Jasper County Democrat, Volume 15, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 September 1912 — A MODERN RANCH NEAR MONON [ARTICLE]

A MODERN RANCH NEAR MONON

The “Kelly Farm” Transformed into a Fine Productive Ranch From Frog Pond. A staff correspondent of the Indianapolis News has written up the Kelly Ranch, near Monon, and as it lies only a short distance from Rensselaer and the Jasper county line and our readers will ba interested in reading about it, we publish the article in full. Monon, Ind., August 31. —From frog pond to one of Indiana’s finest farms! It sounds mythical, but Kelly’s ranch, two miles southwest of. Monon, has attained that remarkable transformation. Round dollars may give an idea of the change. Four years ago the 1,800 acres now occupied by the ranch were valued at from $2 to S2O per acre. The Kelly stock farm today with its fields of waving corn, its shock-dotted wheat and oats fields, and its acres of green pastures, could not be bought for SIOO per acre. The transformation wrought by the Kellys also has caused surrounding marsh lands to assume a value, The practical use of tile did it all. The ranch belongs to the estate of Thomas Kelly, formerly the president of the National Live Stock Commission company, Union stock yards. Chicago. Mr. Kelly visited* White county four years ago to look for some cheap lands with a view of establishing a feeding farm for cattle and hogs and sheep. His business as a stock dealer in Chicago’s meat producing centers made hfim know that a good fattening farm would prove profitable if the land could be bought at a reasonable price and at least a portion of the feed raised on the place.

Visits Marsh Lands. In his search for available land Kelly visited Monon, and was told of the cheap marsh territory southwest of the town. It was called almost worthless, in fact, there’were many who said it was not wrorth the taxes paid on it. Kelly waded over the district and finally decided to try an experiment. He set his agents to work to buy the marsh land at the lowest possible figure, and when all the options had been obtained, he bought eighteen hundred acres, taking in many small farms that were slightly above the marsh level. The frogs sang to the Chicagoan their merriest tune, never dreaming that he had come! to take from them their old camp ground. The new farmer employed expert drainage engineers, and landed them in the midst of the marsh. “Now dig your way out,” he said. The engineers first sought outlets for the water that spread across the marshes. The big Monon river was almost two miles away, and the Tippecanoe river, which empties into the Wabash river above Lafayette, was the outlet for the Big, Monon. It was decided to open' four big drainage canals, all to lead to the Big Monon and Tippecanoe rivers. These ditches it was planned would have to be sixteen feet deep, from forty to seventy feet across the top, and from twenty to thirty feet across the bottom. It meant the expenditure of a big lot of money, but Kelly was game. He ordered the drainage canals dug, and a large force of men were set to work to establish outlets for the water that covered his eighteen hundred acres. This meant that a tract two miles from east to -west and l-% miles from north to south would have to be drained. 1 300 Carloads of Tile Used. The magnitude of the task may be understood when it is stated that more than three hundred carloads of tile were used in draining the Kelly ranch. Lines of tile were placed one hundred feet apart, and the size of the tile ranged from six to twent*y->four inches. Suddenly land that knew the sun’s rays ouly during the drought period of the summer peeped form beneath its ancient watery bed and the farmers of the vicinity began to realize that their predictions had gone awry. Most of them had said that Kelly had gone crazy and was a spendthrift. They thought his ideas of drainage were mythical and »saw nothing ahead df him but financial ruin. The Big Monon and the Tippecanoe rivers gathered unto themselves the waters of the Kelly ranch, however, and the frowns of the pessimists were compelled to soften. Kelly had made good.

As has been so often the case in a great undertaking the projector did not live to see his dreams come true. "Mr. Kelly died while the work was at its height, and the ranch passed to his heirs. The family decided that the pet project of the dead man should be carried to a successful end, and his brother, Charles Kelly, also connected with the National Live Stock Commission Company, took up the management of the ranch. He knew his brother’s ideas perfectly and, besides, he was a practical stockman himself. Ranch Inclosed in Wire. The next move was to inclose the entire ranch ( in wire fence of sufficiently heavy mesh to prevent the escape of small sheep. The wire was of the sixty-inch width and was attached to cedar posts. The inclosing of the ranch cost several thousand dollars, but it was done in a manner to make it lasting. The farm was inclosed without a single public road crossing it, but it is bordered by splendid rock roads, such as have made White county noted for good highways. There is a force of men now’ at work building driveways across the ranch, so that iq a short time the former marsh land will be intersected with highways, that, a few years ago, many believed would be impossible of construction. Another thing—much of the marsh timber has been cut away, thus giving the sfun a chance to dry the ground formerly reached only during a short part of the year. Al-

