The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1914-01-01

of the farm farthest away from the
town that has been built up by the
Rankin farms.
According to w. F. Rankin, presi-
dent of the Rankin Farms, this is due
to the bad roads in Atchison county.
1t is cheaper to sell corn on the farm
nearest town and purchase corn at
the extreme end of the place, than to
haul the product from one farm to
the other.
Forty years ago David Rankin
came from Illinois and began buying
these rich Missouri acres. And Da-
vid Rankin believed in rotation of
crops. On the Rankin farms corn
has never been grown more than five
years in succession. After five years
of corn the ground usually has been
soWn to wheat, with carload of tim
othy and clover. After the wheat is
harvested the timothy and clover
has been allowed to stand for five
years, pasturing the land. Then back
to corn. But Notwithstanding this
rotation of crops, the present manag-
ers of the farm have not been salts
fled. So this year two carloads of
fertilizer have been purchased and
sown with one hundred and fifty
acres of wheat This wheat crop will
be watched with great care. 1t must
produce enough additional wheat
over the ordinary crop to pay for the
fertilizer and a profit besides. 9th
erwise the use of the fertilizer will
be abandoned.
No manufacturing concern in
America keeps closer tab on it's bust
ness tan do the Rankin farms. In
little office about 12x14 feet, in the
rear of the First National Bank, a
Rankin institution in Tarkio, two
clerks and an adding machine are
busy with a set of books, and from
one years end to the other they keep
track of the business of the big farm.
The farm is divided into ten ranches
ranging in size from $40 to AGO
acres. Five of the ranches are OPP
Grated on partnership basis, the
Rankin farms furnishing the land
against the labor of the partners.
The records in the office at Tarkio
show that the more profitable farms
are operated direct from the Tarkio
Office by the Rankins themselves, I'M
der system by which they employ
the labor and look after the details.
At the end of each year recapitula-
ton sheet Is made up, showing in
great detail the profits of the year.
The profits in round figures on the
entire farm for the year was $780,
900. The land is valued in the neigh
bOrhOOd of 1928 an acre, represent
ing an investment of nearly $3,00O,-
900, and including implements and
stock close to $3,5O0,OO0. The books
for last year show a profit of much
less than 6 per cent, notWithstand-
ing the persistent talk that the
American farmer is getting very rich.
A record Of every transaction on
the Rankin farms is kept at the CEN
trail office. Not a pound of soap, not
box of matches is bought, without
requisition, signed by the foreman,
if the farm is operated directly, or
by the partner, if the farm is oper-
ated on the partnership plan. Each
foreman and partner must submit
monthly report which practically is
an inventory of the ranch. The print
ed form contains the following items
on which a report is demanded:
Men employed, steers on iced,
stock cattle, bulls, COWS, calves,
sheep, work horses, mules, young
horses, colts, ponies, hogs, pigs, wag-
ons, sleds, cultivators, harrows,
drills, listers, plows, corn planters,
stackers, hayracks, sulkey rakes,
binders, mowers, seeders, sets OF
harness, windmills, tanks, tame hay,
wild hay, corn in field, corn in crib
bought, corn in crib raised, oats, rye,
wheat, seeds.
When the books are balanced at
the close of the, year statement is
made just. as complete as any bust
ness corporation in the world could
submit. Each year in the neighbor-
hood of two hundred carloads of ma
terial are purchased for the farm
Among the purchases are cattle-ive
thousand being fed this year-hogs,
cotton seed meal, oil meal, tankage
for hogs, bran, corn hearts, hog
medicine in carload lots, axle grease,
harness, sand and cement for silos-
all materials that are used on the
farm.
One of the big items of saving on
the Rankin farm is in harness, which
costs several thousand dollars year,
but which would cost more than
double that amount if chains were
not used instead of the regulation
leather type. The farm managers
figure that it would require all the
time of a half a dozen men to keep
the harness in repair if made of
leather, while the chain harness
practically is everlasting, although
not 60 pleasant for the horses them
selves.
The Rankin farms had under cul-
stivation slast year 22,783 acres. Of
which fourteen thousand acres was
in corn, three thousand acres in oats