Rensselaer Republican, Volume 23, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 December 1890 — The Largest Farm in the World. [ARTICLE]

The Largest Farm in the World.

In the extreme southwest corner of Lousiaua Ties the largest producing farm in the world, measuring 100 miles north and south and 25 miles east and west. It is owned and operated by a syndicate of Northern capitalists. The 1,500,000 acres of the tract were purchased in 1883 from the State of Louisiana and the United States Government. At that time it was a vast grazing land for the cattle of the few dealers of the neighborhood, over 30,000 head of half-wild horses and cattle being thereon. Now this immense traot is divided into convenient pasture stations or ranches, existing every six miles. Tho fencing alone cost in the neighborhood of $50,000. The land is best adapted for rice, sugar, corn and cotton, Alt Cultivating, ditching, etc., is dona by steam power. A tract half a mile wide is taken, and an engine is placed on each side, The engines are portable, and operate a cable attached to four plows, and under this arrangement thirty acres a day arc gone over with only the labor of three men, Harro wing, planting and other cultivating is done in a like manner. There is not a single dra ught horse on the entire place. Of course horses are used for the herders of cattle, of which there are 16,000 head. The Southern Pacific railway runs for thirty-six miles through the farm. The company has three steamboats operating on the waters of their estates, of which there are 300 miles navigable. They have also an Ice house, a bank, a shipyard and a rice mill.