The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1910-09-09

TWO OF THE MARES THAT HELPED TO PAY
FOR FARM.
would all sell for 500 an acre. Add
to this his cattle and horses and ma
chinery and a few incidentals, such as
6ank stock and the like, and he has
fortune approximating 100000.
This has all been made in farming.
Corn has been his speciality, and it has
always been marketed in the form of
cattle. He has always used the most
modern machinery and the best equip
ment that money can buy. 1t has been
the same with help. His foremen are
men who can get results. He furnishes
from farm to farm because he has
found that 1t pays in the time saved.
He attributes his success to close per-
sonal attention and the application of
business methods to farming.
Another man who has made millions
in farming is Colonel James M. Smith
of Georgia. Colonel Smith started
quarter section in Oglethorpe county
soon after the war; The first year he
lost $500. Last year his net profits
were 100000. In the meantime his
farm has increased to $4,000 acres.
Colonel Smith was one Of the first men
to build cottonseed oil mills and make
profit from what formerly had been
a waste product. His farm was TWEEN
ty-fve miles from the nearest railroad,
but he solved the problem by building
a railroad of his own. He has always
been a personal friend of all his men,
white and black alike. He has pro-
vided well equipped schools for both
the negro and the white children Of his
employees. Unlike David Rankin, who
never had even common school edu-
cation, Colonel Smith is a college grad
uate. He learned to handle fhen in
the army, and he applied the same or
ganization to his farm work with
great results.
Colonel Smiths success has demon
strated what can be done on the farm
land of the south. One of his 200
acre farms a year ago yielded 1880
bushels Of wheat and 200 bales Of cot
ton. The wheat sold for 81 bushel
and the cotton for $50 bale, making
total income from the farm Of $14,-
800. After taking out the expenses
there was a net profit of S51 an acre.
This might well make even Missis-
sippi valley farmer envious.
The west has been heralded as the
land Of opportunity. In the early days,
when land could be had almost for the
asking and the cattle business was at
its best, a young man of the name Of
Henry Miller started out to make
fortune in the ranch business. Today
he is worth So0,O00,000. He once an
nounced that he hoped some day to
own the whole state of California. In
this he did not succeed, although his
holdings In California amount to Co.,
600 acres. He also has large tracts
of land in Nevada and Oregon.
The ranch business is on the decline
In the west. and what was once one
mans cattle ranch is now being cut
up to make farms for the hundreds
Of thousands Of land hungry settlers
who are pouring into what is still
"the land Of opportunity" About
twenty years ago an Iowa farmer sold
a half section of land, paid his debts
and. with seven or eight thousand
dollars In cash. a wife and four chill
dren, started for Arizona. He located
in the Salt river valley, bought as
much Of the cheap land as his money
would pay for and set out to learn
irrigation farming. He learned 1t well
and made money. The surplus went
to buy more land. He Joined the