per day.
We, in company with the ladies, stood upon the platform of the machine while it was going and cutting its swath of twenty-four feet in width und a mile and a half lony, and had an opportunity to witness its movements and the ease with which it does the cutting, threshing and sacking of the grain and depositing the straw in a heador wagou to be housed in the barn or stacked.
CONSTRUCTS HIS OWN MACHINE.
" The harvester used by Mr. Atwater was built in his own shop, upon the farm. Farmers bave been for years experi- menting upon gang plows and harvesters, all of which Mr. Atwater has been making and using with success, upon his level, sandy farm."
EXTENSIVE WHEAT FIELDS.
This machine is valuable whoro vast fields of grain liko Mr. Atwater and other large farmers havo aro to bo harvested. It is arranged so as to cut around a large " patch" of hun- dreds of acres-so largo that tho machine will only go around the pioeo of grain some four or six times in a day,
95
THE IMMENSE GANG-PLOWS.
from sunrise to sunset. The reader will thns get some idea of the vastness of a Merced wheat field.
We are informed that thirty-two of these large combined machines have been made and are in operation no where else in the world, except in Stanislaus, Merced, Tnlare, Kern, and San Joaquin counties, California,
To have the Eastern reader comprehend the operations of this machine, he must remember that it is constructed with a knife twenty-fenr feet long, which operates like that of a mowing machine. Back of the knife, en a platform snp- ported hy wheels, is placed the threshing machine, here called a separator. Behind this is a tongne to which are at- tached the horses, and they push the machine ahead of them into the grain. The horses are six abreast each side of the tongue.
The machine ents a swath twenty-four feot wide aud re- quires only four men to operate it, who are stationed as fol- lows :
First, the driver, who rides on a seat on the tongne, and has his twenty-four horses so trained that they all start at once.
Second, the stearsman, who stands on the machine, act- ing as captain, and who gnides the machine in the same way that a steamboat is steared, by ropes running to a wheel on the end of the tongue.
Third, the operator, who raises or lowers the cuting bar of the machine, adapting it to the inequalities of the ground and difference in height ef grain.
Fourth, the sack-sewer, who receives the wheat in sacks attached to the separator, sews them up and throws them off as the machine proceeds; or in case of harley being ground he sews up after grinding.
The machine goes over from thirty te fifty acres, and the number ef hnshels of wheat depends on the yield, as the machine gees over just the same amount of ground, whether the yield he light er heavy, and the number of sacks will vary from three hundred to five hundred, which is from seven hundred to one thensand two hundred hushels per day, The cost of harvesting is considered twe-thirds less hy the use of these machines than by any other machinery or system. A machine will probably cost $2,500 or $3,000.
A PURELY CALIFORNIAN SCENE.
Only in California conld these vast harvesting operations be carried on in this manner. In the summer-that is from May to November-there is no rain, People in the East will bear this last fact in mind, as it has a material influence npon farming operations. In harvest time there is no fear of damage to the crop from a shower, or its destruction hy a storm; no labor is lost on account of rainy days; we can dispense with barns and cribs; the crop can remain in the field in sacks nntil sold; the grain when ready to cut, in a
few days becomes so dry that is can be threshed, sacked and shipped with safety, and, instead of moulling on the voyage to Liverpool, gains in weight hy absorbing moisture from a more humid atmosphere; aud that in case of necessity, the farmer can seud his crop te market the day after he ents it. It is nsual to send off several cargoes to Enrope hefore July. The piles of sacks full of wheat lying in the fields in June and July, and similar piles heaped np near the railroad statiens in Angust, September and October, are ameng the notable sights in the agricultural districts of California, hnt shock, stacks, and barns full of nnthreshed grain are rare.
WHAT BECOMES OF THE WHEAT,
The wheat of California is hard, white, dry, and strong in gluten, and the surplus is mostly shipped te England, where it is prized as among the hest there ohtainable.
Nearly a thousand vessels enter the pert ef San Francisco in a year, and a large number of these are required te carry the wheat to Europe. Some $15,000,000 is annually re- ceived for wheat alone, and it is shipped to the following cenntries, arranged in order according to the amount which was sent them: Great Britian, Belginm, France, Australia, Spain, South America, New Zealand, China, Germany, Hawaiian Islands, British Columbia, Tahiti and Mexico. By this list it is seen that we contribute breadstuffs to nearly every country of the globe.
