The Big Sandy news. [volume] (Louisa, Ky.) 1885-1929, 1902-12-26
Greatest Farmer,

the world, and 70 know wherr he
lives amt how he conducts his bus
mess, as wcll as some Incident, in
/ his life. That man is David Ran
kia, aud he lives at Tarki0, Atchi.
son county, Missouri. He is a mil
lionaire, lie is the largest stock
feeder in the world, as well Is the
largest corn raiser, aud he is the
largest shipper " cattle which are
feu by himself. His farm consists
of 23QO0 acres, and it is all titled
undor his personal supervision.
lie raises the raw material in grain
aud sells the, finished product in
iattentd stock.
His motto is"rhou shaltnot sell
corn and this motto he rigidly
Iadheres to. Ieattends to corn in
every stagHof its growth, but he
has mover sold even as much as a
kernel. Il is against his urinr,-
pies, his conviction, his experience.
lie has lived in Illinois. Ills
start in lie vas a colt worth S52,
which hi, father had clven him
He snapped the colt for calves,
and these he traded for a pair Of
steers with which he worked an.
eighty.acrc farm he had bought Oh
credit. 1t was six weeks after ne
was married before he had non
lev enough To buy bread hoard.
lie got bi, start in Henderson
county, illinois He put money IN
the baaG Tor awhile but that did
not Smtulm. aud when he got
ready hr began buying land in At
Gibson county, where he now lives.
The farm is divided into fourteen
divisions, numbered from one to
fourteen. Each division is ranch
under The direct charge OF fore.
man. rhese are all like the heads
OF departments III great mercah-
lie rsta ,hment. They are edu-
Gated and capable men, and they
are paid from SOFA month to 81 600
a year. Uuder their direction are
200 employees. These he pays S25
to $50 month "wet or dry and
Mr. Rankin pays their board. 1t
is thirty-Gve miles from one end
Of the farm 10 the other. some
thing over 10000 acres are in At
Gibson county and he has an add.
tioGal 5000 acres across the state
Iline in Fremont county, Iowa.
On the fourteen ranches there are
thirty-five houses. on each ranch
there is a good house foreman aud
his family and large houS
where the employees are boarded by
the wife Of one OF them, who i,
paid $3.50 a week for each man by
Mr., Rankin. The "home ranch"
lies on three sides OF Tarkio and
extends as FAR as the eye can reach.
1t requires 700 teams to do he
work on this $4,000 acre farm. Most
of his teams are mules, buthe also
keeps number OF good horses.
The expenses are $500 a day.
There are times when 500 is the
cost OF feed every day. For chain
harness there is spent $1,000 a
year There is not leather trace
on the farm. Leather is not used
whore chains can be used In
Northwestern Missouri the roads
are not good, but that cuts no fig
ure when anything has to be haul
ed over them. II is only a matter
OF how many horses will be neces-
sary 10 pull the load and OF having
harness that viii stand the strain.
The chef products Of the farm
IS corn. There is wheat field OF
1000 acres and he rest OF the
ground is sown with clover, timo
thy AID blue grass. When seeded
down the land is used for pasture
for four years. On his fourteen
thousand acres OF corn field there
is raised 100000 bushels OF corn.
That is only about half enough to
feed his cattle. He buys ali the
corn his neighbors Will sell him
and then he goes to market Tor
more. one year he bought i3s, 900
bushels. There are times when
from 5000 to 5000 bushels OF corn
are fed in one day. In busy sea-
sons, in addition to the 700 teams,
he hires all the horses he can at 81
a day. He has invested $4,000 in
machinery Of which he buys only
the hest. He is enthusiastic about