A GREAT LOUISIANA FARM.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9066, 29 May 1888, Page 6

A GREAT LOUISIANA FARM.

In the extreme south-west corner of Louisiana lies the largest producing farm in the world. It runs 100 miles north and south, and 25 miles east and west, and is owned and operated by a syndicate of Northern capitalists. Their general manager, J. B. Watkins, gives an interesting account of this gigantic plantation, which throws the great Balrymplo farm of Dakota into the shade completely. " The million and a half acres of land in our tract," Mr. Watkins said, was purchased in 1883 from the state of Louisiana and from the United States Government. At that time it was a vast grazing land for the cattle of the few dealers of the neighbourhood. When I took posses! sion of it I found over 30,000 head of half wild horses and cattle. My first work was to divide the immense tract into convenient pastures, establishing stations and ranches every six miles. The fencing alone cost in the neighbourhood £10,000. The land I found to be best adapted to rice, sugar, corn, and cotton. All our cultivating, ditching, etc. , is done by steam power. We take a tract, say, half a mile wide for instance, and place an engine at each side. These engines are portable and operate a cable attached to four ploughs, and under this arrangement we are enabled to plough 30 acres a day with only the labour of three men. Our harrowing, planting, and other cultivating is done in like manner. In fact, there is not a draught horse on the entire place. We have, of course, horses for tho herders of cattle, of which we now have 16,000 head. The Southern Pacific Railroad runs for 36 miles through our farm. We have three steamboats operating on the waters of our own estate, upon which there are 300 miles of navigable Waters. We have an ice factory, a bank, a ship building establishment, and a rice mill."St. Louis Republican.