Great farms of the west.

In the Southwest, where farming pays more profitably than in any other part of the United States, farms ranging from 3,000 to 50,000 acres are found.

The average size of the 5,000,000 farms in the United States is 146 acres; in the Southwest the average size is 500 acres. The largest ranches and farms are located in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Indian Territory and Nebraska.

Great western ranch.

The famous X. I. T. farm, in the Panhandle of Texas, alluded to on the previous page, is more a cattle ranch than a farm, although recently about 20,000 acres has been sown to forage crops. This ranch covers 3,000,000 acres, and is larger than the whole state of Connecticut. It is owned by the Capitol Syndicate, of which the late ex-Senator C. B. Farwell of Illinois was at the head. It ships from 18,000 to 20,000 head of beef steers to the markets every year. It raises from 10,000 to 20,000 acres of corn and other forage crops to feed these cattle.

Two hundred cowboys and fifty farm hands find employment on the ranch. The income of the ranch is nearly $1,000,000 per year.

Colonel C. C. Slaughter of Dallas, Texas, owns 1,250,000 acres of farm and ranch land in Texas.

The largest farm in the Southwest is the "101" ranch in Northern Oklahoma. This covers 50,000 acres, of which a greater part is cut up into fields. The expenses of the ranch are $75,000 every year. Most of the crops are given a double sowing, that is, each field is twice utilized during the growing season. Some years this ranch clears $150,000. It has 8,000 acres in wheat, 3,000 to 5,000 acres in corn every year, and an equal amount of millet and kaffir corn. Two hundred men work on the ranch in harvest time and thirty the year around. Experts are employed in every department. Eight thousand head of cattle are shipped from the ranch every year. None of the cereals except the wheat is sold from this ranch.

by courtesy of the Detroit Photographic Co. Showing the brand.

During the harvest season it is common enough to see fifty binders, one following another, cutting down the ripening grain and from 100 to 300 men at work in one field. Plowing is done by steam power, and once commenced the big engines pull the plows night and day. This is the only ranch in the United States where nights and Sundays are not observed during the harvesting seasons.

A telephone system connects the entire ranch, and the foremen know exactly the work being accomplished.

Another immense ranch is the Forsha in Central Kansas. It covers 5,000 acres and is the finest equipped farm in the United States. Upon this farm are a flouring mill, a weather bureau, a postoffice, a gas plant, long-distance telephone and other modem conveniences. The ranch house contains eighteen rooms, bath-rooms for the men, a billiard room, a library and ballroom.

by courtesy of the Detroit Photographic Co. Branding a steer.

Mr. Forsha has the largest field of alfalfa in the United States, 1,500 acres in one tract. He generally cuts three crops from this field. He grinds the wheat from his own fields into flour, shipping the flour all over the United States. He also buys wheat from adjacent farms and makes that into flour also. A daily weather record is kept on the ranch for the government. The owner's house is heated by steam and lighted by gas.

Cowboys of New Mexico.

Frank Rockefeller owns 14,000 acres of fine grazing and farming land in the valley of Soldier Creek, in Western Kansas. He has about 5,000 acres under cultivation; the remainder is converted into alfalfa and timothy hay pastures. This ranch contains some of the finest bred Hereford and Short-horn cattle in the world. These cattle are fed upon ground grain, grown and milled upon the ranch. Thirty expert cattle raisers are constantly employed to care for the blooded stock and as many more work in the field. The cattle and horse barns are of steel and stone.

Mr. Rockefeller is now irrigating the upland fields, and proposes to convert the 91,000 acres of pasture land into one gigantic alfalfa field, making the largest tract of alfalfa in the country.

BIG TREES OF CALIFORNIA
HOW AND WHERE THE WORLD GETS ITS MEAT
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© 1998, 2002 by Lynn Waterman