IMMENSE GANG-PLOWS,
We must give the reader some idea of how these large fields are cultivated. On this farm gang-plows are used of thirty in a gang, plowing a strip eighteen feet wide. The plow is drawn hy a team ef sixteen horses, and has a seed- sower attached. It is all drawn by the same team, and managed by ene man. Some fifty acres of land are plowed and sowed te wheat or barley in one day, and requires no further care or coltivatien, except, perhaps, being run over with a harrow when the seeding is done in dry weather. Bnt in some cases harrows are attached te the plows and follow the seeding,
Of course these immense gang-plows with seeding at- tachments cannot he used on the heavier soils or upon uneven land, but are just the thing for level, smooth plains. Their use is hecoming general on this class of lands.
On smaller farms and heavier soils these gangs are nsn- ally two or five in a gang, sometimes six, eight, or even ten, each cutting a furrow six or ten inches wide, and four or six inches deep. A span of horses is thonght to he required for each plow in the gang, one driver for the entire team. Frequently a machine sower and harrower are attached he- hind the plows, and thus at one movement the land is broken, sown, harrowed and prepared for its first harvest. The lightness of the soil, the lack of sod, and absence of
96
HISTORY OF MERCED COUNTY.
of stones, bushes, and trees, permit the reduction of the land from its wild state to cultivation at a very little ex- pense-that is, after abundant raius have come to soften the earth.
A sulky gaug with two plows, each cntting twelve iuches, drawn by six horses, will dispatch fonr acres per day; while a five gang plow, each cutting ten inches, drawn hy eight or teu horses, will dispatch eight acres in a day, only one man being required in each case. We have no estimate of tlie cost of plowing, hnt understand the cost per acre of plow- ing large fields is variously estimated at from forty cents to one dollar per acre to the farmer provided with horses and gang-plows. Generally the cost of plowiug on small farms and in the strong soils is estimated at various prices, from two to three dollars per acre.
TIME OF SOWING.
The sowing commences with the first heavy rain, which comes in some years as early as the first of November, and continues to the first of April. The gronud used for small grain bakes hard during the heat and drought of summer and autumn, and plowing is uot possible uutil the rain comes, and rain enough to wet the earth thoroughly, at least six inches deep. The plows are then set to work immedi- ately, running from four to eight inches deep. Que plowing is usually considered sufficient. The grain is sown accord- ing to convenience, soon after the plowing, or after the lapse of weeks, and is immediately harrowed iu. The amount of seed sowu to the acre varies from a hushel and a half to two hushels. The sowing is usually doue broadcast.
COTTON CULTURE.
The subject of cottou culture has attracted a good deal of attention in this county. Good crops aro raised aunually by those engaged ju its cultivation. The first shipment of cotton was in 1866 hy Messrs. Skelton & Turner, who for- warded the first threo sacks of their crop of cotton, weigh- iug somewhere in the neighborhood of seven or eight bundred pouuds, the product of three-quarters of an acre of gronud, belonging to Albert Ingalsbe of this county. It was sent to the cotton factory at Oakland to be giuued and worked np.
This, we heliove, was the first cotton that had as yet gone in search of a market from this section of country. Mr. Ingalshe stated that the total cost of raising the ahove crop was not over twouty. fivo dollars, which shows conclu- sively that whon tho land is suitable, it is a hetter thing than wheat and barley raising. Mr. Iugalshe put in two and a half acros the next year for experiment.
The Buckley brothers of Merced county, who are among the pioneer cotton growers of the State, had the honor of making the first oxport of native cotton from California.
The shipment consisted of 23,000 ponnds. This cotton is all said to have been of the most excellent quality, qnite eqnaling the best sea island cotton.
COTTON EXPERIMENTS BY COL. STRONG.