though this has been a remarkably, rainy summer, the Kelly ranch is' as dry as many upland farms. I Groves of black oak trees havej been left standing in various parts of the ranch to serve as shelter for; the stock on warm summer days' or in time of storm. These groves! dot the place and add greatly to Its newly created beauty. There are nineteen buildings on the Kelly ranch, and more are to i be built during the coming autumn. One new barn, said to be the largest in Indiana, is now being 1 built. It is to be 512 feet long! and 94 feet wide, >and will be used for housing sheep in stormy weather. There is another sheep barn already in service that covers an area of 75 by 150 feet. At present there are more than three thosand sheep grazing over the Kelly ranch pastures, and by the time winter sets in and sufficient housing room has been acquired the sheep folds will contain not less than eight thousand sheep. Included in the nineteen buildings on the place are houses sor 1 cattle, shep, hogs, mules and poultry. One of the cattle barns contains stall room for three hundred ’head of cattle. All floors are of concrete and are inclined so as to be easily washable.

Bins for Grain. There are five immense corn cribs of sufficient capacity ’to contain twenty-four thousand bushels of corn. The cribs are constructed high above the ground and are well ventilated. There are bins for the storage of five thousand bushels of wheat and nine thousand bushels of oats. Besides these there are numerous hay sheds in which are stored many tons of hay cut from once unproductive fields. Feeding time at the Kelly ranch is a lively hour. All the feed is ground or mixed with the preparations that keep cattle, hogs and sheep in good health. Every provision has been made for doing the work scientifically and with a view to perfect sanitation. A twentyhorse power gasoline engine stands in a concrete enclosure at the east end of the iaqge barn. By its power all of the feed is ground and mixed. When the engine is not in use as the feed grinder it is put in service to supply the motive power for the threshing machine or- for running the saws where timber is to be cut. It does general traction duty, too, and is called a good investment for a farm because of the various functions it! performs. Another small engine does the farm's tool grinding. , Nothing goes to waste on the Kelly ranch. When the corn is ground' for feed cob and all goes into the general food fund. One cattle composition consists Of 60 per cent, corn, 20 per cent. cotton seed hulls and the remaining 20 per cent, is of cotton seed meal. The sheep are fed alfalfa meal and shelled corn, and they thrive on it. For rough feeding shocked corn and hay are used. Place Immaculately Clean. The entire place is almost immaculately clean. ■ For instance, ,du ring the winter, when snow covers the ground, the hogs are fed on a concrete feeding bed 50x150 feet in dimensions. This feeding bed is so constructed that when all the hogs have been fed and the corncobs are scattered over the bed theiy may, in a few minwtes, be, swept together and removed. The feeding bed adjoins the hog barn of the same area of the bed and it is scrubbed while the hogs are fed. The swine have been given such a sanitany consideration that they are provided with concrete wallows. The old idea was that hogs had to be hogs in order to thrive. The average farmer believes that unless the hogs had a filthy, green scummed hole in the corner of the lot, they would not grow up to be marketable. On the Kelly ranch a vastly different idea prevails. The wallows of the Kelly ranch three in number, are shallow, con-crete-faced ponds 75x40 feet in area. These wallows are cleaned at regular intervals and fresh water placed in them. The hogs apparently enjoy the modern way of taking a bath and do not seem to long for the old-fashioned cholera haunt in the corner of the barn lot. Raising hogs to be cleanly is the idea fast developing amongst the stock raisers. It is the boast of the Kelly ranch men that they have not had a case of cholera, to deal with in the last four years, and they have had many thousands of hogs to care for. At present there are more than five hundred hogs on the farm and all appear to be in perfect health. On an average of once in every two months every hog on the place is dipped in a disinfectant Placed, in one of the wallows, and this helps tupkeep down danger of disease., The ranch men are much interested in the experiment now being tried on the Seaton farm, near the Indiana state fair grounds, Indianapolis, where pjano boxes are being used to house hogs. The Seaton farm hogs are changed regularly from one box to another, each box being cleaned with the same care and regularity of a hotel room. The Seaton hogs have no wallows at all, contenting themselves with rooting around in the grass. No cholera has developed. At both the Kelly and Seaton farms' the old-fashioned wallow is absolutely prohibited. There are sixty-one breeding pens for hogs on the Kelly ranch, and these, too, are kept constantly in a sanitary condition. The pens have concrete floors and outside each of the doors is a runway wherein the mother and the brood may enjoy sanitary exercise. There are no dark spots around the Kelly ranch, every barn being_well lighted and Ventilated. these conditions dirt does not get an opportunity to secret itself. Muscular Motive Power. It require sixteen men and thirty mules to supply the muscular motive power to make things go on , the Kelly ranch. Nearly every man

