Rogue River courier. (Grants Pass, Or.) 1886-1927, 1905-08-18
BIG STOCK RANCH
ON WOLF CREEK
Owners Find Vetch the Most
Profitab BILE for Dry
Lands.

was IN Grants Pass Monday. Mr.
Kuykendall, in partnership with L.
K. Dunbar, owns over 5000 acres of
land on Wolf creek ON which they
are making one of the model stock
farms of Southern Oregon. Their
land was formerly heavily timbered,
but they have cut most of 1t off in
filling wood contracts for the railroad
company. They have about half their
land under fence and considerable
under cultivation. They expect to
fence the remainder and then to put
band Of goats at work clearing out
the underbrush.
At present Messrs. Kuykendall &
Dunbar are handling cattle, but they
expect soon to add both sheep and
goats to their stock. They are breed
ing TO Herefords now, but should
creamery lie started at Grants Pass,
or some other nearby point they may
add dairying and would then get the
milking strain of Shorlhorn cows.
They have not decided on the breed of
sheep they will handle, but il will be
one Of the long wool. mutton breeds,
as they are best adapted to this sec
tion for they are the best rustlers for
feed, together with the fact that
Southern Oregon is fine mutton
market and steadily improving.
Their goats will be Angoras and from
their investigation they feel confident
that goat raising will prove quite as
profitable as any other branch Of
stock raising.
In their farming operations Kuy-
kendall q Dunbar give careful investi-
cation to all methods Of work and the
results attained and to the cost and
profit on the various products of their
farm. They have found that the
deeper the soil is cultivated In this
dry section the larger the crops. To
that end they use disk plows. which
will stir the ground to greater
depth than is possible with mold
board plow. Flowing can be done
as well with the disc plow with the
ground dry as wet and Kuykendall &
Dunbar do the greater part of their
plowing in August and September so
as TO have the ground in readiness for
seeding so soon as the fall rains SO /
in.
They are giving thorough trial to
all grasses and forage crops and have
found vetch enc of the most profitable
dry land crops they can raise. Here
tofore they have been sowing their
vetch broadcast, but this fall they
will drill it, and they may pillow in
some as an experiment.
Their object in drilling is to get the
seed down deep in the ground 80 it
will the better stand the dry weather
Another oh ject IN deep planting is
that they have found that the earlier
vetch il sown the better. the last of
August and first of September being
the best time, and with the seed deep
in the earth they will begin to grow
at once and the plants will be well
rooted by the time the fall rains set
in, thus insuring big growth and a
heavy yield.
Last year Messrs. Kuykendall &
Dunbar had much difficulty In seour-
ing good vetch seed aud had to pay
3I6 cents pound. This year they
purchased small threshing machine
and allowing part of their field tC
become ripe they threshed over 300
bushels of seed. As farmers Learn
the value Of vetch as dry land fcraRt
crop the demand for seed is increasing
and Messrs Kuykendall a. Dunbal
are contemplating raising vetch seet
for the market