Omaha daily bee., 1912-06-25
One Man Tells How He Acquires
Land and Establishes Home.
HE IS GROWING INDEPENDENT
Homesteads Small Tract Merely as
Speculat0r and wakes Up to
Find Himself an Important
Ranchmsn.

Mine years ago when | took my Kin
kaid homestead OF $40 acres In the Ne
braska sand hills / did so as a matter
Grant county at the Merchants Sunday,
II filed on the land and thought would
hold 1t, prove UP when could. then move
away and forget all about my posses
stons. My idea was that the taxes would
be only few dollars per year and that
ir fifteen or twenty years l could sell
the land for enough so that would get
fair pay for the time spent
After | had held down the claim
couple Of years, going there once In six
months and spending the rest Of my time
In Grand Island working In a store as
clerk at SIS per month, concluded
that would 60 into stock raising with
my wife we moved onto the Kinkaid
claim. had about $l,000. At that time
built a sod house that cost less than
sb and put the rest Of the money into
cows and steers The first year It was
pretty hard shedding, but the second year
raised 200 bushels OF corn. turned off
ten grass-fed steers and $50 worth of
butter.
Buys sand Hills Section.
In the fall of that year l bought a
section of decided sand-hill land for $515
and, putting a mortgage on IT, the next
spring bought more cattle. The coming
fall / sold more cattle and bought an
other section. We lived close and ever
since then all the surplus money that I
could get hold Of have put into land
until now | own $500 acres. all decided
About 600 acres are adapted to growing
grass and crops and the balance is graz
ing.
During the past three years ] have
been dairying quite extensively milking
thirty cows and selling the milk. keen
one man the year through and three ad-
ditional during the haying season. Right
now the cream from the thirty cows
brings me an average of $50 per week and
the SKINNED milk furnishes the principal
feed for fifty-five pigs ten breeding sows
and thirty-seven stock hogs. These hogs
look upon as side line for the raising
and fattening Of them is all net. ! will
keep them growing on the milk and al
falfa and this fall will finish them off
or less than 500 worth of corn. The hogs
alone ought to net me close to $1,000
"As another side line have close to 800
hens At this season Of the year they
forage and pick their living with the ex-
ception of little refuse that comes from
the table and the yards, They have
hatched out N4 chicks to date. besides
having laid eggs that since March /
have sold for $42S.
others Are Pr0fiting.
These stories of what my sand hill
ranch has done may sound extravagant
and unreasonable, but my experience Ia
but the experience of dozens of other men
up through Grant, Hooker and Cherry
counties. Any man can do the same thing
IL he will use good Judgment and work.
THE sand hill country Is rapidly coming
into Its own. This year our prospects are
the best In the history of the country.
We have had an abundance of rain this
year and the pasturage Is splendid. Our
land that few years ago was looked
upon as worthless Is becoming to have a
fixed value and is advancing in price right
along. East of me in Hooker county a
number of ranches have changed hands
this season and some Of them which
were almost all sand hill land have sold
as high as $12 per acre. My Judgment
is that inside of five years the poorest
of this sand hill country will be cheap
at $40 per acre, for while 1t will not all
raise crops, It's all well adapted to graz
ing and grazing land 10 now scarce and
In great demand.