Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 58, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 March 1899 — WORLD’S LARGEST RANCH. [ARTICLE]

WORLD’S LARGEST RANCH.

Greater than Rhode Inland and Delaware Comclned. The X. I. T. ranch, in the extreme northwest corner of the Panhandle of Texas, the largest ranch in the world, has an area of 5,000 square miles, according to the Ladies’ Home Journal. Its herds of cattle aggregate 120,000 head, besides 1,500 horses, and the calf crop branded in 1897 exceeded 31,000. Surprising as it may seem, all the work on the ranch is done by 125 men, one man to every 24,000 acres. It seems natural that the largest ranch in the world should be found in the largest State in the Union —Texas. Indeed, this ranch is so extensive that some States could not contain it. Connecticut, for example, could not hold* it by several thousand acres. The two States of Rhode Island and Delaware combined could not contain this immense ranch, which consists of 3,000,000 acres, or about five thousand square miles. About a dozen years ago, when Texas needed a new State Capitol, the Legislature adopted a novel plan to get it. A promise was held forth that a vast tract of unappropriated land would be given in exchange for a suitable granite building at Austin. Among those tempted by this offer were exSenator Charles B. Farwell and his brother, who ultimately formed a syndicate in Chicago and took upon themselves the responsibility of erecting the proposed Capitol. Their part of the agreement appears to have been carried out to the satisfaction of the State, and in due time they came into the possession of the immense domain now known as the X. I. T. ranch.