News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1885-07-02
PENNSYLVANIA'S BIGFARM
HERDS OF JERSEYS AND FIELDS
OF GRAIN--A BEAUTIFUL SIGHT.

l. EINND l. IL AN1A - DlU l. AlGul
HERDS OF JERSEYS AND FIELDS
| OF GRAIN--A BEAUTIFUL SIGHT.
swamps and Rocky bills TINT Col. Youns
Turned Into the Best of Farm Lands.
Travellers from Pittsburg and the
West leave the mountains behind when
they draw into Harrisburg. The train,
which has been running for miles
through the Juniata valley at the base
OF the Blue Ridge, almost Immediately
plunges into the beautiful farming
region for which Pennsylvania is IA
nous. The ride through Dauphin, Lam
caster, and Chester counties just now is
| a panorama of waving green. Within
ten miles of the State capital lies the
| largest farm in the Commonwealth.
When the engine whizzes by Highspire,
little railroad station perhaps eight
miles out, it plunges into succession of
white fences and red gates, with here
and there an immense barn painted in
the same colors. The acres appear to
be in the highest state of cultivation.
They are beautiful to look upon, and are
as profitable as they are beautiful. After
two miles of this the engine rushes by
an iron foundry, with black smoke belch-
ing from its tall chimney, and draws up
at the station at Middletown. Just here
the unsophisticated traveller will turn to
the man in the seat behind him and
ask:
"Who owns all that land back there2"
And the man in the seat behind, who
is pretty sure to be one of the 251 men,
bers of the Legislature, will answer:
"There are eight farms there, or were
originally, for they have all been turned
into one farm now. There are over ], 900
acres in them. just below the town here
are two more farms, and the entire es-
tate covers something like 1900 acres.
Who owns it2 Why, Jim Young. He
lives here at Middletown."
Middletown is very old town. 1t
was here that Gen. Simon Cameron,
when he began to rise into prominence,
was bank cashier. The biggest man
in the place to-day is Col. James Young,
Familiarity known to everybody as "Jim. F"
Pretty nearly everybody in town has
called him an old fool at one time or
another, but he has outlived all that
and risen head and ears above them all.
Starting with one little farm, he has
gradually acquired farm after farm. Old
swamp land, land filled with rocks, he
would buy to patch out his rich domain,
and at every purchase the croakers
would croak and shake their heads. In
dull times, when labor was cheap,
Young would set men at work reclaim
ing swamps and blasting the rocks. The
result is not only the largest farm in the
State, but one which is generally con-
sidered to be the model for all the Key
stone farmers.
Col. Jim Young lives in big brick
house, facing the busiest street of Mid
dletown. It is within stones throw
of the railway station, and the front
room in it is an Office. Here he pays
his men, hires them by the dozen in the
busy seasons, and transacts his business.
The names of a good many prominent
men appear on his visitors book. If
the farmer has time to drive you around
his possessions it is trip worth taking.
Out of the busy town and into the farm
ing land is question of but few mo-
ments. The Young farm is easily rec
ognized the moment the horses foot
falls upon its soil. 1t is different from
all others. The fresh whitewashed
fences are whittier than others, the red
gates are redder, and the grain and grass
are greener. A short drive and the
trotter passes the Eagle Farm, so called
from the immense golden eagle which
surmounts it, and enters road leading
to the Grand View, perhaps mile be-
yond. The road is as level as billiard
table and as smooth. Trees line the
sides. 1t is Col. Young's race track,
and it is here that he tries his new
horses. Like the wind the fast trotter
speeds down the road and draws up at
the Grand View Farm. Near the great
barn stands a pretty house, with Gu
pola on top, and from this cupola an
idea of the farm can be obtained.
1t is beautiful sight. Just below is
an orchard which gives place to fields of
green sloping gently toward the Sus-
quehanna, which flashes back the SUM-
light in the distance. Within sight and
running into each other are the eight
farms that Ca. Young has gradually &C.
quired. A thousand acres of wheat,
oats, grass and clover spread them
selves out in all directions. There is
the Fair View Farm, the Eagle Farm,
the Rose Dale, the Oak Lane. the
Thorn Dale, the Keystone, and the
Roland. On one of them, away off there
in the distance, with the roof of the
barn just showing, is where he raises
his stock. Here at the Grand View the
young calves from the stock farm are
kept.
Each one of these eight farms has an
immense barn and a comfortable house.
There Is a tenant in each house who
looks out for the details, while there is
a foreman tosupervise generally. Every
thing is done by machinery. Down at
the stock farm, with its long rows of
Jerseys, all the water is pumped by a
windmill. A steam engine threshes all
the wheat and cuts the feed for the cat
tie. The best of labor-saving machines
cut the grain when ripe for the harvest.
Few vegetables, comparatively, are
raised, wheat, oats and corn being the
staple productions. But what straw
berries the Colonel raises when he feels
like it The berries that will ripen soon
will be as large as English walnuts and
as sweet as sugar.
1t is not difficult to understand, up
liOIO IL phO upOlh VI GuO
the immense amount of work that has
been done on this great farm. Let
your eye wander where it will and there
is nothing to mar the pleasing impress
sion. Not rock is to be seen nor an
angle. In place of corners the curve of
beauty has been substituted. There are
no abrupt hills or mounds. All such
have been rounded off until there is a
level surface, or gently undulating
one, everywhere. The entire place
seems to be as neat as parlor. 1t is
Col. Young's pride to keep it so. Once
he went across the country to California
and visited all the farms he could find.
When his homeward train reached
Highspire he summoned his friends to
the platform, and, as the engine pulled
him by his own model farm, he took off
his hat and waved it:
''Come, boys, give shout for the old
place We have seen nothing like it
anywhere p
To the left of the Grand Views cupola
the spires and chimneys of Middletown
raise their heads. Beyond the town is
cluster of hills. The highest of all is
Col. Young's Sunset Farm. At the foot
of the hill is Locust Grove. Here are
300 acres, on which live two tenants
and foreman. The hill farms wer
little more than mountains of rock when
they were purchased, and all Middle
town called the farmer n fool of tho