The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-07-20
A SUPERFARM
THE TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INFORMATION BUREAU
BY Frederic j. Haslin. Director,
Washington. ID. C.

land from which some citizen is more
or less successfully making a living.
This man usually has a very limited
capital, and his farming operations
take the form of a struggle with the
weeds, the bugs and the mortgages.
He is the man that you and 1 depend
upon for a living.
The other kind of farming, which
seems to be on the increase, is a rteh
mans amusement. In it profit is gen.
orally no object, expenditure is al
most unlimited.
The farm of Ohio C. Barber, a
wealthy match manufacturer, which is
located a few miles from this city, is
typical of this latter class of farm.
Mr.. Barber keeps some two thousand
pigeons apparently for the sole pur-.
pose of having just the right kind of
squads for breakfast every morning
He raises thousand or so pheasants
a year merely for the pleasure of look
ing at them, SO far as an inquirer can
determine. He has the largest barn
in the world, where the most valuable
COW in the world dwells elegantly in a
steam heated and well ventilated sta
BILE. He has a flock of some twenty
thousand white ducks, which he raises
for the market, but according to his
help, he raises them SO luxuriously
that each duck costs him about rs
cents more to raise than he gets for it.
Perhaps and probably this farm is
not reducing the cost of living; but 1t
is nevertheless serving several good
purposes. For one thing, it is a dis
tributing point for thorobred ami
mails which raises the average quality
of the stock all over the surrounding
counties. Here is the largest herd of
thorobred Guernsey cattle in the
country-a herd absolutely free from
81 he hos hrA n6f inc
The farmer who buys a bull from the
Anna Dean farm improves the quality
of his dairy herd. Likewise the man
who buys a setting of White Leghorn
eggs from this establishment gets the
right kind of a start in the chicken
business.
All of these hobby farms do a GER
tain amount of good by distributing
blooded stock; this one serves the adj
ditional purpose of training school
for young farmers. From a dozen diff
ferent states the graduates of the agri-
cultural colleges come here in the
summer to work as farm hands and
see the processes of scientific farming
applied. The whole farm is divided
into departments. and there is a train
ed man over each department, each of
whom strives to operate his depart
ment in the most efficient manner
possible.
Such farm necessarily has lessons
for the farmer who lacks scientific
training. For example, the three
thousand acres which make up the
central farm were originally rather
poor land. They have been built up to
a high degree of fertility by the scien-
tific use of manure produced on the
place. This manure is stored in the
cellar of the great barn and not
pound of it is wasted. The average
farmer leaves his manure pile exposed
to the rain and all the best fertflizing
elements in it are leached away by the
water
If you wish to see this model farm
you will be given a pass made out on
a special form which states that the
owner will not be responsible if you
get hurt, after which you are turned
loose to find the various department
heads for yourself. Each of these
will show you all in his charge, talk
to you about his work as long as you
Will listen He is a specialist of the
most specialized sort. Mr. Pearson,
the pigeon man, for example. has no
concern on earth but the welfare of
his two thousand pigeons, including
homers, royal whites, Italian runts
(Which are the largest variety known
and buff expresses. Mr.. Pearson will
show you with pride his system of
band mating, which, he says is the
SCSACI VI SuNCCSS1ui p1SCOn-TdlSiIS. 1t
appears that pigeons are very sensi-
tive and temperamental birds in the
matter of domestic relations. If you
turn loose a lot of them in a loft,
most of them will pair off, but a few
bachelors and maids will remain un-
attached These will be a perpetual
source of disturbance which prevents
the proper raising of the young birds
One of the unattached males, for ex-
ample. will lure a hen pigeon away
from her nest and start an establish
ment of his own. The irate rightfuI
mate will promptly destroy it. A feud
will be started which will seriously
limit the productivity of the whole
loft. The proper way, therefore, is
to have a large assortment of little
colored bands. AS soon as a pair of
pigeons have definitely mated and set
tied down to housekeeping, they are
banded with the same coIors, and
when all that seem suited to the do
mest1e life are so mated, the odd
birds are removed from the loft
The pigeon is one of the few do
nestle animals that will not easily
submit to selective breeding. They
mate according to affinity, and when
it is desired to mate certain birds in
order to propag gate their good points,
they have to be confined together in
special Compulsory mating cages
Even then propinquity does not al
ways do the work. Some of them will
remain sulky celibates until they are
released again.
After leaving Mr. Pearson. Won will
call upon Mr.. Under who has charge
OF twelve thousand White Leghorns,
and incidentally of a pack of four
Great Dane dogs, lean and powerful
as panthers, who guard the poultry
houses at night. Mr.. Linder's brother
is the gamekeeper and raises pleas
ants, just as they are raised on the
great estates in England. Several
hundred of these birds are kept in
a strip of woodland where they make
a splendid picture. That is about all
They are neither shot nor sold regu-
larly, altho occasionally when they
become too numerous they are turned
over to the state for the purpose of
stocking the woods Thase Monsoiian