The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-03-11

| NlSlGTu INSTANCES ~ hIlOW lildL luc
| Rankin lands are scattered over an
area of foFty-odd miles. Yet their owner
visits them all every little while. BE
| lives in a handsome house just outside
| the town of Tarkio. Five o'clock every
| fine morning finds him in his buggy,
| whirling to his main office as fast as a
spanking span can carry him. He finds
confidential secretary awaiting him.
| A brief interval of talk, clear and
| pointed instructions, a few notes, men
| tai and written, then he whips away
for a round of maybe half a dozen of
his fourteen farms before he thinks of
| turning his horses heads home.
| The farms run from 500 to 5000 acres.
| To work them requires between $50 and
$50 hands, 700 horses, more than 100
wagons, ploughs, harrows, planters,
cultiyators. and seeders innumerable.
Every ranch is in charge of com9e-
tent foreman, who gets 500 month and
| board. Farm hands are paid $50 a
| month and board. Usually the fore
mans family runs the farm boarding
house. Besides the various foremen
| there is a farm superintendent, at a
salary many a bank official might
envy II is questionable, however, if
bis best endeavors are worth as much
as the eye of the master.
NEVER SELLS HIS CORN.
All the land is arabic, yet but little
more than half goes yearly under
plough. Perhaps 1000 acres are Sown
to wheat. The remainder is planted
in corn, and yields, in average years,
100000 bushels. Not a grain Of it is
sold until it has been transformed into
fat stock. In addition to his own CROP,
neighbors have to sell. He buys also
their stalk fields, after the corn is
gathered, and turns into them herds
of cattle, to gather UP their rich CLEAN
ings- Besides all that, he buys ton
upon ton of cottonseed meal, for feed
ing. Small wonder that his lands grow
and increase in fertility under continu-
Gus cropping.
All land not under plough is laid
down in clover, timothy and blue grass
pastures. After standing four years
they are fallowed, and put in grain,
the grain fields, meantime, going back
into grass. Thus, part of the soil, orig
inally as rich as any in the world, is
always resting.
Once. at least, his ironclad rule
against the sale of corn led him into
a funny mistake. 1t is, of course,
quite impossible for a man who owns
so many teams, and hires so many
drivers, to keep all of them accurately
in mind. But there is an infallible
Rankin earmark-at least, Mr.. Rankin
himself thought so for a good while.
1t is the wagon harness. He uses the
old-fashioned trace chains, as being
both cheaper, handler and more last
ing than the neW-fangled outfits of
meets team so accoutred, he natural
ly sets it down as part of his property.
Some little time back he met a four
horse team, brave in chain-harness,
drawing a big load of corn through
Tarkio streets. The sight of it set him
wild. Thou shalt not sell corn was
a sort of eleventh commandment with
him.
A favorite expression with him, and
one that he uses to give vent to his
feelings, is Set Fire repeated two or
three times quite rapidly. On this
occasion he commenced with Set Fire,
Set FIRE. What are you doing here
with that corn?'' The driver calmly
replied that he had brought it to town
to sell. This gave rise to a renewed
storm of Set Fires" but, fortunately
forward and explained matters. He
was a farmer who had adopted Mr..
Rankin's style of harness. and it was
his own corn that he had brought to
town to sell.
FATTENING CATTLE.
Mr.. Rankin fattens more cattle than
any other man in the world. Every
year he buys and fattens 5000 to 10000
head. The. bulk of them come from
Texas, though Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa
and Missouri are fair sources of supply.
He has been known to buy 5000 head
in bunch, and pay on them freight
bill of $25, 900. He has just now bought
5000 head of Texas cattle, to be deliv-
H.. to- fs,-
$50 q head. His shipments in fat cattle
begin in June. From the list of June
to the 1st of September he ships two
or three trainloads each week.
He keeps 10000 to $4,000 head of hogs
all the time, and sells fat ones to the
value of $4,000 yearly. All these he
raises. In fact, he never buys pig,
except for the infusion of new blood
into his breeding stock. Some years
back, while there was money in horses,
he undertook the breeding of draught
beasts, and built upon his home farm,
just outside Tarkio, a horse-barn very
much up to date. 1t cost $40, 900, and is
an octagonal brick building. four
stories high. 1t is lighted throughout
with electricity. Each stall has it's
own incandescent lamp, and the cupola,
an arc light, which turns midnight into
day all over the barnyard.
DAVID RANKIN PERSONALLY.
1t is worth while to look little into
the genesis of this man and his for
tune. Physically. he is tall, raw boned,
sinewy, with keen blue eyes, weather.
beaten face, gray hair and beard !;
primitive to a degree, yet without
roughness. He knows life, knows men,
yet has never got far from the soil.
1t does not astonish you to find that he
was as young man, follower and
ardent admirer of Abraham Lincoln.
He grew up in Illinois, though he was
born in Sullivan county, Indiana, May
%, 1925 The RanlSins were of Scotch
Irish strain. David's father a poor
farmer, must have been something of
nomad. He moved many times be-
tween the Indiana home. finally
settling in what is now Henderson
county, Illinois. David quit the schools
at the age of II, and set to work for
his living.
Doubtless he earned something more.
but it all went in the family fund.
When he was free, his rather gave him
colt, the first thing he ever owned.
Most smart youngsters would have
seen in it prospective saddle horse.
David was another sort. He sold the
colt for $50, and put the money in
calves, TO grow while he worked for
more Pretty soon he had the chance