The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1902-07-13
From the Detroit Free Press.

From the Detroit Free Press.
The agriculturalist who carefully cult
Yates forty or sixty or eighty
acres and call it a farm, is likely to look
upon quarter section"-the regulating
homestead of 100 acres-as a large estate
an entire section "a mile square, he
would doubtless regard as a tremendous
area, and half dozen sections would
seem like a whole province What would
such man think of a farm on which
from 100 to $50 men are employed; a farm
whose furthercst corner is seventeen
miles from tho farm house, a farm that
requires three bookkeepers and stcno-
graphers to make a record of its activi-
ty! asks c. H. Matson in the July num-
Der of the Worlds Work
That is the scale on which Mr.. M M.
Sherman conducts his farm in Central
Kansas. He has more than 10000 acres
Every year he sells more than $500 fat
beeves. If man were to start to ride
around his farm on horseback, following
the fence line and riding fifty miles day
he could not make the circuit in two
days.
There ere in some OF the sparsely set
tied regions of the west, and in Mexico,
far larger ranches than this fatm, but
they are vast open tracts over which
great heards of cattle Craze at WILL be-
Nc'AAAl5 Alc4ll VIII III d lew 1nOnJnS. 0ner-
nian ranch is not OF that kind. 1t is real
ly farm. There are no great unbroken
areas of prairie 1t is cut up into
fields and comparatively small pastures,
ana there are generally from 5000 to g.
COO head of cattle kept on it.
The most remarkable thing about
Sherman ranch is its management. It
has been supposed that farm work is
difficult of organization. This is not true
on Sherman ranch. No factory was ever
operated in a more systematic manner
than is this farm. At any time Mr.. sher-
man can tell just how much feed certain
cattle in specified pasture consumed
who fed 1t to them, what field 1t came
from and how far 1t was hauled. Every
night he knows exactly what each en-
ploye has accomplished that day. The
farms manager knows at o'clock each
evening by telephone, just what was done
that day, even on the furtherest field,
seventeen miles away. There are sixty
two square miles in this farm, equivalent
to 24S farms OF the usual size, 100 acres;
but 1t does not lie in a compact body.
and this accounts for the great length
OF It's boundary line. The extreme limits
OF the farm extend seventeen miles north
and south.
Passengers on the Missouri Pacific
railroad from Kansas City to Denver see
this farm first at the little station Of
Langly. That is twelve miles from the
ranch headquarters. A few miles furth-
er southwest comes another view Of
sherman ranch. Again the train speeds
onward and six miles farther west it
comes to Genesoe. the nearest point to
the ranch headquarters. The farm ex-
tends within a half mile of Genesoe, but
the farmhouse is still four miles away.
Along the north side of this great farm
runs the main Denver line of the Union
Pacific railroad, while through 1t ex-
tends a branch line.
The farm, like "all Gaul' of Caesars
time. is divided into three parts, and
over each three is q foreman. A board
ing house is located in each division, and
in these live most of the unmarried en-
ployes. Scattered over the farm are
numerous tenement houses. occupied by
he families of employees who are mar
ried. A telephone system connects all
parts of the farm with the Headquarters.
The work in general is planned by the
farm superintendent and by him tele
phoned to the foreman. The cattle are
fed at stated intervals and they are Civ
en- a certain amount-no more no less.
Each man has his particular work to
pei form.
During the summer months 5000 acres
@re PLANTED in corn and 1orase-,orops,.
. Il