S. P. McDONALD One of the Successful Farmers and Stockmen of Marion County AN ARTICLE EXTRACTED FROM THE PEABODY NEWS 1901 Contributed by Charmaine Keith (charmain@southwind.net) 26 August 1998 --------------------------------------------------------------------- KSGENWEB INTERNET GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY COPYRIGHT NOTICE: In keeping with the KSGenWeb policy of providing free information on the Internet, this data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages cannot be reproduced in any format for profit or other gain. Copying of the files within by non-commercial individuals and libraries is encouraged. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Peabody News 1901 S. P. McDonald came to Marion County from Indiana, Pennsylvania, in 1884 with his worthy wife and began farming. He had been raised on a farm in Pennsylvania and thought he knew all about the business, but found farming in Kansas was altogether a different proposition. However, he was a man that could learn. He went in with Scott Bros. In the farming and cattle business and stayed with them ten years. Their operations were successful but he concluded to play a lone hand, so in '94 sold out his interest to them a bought a quarter section on unimproved land 1 mile east and 1 1/2 north of Peabody, the nucleus of his present fine farm. He continued in the cattle and hog business and began to improve his place, and as he could afford it, bought more land and increased his business. Orchards and shade trees were set out, fine barns and other buildings erected, good fences built and many little details looked after that now gives him one of the neatest coziest homes in Marion county. His lovely home surrounded by a beautifully kept hedge, and trees and shrubs trimmed with artistic taste would be a credit to a city. Mr. McDonald now owns 400 acres of fine land and has leased 600 acres more, all of which he farms or pastures. He is a very careful and methodical farmer and raised large crops. Last year he raised 10,000 bushels of wheat on 320 acres of land beside large amounts of corn and other grains, and sorghum, millet and kaffir corn for his cattle. He finds that sorghum makes a good roughness for cattle and gets very large yields---for 4 to 10 tons to the acre. Among his improvements that interest the observer, besides his handsome house, magnificent barn and well kept cattle yards, is his hog house, a three story building equipped with an elevator and self feeding troughs and watering tanks thought out. On the third floor is kept the feed in bins with spouts running down to every pen, so arranged that there is always feed in the trough and none can be wasted. One the second floor are his brood sows, each in a pen by herself, and on the ground floor pens for the fat hogs and the shoats that are old enough to wean. Everything is done automatically in this house, the windmill pumping the water. He has to pay no attention to it. The watering troughs are so arranged with a float that when the water in each trough reaches a certain height, a float shuts off the flow; as soon as it is lowered it opens the valves and lets in the water to a certain depth. He raises from three hundred to five hundred hogs each year for the market. Mr. McDonald says he can average a pound a day on each hog from day of birth without any care other than to see that everything is in working order and the bins full of grain. He also has a large horse barn, and an elevator, which holds 10.00 bushels of grain and is equipped with a No. 8 Bowsher grainder run by a steam engine. In his cattle feeding Mr. McDonald pursues pretty much the same plan as D. W. Heath and Henry Stephens. He buys matured native cattle, winters them on sorghum, millet, and alfalfa hay. In spring he turns to grass and begins to feed about Aug. 1st and gives them 60 to 90 days full feed, shipping to Kansas City markets in early fall. He has found by this treatment that he can put on from 2 12 to 3 pounds a day on steers. As an example of the profits in cattle feeding in Kansas Mr. Donald kindly gave us the results of an experiment he made with 100 head of steers last year. He bought 100 head of native cattle in December that weighed 8,800 lbs., at $3.75 per cwt. He put them on shook corn until February 8th, and then began graining them. In May he sold them, weighing 13,480 lbs., at $5.25. These steers cost him $3,300 and he sold them for $7,077, increasing in value $3,777 in four month's time. The cost of the feeding was about $1270 and of marketing about $200, leaving a profit of $2,300 for his investment. Mr. McDonald raises a large amount of feed, but buys much each year, paying the local price, which is near Kansas City price, but is subject to local supply and demand and to the Kansas City rulings. Mrs. McDonald is a sister of Mrs. Geo. Shaque. Mr. Shaque is a well-known dry goods man for Graham & Tucker. Mr. and Mrs. McDonald have a great many warm friends here who consider no social event is complete without their presence. They have a telephone out to their farm, which connects them with the world, and they keep closely in touch with all the events of the time, both by reading and acquaintance. --------------------------------------------------------------------- KSGENWEB INTERNET GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY COPYRIGHT NOTICE: In keeping with the KSGenWeb policy of providing free information on the Internet, this data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages cannot be reproduced in any format for profit or other gain. Copying of the files within by non-commercial individuals and libraries is encouraged. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. ---------------------------------------------------------------------