The Republican journal., 1896-12-10
The Largest Bean Ranch in the World.
How One Maine Man has succeeded in California,


" all of cur days are bright in Southern
California, l accepted an invitation to
visit the famous Dixie Thompson Bean
Ranch in Ventura county.
But who is Dixie Thompson, and what
about his ranch? He is a man from
Maine, and that ought to be sufficient
but great many as well as many great
men, are from Maine; they are to be met
every where iu the west and especially in
California
NJ" Thompson came from Brunswick to
this coast in the early days of California S
history; like many Others he came to
make his fortune. How he has succeed
ed may be best told by giving a descrip-
ton of his famous lima bean ranch in
Ventura county, which is the banner ag
ricultural county of southern California.
This ranch has in it 2, 400 acres of rich,
deep, loamy soil, which lays like a gar
den patch in one piece, perfectly level
without stone or stump. The soil and
culture of the lima bean. Mr.. Thompson
each year plants about , 900 acres in lima
beans. using over u tons of seed. The
seed alone would make quite crop for
the average eastern farmer
The ground is ptoughed during the win
ter Gang plows are used, eight horses to
a plow: each cuts four furrows ten inches
wide. should the pioWs run eight feet
deep the soil would be found mellow and
licA all the way down. In places the fur
rows are two miles in length. No man
Follows the plow on this soil; he rides
without fear of roots and rocks. The
beans ue not planted "by hand;" six or
eight planters drawn by TWO horses are
driven oyel the ground, planting $50 acres
day, What 4 boon such piece of ma
chinely would be to the farmer boy in
Maine W lie drops by hand from four to
~ix il ILL. Then, when ''hoeing time'
comes, what labor ON the eastern farm to
dig up tile weeds and loosen the dirt
tltfD1 tL4t LUCAS ltit Ol liiiN IttliCI IiltCS III
cultivatcr~, eacL drawn by two horses,
eoycI 1GO acres day The dryel rides
.Fl1 the cultivator over the smooth mel
auw s,f. vlth almost as much comfort as
if he were driving III sulky. What seems
Stlaneo 70 one who has lived in the land of
showers is that the crops along the coast
Tho
seed is planted after the last spring rains,
and during the long, hot dry summer
months not a drop of water falls upon
vegetation save whaS it absorbs from the
night sweats' from the ocean. saw
corn rpening upon this ranch, without
one drop of rain, standing in stalks eight
to ten feet high, producing 1900 pounds
to the acre.
The day we visited the ranch crew Of
about fifty men was busy harvesting the
crop. Nearly all of the work is done by
machinery. The machine is of more i'm
portanCe than the man in this age; it is
the machine and the man; not the man
and the machine. The bean stalks are
first gathered into small lunches. Ten
large header wagons collect these
buncle> Tor the thresher, which is run by
steam power. The bean straw furnishes
tile fuel. When one space has been clear
ed the machine moves to another space
Twenty hundred sacks are threshed
in a day. The sacks are loaded from the
threshel to the wagon and drawn bv six
horses to the stoIehouse at Ventura sta,
ton. les, than mile away.
The number Of tons raised on this ranch
varies according to the fruitfulness of the
year. An average yeaI will produce about
1. 200 tons. OF from 80 to go thousand
bushels. The shipping is not teckoned
by the car load but by the train load.
some years as many as nineteen train
leads ale sent out from this ranch. AT
two cents pound the crop would amount
to %4S, 0C0 for one year, a snug income
from one farm. This is the largest bean
ranch in the world.
@'H4Iti ING III bdIIOIuld is much differ
ent from farming" in New England.
No family lives on the Thompson ranch.
The cabins, sheds, shops and barns give
1t the appearance of colony. One barn
IS about 200 feet long by 100 feet wide.
with cupola from which every acre of
the ranch may be seen on clear day.
The men sleep in the cabins and take their
meals in the DINING rooms, two in num-
ber, under the charge of Chinese cooks.
MI swett from Brunswick, Maine, is
superintendent of the ranch.
There is a herd of fine bred JERSEY
COWS on the ranch and one man has charge
Of the creamery. A great many horses
are kept on the ranch and the stock is
&ed upon hay (unthreshed barley and oats)
and bean straw the year round. There is
no glass on this ranch
Another feature which gives Mr. Thomp-
son larch special value is its location. 1t
reaches the limits of Ventura City, which
is the leading town in the county. 1t
lays between the ocean and the foothills.
the laill0ad lunning through the centre
1t is Nh Thompson S intention some