The Washington herald., 1912-08-11
Spends 81, 900 a Day for Three Years
On a Hundred acre Field of Alfalfa
Ohio C. Barber attempting to Prove Agri-
culture Is Highly Profitable Industry for
Any Big Corporation to Undertake.
By JAMES 3. MORROW.

BY JAMES b. MORROW.
Akron. Ohio. Aug. lo-Eisht miles from
this city. which is the greatest rubber
center In the world. on q plantation con-
tanning 200 acres of ordinary up and
down land. Ohio C. Barber Ii attempting
to prove that agriculture Is q highly
profitable industry. He has been spend
ing 1900 day for three years. By the
end Of 1872 he will have invested
s1.50o.ooo in his unique and striking ex-
pertinent. Four hundred men. helped by
eighty sorrel horses. are making his
roads, digging his bitches. planting his
trees, building his new barns. cultivate
ing his crops and caring for mis- hve
stock.
..My object is to show that large cor
porations can buy land, put It to the
plow and make as much money on their
investment as ought to be made In any
business" Mr.. Barber said to me as we
stood looking at his 1oo-acre neld OF
growing alfalfa
Then I mean to show the little man
what can be done with vegetables. fruits.
berries. flowers. poultry. pigs. sheep ana
milch cows Yes. and with pigeons ana
honey bees. / want him to come mere
talk to my experts. and return to his
nOI1c ullcQ Win hloWACo6C oA-N
ton.
This land" Mr.. Barber went on to
say circling the horizon with his arm,
was owned until three years ago oy
nine farmers. They were glad to sell me
their property. There wasn't a young
man or a young woman on any one OF
the farms. Nor child. Old age. rheu-
matte, enfeebled and discouraged. dwelt
in the decaying houses and dragged out
of the neglected soil hard ana barren
livelihood Oh, 1t Is so almost every
where. And yet the earth is mans most
kindly, faithful and obedient friend. Feed
II. air IL and water it, and it will re-
spond gladly and abundantly. Human
beings are often faithless, ungrateful or
cruel. The earth never is. 1 Ike to
think of 1t as living and breathing
thing 1t seems to love MANKIND. ana
to want to help mankind. though IL IL
being overworked and plundered
A Giant Among Money Makers.
Up to three years ago Mr.. Barber was
one of the most active and potential man
ayers of big business in the United
states. He began selling matches. made
in his fathers factory. away back In
1856. and was a partner in the firm at the
age of twenty. Since then until the pres
ent, ne mas Dccn PiShCSA 80
commerce. and finance, a pushing and
successful man among the giants OF
money. He gathered the match business
into an SIS 100000 corporation and built
factories in Great Britain, Germany
Switzerland, South Africa. Peru, Chill,
Brazil. and the Philippine Islands
More than 5000 acres of timber LAND
were purchased by his company in New
England and 5000 acres were bought on
nd e.
666 carloads of lumber annually, using the
odd pieces in his match business. he
manufactured his own chemicals ana
strawboard and invented his own ma
ehine-y In the meanwhile he was travel
ing 5000 miles every year. Under his
vital touch, a steaming and smoking city
rose up from among uninhabitated corn
and wheat fields. He started one OF the
greatest rubber works on the continent.
He organized banks He exposed the
financial and economic shortcomings Of
the railroads, and built a railroad him
self He gave a fine hospital to Akron.
Such is the man who. at the age OF
sixty-eight. thought II was his duty as
an American practically to demonstrate
that money could be made in agriculture.
He is trying to end the pull toward the
cities and the drain that is deprivins the
rural regions Of its youth and energy.
largest in the world.
For more than a quarter Of a century
Mr.. Barber had been making annual ousi-
ness trips to Europe. He has toured the
principal countries many times in auto
mobiles. No matter where he goes he
questions the people and investigates
their manner Of working and living. He
is interested in every human problem.
and can talk and write with skill and
ability. He reads, inquiries, and reflects.
Also he dislikes Wall Street, and con-
demns high finance. He is as tall as was
Abraham Lincoln. and at the age of
seventy-one is as unbent in his shoulders
and as straight In his limbs as any young
man on his plantation.
The Birth of q Big idea.
'I found that the average farmer Of
Europe was getting about double the re-
turn from his old land than Is the rule
in this country. where the land is com
paratively new" Mr.. Barber said We
were in the beautiful library Of his fine
new house, and flowers from his gardens
filled the air with fragrance. Let me
add that had long noticed the slipshod
and dreary atmosphere of our
own agriculturists. Now any man who
enjoys his business will look happy. And
he will enjoy his business if 1t pays. A
cheerful worker is a good citizen This
idea may be followed out into a long es-
say or a book.
while / thought about the subject, a
purpose came into my mind. Politicians
and theorists were suggesting remedies
for the evils of mankind. More or less
was being said about slavery and tyr
amy in the United States Complaints
were being made with respect to dear
food. Cities were declared to be growing
big and rich TO the cost of, the country.
/ would create a farm, I thought, and
by actual results. by the In
disputable figures Of my account books,
that agriculture, rightly carried out. will
pay a good dividend on the labor and
capital put into the business. was get
ting old and had to hurry matters II 1
meant to make the test So I bought
this land and went vigorously to work.
I have already gone far enough to say
that / shall prove my case II I live and
keep In good health, and II my money
holds out"
The qualification as to money caused
Mr.. Barber to smile. He has no other
heir than a daughter. Mrs. Arthur Dean
Bevan, wife Of an eminent surgeon in
Chicago, and doubtless feels free to risk
q 10000 and possibly more. on great
itiIitarian idea. The average first cost
of his land was about s142 an acre. He
says that he is spending $65 an acre
% drain it and s gre Its fertility His
house and barr built Of brick and
,tone, and have II and other distinc-
i've features, archl. urally. The widsl
.oads have been planted with shade |
rees, and here and there with q double |
- ~ Sr,tft treea Even thou1h aeveral