,on the place is a specialist at some ' particular phase of farming. One ! man, B. B. Curtis, is expert ini chief, that is, he is superintend(ent of the place and knows somel thing about evesything in connection with the ranch’s life. Another ! interesting man is Frank Wilkinson His chief interest lies in the cars of the thirty mules and the great i drove of hogs. He knows both I from A to Z. The thirty mules on the Kelly ranch live like fire de- ' partment horses. Each mule has a roomy box stall and while they work out in the field a. man goes from stall to stall and prepares for them a comfortable bed for the night. -'“We believe that a mule has rights the same as a human being,” Wilkinson says, “and mules like the kind we have on this farm deserve every care. There isn’t a kick or cross word in any of them Our mules simply get out in the morning and work with a will until evening. They earn tneir board , and keep and Mr. Kelly believes in giving it to them. Some of the farmers around here say we are giving our mules better treatment than anybody ever got in a Pullman sleeper. I call that a compliment. Mules know when they are properly cared for and if anybody tells me that he was kicked by a mule I know that the mule had a kick coming and handed it out. Mules are not dummies. They are able to discriminate between friends and enemies, although, like human, beings, they frequently kick the wrong fellow. lam on friendly terms with every mule on this place. There isn’t an animal in the outfit that won’t bring the top i price in the market.”

A Magnet for the Pigs. W ilkinson also takes great pride in his hogs. They are a clean, looking group of porkers and when he lets out his eveniing yell of “peegooey,” the call to assemble in food convention, there is a scramble that any city “kid” would call a pig panic. It is an interesting sight to see about five hundred big and little pigs doing a marathon to get to Wilkinson, who, with his arms fi ibd wpo corn, is a magnet that well meaning hog would overlook. The hundreds of sheep which throughout the day, always head toward the sheep pens in the evening to get the special morsels that are theirs after a day in the pastures. The cattle also gather at the big barns and gates and the poultry around the place likewise have an eye on feeding time. It looks as if father Noah were gathering all animal kind unto himself again when the Kelly ranch aggregation begins to gather in at night,. The number of heads of stock will be increased almost daily from now on until midwinter. Then there will be a general exodus, market conditions controlling the coming and going of the inhabitants of the Kelly ranch. Most of the stock goes to the Chicago markets. The cattle is of mixed breeds and is usually young beef sent to the farm for fattening. Corn Market for Farmers. It requires thousands of bushels of corn to feed the stock on the Kel>y ranch, and the place is a good corn market for the farmers of White county. Mr. Kelly bought almost twenty-five thousand bushels of corn from the neighboring farmers, paying 1 cent more a bushel than the Monon grain men, last winter. They raised several thousands of bushels of corn on the ranch, but it does not begin to supply the demand. There are three machinery buildings on the ranch, all filled with the tools necessary for the performing of practically every service known to farm life. The larger building of the three looks like the display room of the agricultural exhibit at a state fair. Everything is there, from a sickle to a threshing machine. All the ma*chi<nery is carefully stored away after the farming season is over, not a single piece being left outside to face destruction by rain and snow. The tenements occupied by the isuperintendent and his help ;ara comfortable and provided with as many of the modern household necessities and utilities as it is possible to give a farmhouse. The water comes from deep wells and is driven through pipelines to every part of the farm. The Kelly ranch is, in fact, now the extreme opposite of what it was said to be— a frogs*

natatorium.

W. M. HERSCHELL.