Telephones are everywhere. The railway
journeys in America often occupying several days, the tickets are a kind
of succession of coupons, parts of which have to be given up at various
stages. Caution is exercised in selling railway tickets for long
journeys--thus, you are required to sign the ticket, and observations
are made of you, such as your height, probable age, colour of your eyes,
hair, etc. Some of the lines of railway are not fenced in, not even in
towns, so that the train runs through a town as openly as does an
omnibus. I may convey some idea of some of the large American systems
of agriculture, by referring to the estate of one of my clients, Mr.
C.H. Huffman, of Merced, California. This gentleman has fields ranging
from 1,000 to 15,000 acres each. He can plough 400 to 500 acres a day.
By his traction engine he can strike 12 furrows at a time. He can put 70
teams (of eight mules or horses each) to work at one time. Each
harvester will cut, thrash, and sack an average of 50 acres a day. The
front part of the machine faces the standing wheat in the field, in the
centre of the machine it is thrashed and winnowed, and at the rear it is
thrown out in sacks ready for market. Mr. Huffman can sit in his study
at home, and by his telephone talk to his clerks at Merced (he is the
banker there), as well as to the foremen at his various ranches for 25
miles round the country.
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