Uncle Dick and Lisa's Old Time Animal Tales

     The largest farm in this country and probably in the world is in the southwestern part of Louisiana. Its area is 100 miles north and south and twenty-five miles east and west. It was purchased in 1883 by a syndicate of northern capitalists by whom it is still operated. At the time of its purchase its 1,500,000 acres was a vast pasture for the cattle belonging to a few dealers in that country. Now it is divided into pasture stations or ranches existing every six miles. The fencing is said to have cost about $50,000. The land is best adapted for rice, sugar, corn and cotton. Steam power is used almost exclusively. There is not a single draft horse on entire place, if we except those used by the herders of cattle, of which there are 16,000 head on the place. The Southern Pacific railway runs for thirty-six miles through the farm. The company has three steamboats operating on the waters of the estate, of which 300 miles are navigable. It also has an ice house, bank, shipyard and rice mill.