Col. Strong finished picking his crop of cotton November 23, 1871, and the result of his experiment summed up as follows: The field of cotton consisted of fifty-one acres, measured, from which he gathered seventy-four thousand four hundred and fifty pounds of seed cotton. Thirty acres of the field originally planted in cotton, upon which he failed to get a stand, was plowed over and replanted with corn, which yielded nine hundred bushels-worth in the market ahout $1.50 a hushel at that time. The cotton and coru crop gathered from the eighty acres amonnted to about as follows: Cotton, 74,450 ponnds at six cents per ponnd, $4,467; corn, nine hundred bushels, at $1.50 per hushel, $1,350, making the gross proceeds amount to $5,817. It seems to us that this ought to have convinced all of the value of Col. Strong's experiment, and induced all who had suit- ahle land to euter into the business of cultivating the staple upon a large scale. The cotton of Strong's was of excellent quality, being remarkably white and clean, and totally free from stains of any kind. The lint was fine, silky, and was sufficiently lengthy to bring it np to a high grade, ranking, perhaps, as good as " middling."
One reason why cotton bas proved eminently profitable here to the producer is, that the labor of cultivation is done between the time of plauting small grain and the harvest, when lahor is plenty and men can he had at less rates than rule during harvest and seed-time.
Crops of cotton are raised every year in. Merced county, and tho cotton interest is going to become a very important oue. The crop on tho Merced river for 1881 will probably reach 600 tous. During the year 1880 the Merced Woolen Mills consumed the eutire crop of the county, which was about 65,000 pounds. Although the price ruled low last year, planters did quite as well as the farmer of the plains. To place cotton on a footing with other products, the conntry wants cotton mills.
Kingdom of Miller & Lux.
The lauds of this firm extend a distance of sixty-eight miles along the west sido of the San Joaquin river. This hody of land is from five to forty miles widle. Ou the east side of the river they have othor tracts iu smaller lots and compriso iu all uoarly 175,000 acres.
Large sums have heen spent in irrigatiug cauals aloug this tract ou the wost sido, which are fully dosorihed further
97
MILLER AND LUX RANCH.
on under the head of Irrigation. A large view of a part of the irrigation canal will be found in this work, entitled "Firehaugh's Ferry and Poso Farm."
This vast tract is used mostly for stock raising. The acreage of grain is not large, say 5,000 acres. There are large tracts of alfalfa, from which three crops are taken and the fields twice pastured.
Aside from owniug a large interest in the San Joaquin and King's River Canal, which runs from tho mouth of Fresno Slough to Los Banos Creek, a distance of forty miles, Miller & Lux have also constructed a canal ou tho east side of the San Joaquin which takes water from some of the unmorous sloughs in that region and overflow their pasture lands iu the dry season.
The month of Salt or St. Louis Camp is fifteen miles above Hill's Ferry, and five milos np this slough stands oue of Miller & Lux's warehonses which has a storage capacity of twelve hundred tons of wheat, aud which is some twenty miles from their principal warehouse. Here may be seen some ancient adobe shanties, and a rude corral, relics of "ye olden time." From this spot is presented a most lovely landscape, overlooking the vast acres of this ranch, and its thousands of cattle and sheep.
IMMENSE BANDS OF CATTLE AND SHEEP.
We are not able to give the exact number of stock on this ranch, hnt can give some idea of the uumber when we say that 25,000 calves were branded at one time. In 1881 Miller & Lux sheared about 80,000 head of sheep, which gave employment to over 70 shearers. The following item will give the reader somo idea of the vastness of the ranch :
There are two strings of board fence on this farm each sixty-eight miles loug, besides varions cross feuces.
Messrs. Miller & Lux own more cattle than any other firm or any individual on the coast, their cattle uumbering per- haps 50,000 head in Califoruia, and 10,000 more iu Nevada. Their cattle are all under feuce.
They have a cattle ranch near Gilroy, in the Santa Clara valley, and another one fourteen miles long in the Peach Valley of Gabilan mountains, in Monterey county. These ranches are used for stock ranges.
The owners of large herds never know the exact number of their cattle, scattered as the animals are, over hroad ranges, and receiving hy natural increase constant additions to their numbers during half the year.
Henry Miller, Esq., takes persoual charge of the real estate of the firm, here and in other parts of the State, and displays a wonderful executive ability, and furnishes em- ploymont to hundreds of men. He has what is known as the " Home Ranch," and tho " Canal Ranch," besides sov- eral dairy ranches on this hody of land. He keeps an army of carpenters, wagon-makers, fence-builders, teamsters,
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