Rensselaer Republican, Volume 14, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 November 1881 — FOWLER'S FARM. [ARTICLE]

FOWLER'S FARM.

The Largest Farm in Indiana—--20,000 Acres in One Tract m | Benton Co tufty. / The tenet, embrace* precisely 25,000 acfda of fine fertile prairie laDd in OnUk AffM Grove townships, Bentob county, Indiana. In order to give Uiexeadars mi idea of how much territory it covers, 1 may say that 25,000 acres .represent* thirty-nine and oneife&toth Ukase mile*. This Immense body of land had been purchased by; Mr. Fowler daring tbe past twenty years. He commenced purchasing In TWST, and Tilts paid from live to fbrtjflve dollars per acre iqs.it. He bought a big block of It from Vale College, to whom it had been 'bequeathed by the late Henry L. Ellsworth. The land today would sell at,an average of forty dollars per acre, and the whole tract lint least worth one million dollars Of thisjmmense tract thirteen thaus&nd acres are under cultivation. About nine thousand aefee of corn «*d this year, and the crop Hr exceed three handled bushels. These figures are g—bat they are true. About id red acres of oats were cutseason. The laud Iq me*d- * two thousand five hundred acres. Fifteen hundred acres were in wheat lost spring, but, a< tie crop promised an almost toial failure, it was plowed up and 001 n put in. This fall the total amount of wheat sown will not exceed one hundred and fifty a ires.

in 1880 Mr. Fowler from rentean \ bis own production had 250,000 bashUs of eom which he sola in one lotto Bichard H. God man, of this city, ana quite recently be sold to Mr. Goam&n, 1.500 tone of hay, whloh will be baled an the farm and shipped from the town ofFowlef. Ihie vast domain of blgb, rolllog land went up into sT*fy tenantries and leased to a superior class of farmers. No drones are tolerated, and great pains are taken to prevent shiftlese, good-for-nothing renters from securing possession On »- lease. The tenantry sign a lair, squgre lease Which Is equitable to both the lessor and the lessees. Corn is the onlr-product raised by the tenants. The rent Is the some on all the farms, vii: Hone-third of whatev* er crop may be raided, the sstme to be delivered at Bacpard’s elevator In Fowler prior to January Ist each yeir. The tenants are most honorable in theif dealings, and there .is no swindle iu the amount paid as rent. Ea6h tenant occupies—rent free —a comfortable house on the loud be cultivates. A good barn is locafed near each tenement, and most of them have small orchards and groves. ,Ten or fifteen acres are allowed for pasturage and about three acres for a garden plat. The tenantry occupy in fact sixty s iparat / terms.

The land is all well ditched or tiled. This year more, than twenty miles of tiling has been laid- During the past tour years one hundred and twenty-five miles of ditches have been cut on the several terms, ami the land is therefore well drained, lire, ditches empty into a \tream called M.ud Creek, Which runs through almost toe’ entire place. The stream flows north-west and waters all the pasturage, finally emptying into Sugar Creek, whleVfif a feeder to the Illinois River, Mr. Yanatta trfiti nje (here is over one hundred milre of fence on the several farms. The tearing alone represents a fortune. The fences are all built off pine lumber —five boards high—an d m* posts ore cedar. Seven miles of bvbed wire fence has been put up and Si*M good satisfaotion, it being particularly suitable for keeping cattle mUliu bounds* The mads running thtough tbe vast estate are well graded aKtT ter superior to most thoroughfares in prairie regions. There are pastures! and the extent of them aataOefi me. One contains three thousand sc.ee; another two thousaod tw<Biundred and forty; another nineteen hundred and twenty; another twelve hunriMHjlMto , a [* To cultivate this greAt tract morel j than four hundrednorses are u^ed. '■ Most of the BtocftkrertoX is generotiy called “Prairie Piigt,” but! it anrirera the purpose. “It don’t pay,” said Mr. Vanatta, “to AKith.% toy*, hundred dollar hopre.” • Sheep raising is j#rtraown, and bogs, Strangely, are not numerous. Mr. Va■atta remarked that the number of awine did not exceed three hundred, •

” The great profit In Benton county farming has been *nd still is In rmftw raising. BIffMVMKiBffMP Fowler and Vanfltta are now grazing eleven bundled head-of flne oattle, and they are all in good condition. During the preseat year tjffy have sola twen-ty-two hundred afflJfarty head of fkt cattle. Six or sevtoto ea "® sufficient to look after tne several herds. With a view of improving the breed of his stock Mr.Fowler.some time ago, purchased in England a herd of Hereto d oattle. l’he importation consisted' JgJljL to bedoing well and tolly acclimated. Sixty native cows are now with calf from Hereford stock. During toe s'; siftnmer thirty half-breed Hereford calves were sold for breeding purposes at an average price of eighty dollars.

An immense quantity of hay is cut oAthsETplace. Moeswf this produot is . pun p iu bales of one hundred pounds <aHi shipped to Eastern markets. In IflO twenty-thfee hundred tons -'were baled. If each bale averaged one hundred tha total number of balsa •wnrwty-MX thousand. Two thousand tdhs Were sold to one man in New j%mK M 'i JWienauth are all of nationalities, \m the Hotoler stomsnts predominates. Among the tenantry there are six seven Danes, and; three HpK Of the foreign elements the □atfvee of Hamiet's country are regfffledae the meet skillful farmers,

bat in the end make little more money ttiai other people. The Irish element B prosper and raise good crops. aatta did not tell me so, nut I rqpn reliable people at Fowhe Benton county Swedes are wjL They are the most clane otthe globe, full of small, ainfled prejudices, suspicious of every one, and as unsciuplous as the .boss ofhades. They are possessed of petty shrewdAMSAnd regard for their fferff tagger Indian. They saveUtueor what they earn and bring up their chMflren in almost total ignorance TUWr principal dHnk seven school house* ' The attendance of scholars com-

Mr. gtUte Hat to MpMtmSmn (m e*t oodfined to his care He is a partner of Mr. Fowler toibe wwamhip of the cattle above mentioned.• He Isa very clever gefittumata|U§d refiWth# Times with raarcapßennM devote touch sketch orbim. ' Btfflfoe imrwWTmgrever, that he wa* boro wyqrdlfit, Ohio, In IM6, and la co«»flQent|r In his sixty-sixth year. He en/eys excellent health and has all the Nldli ssuiss£s®l«Mi! ran, a son and two daughtUW, th whoftfhe will leave a million doliys apieoe.