MR. CURRIE, SR., of Clinton township, while at work in the harvest field last Saturday, suddenly fell dead. The great heat of that day was supposed to be the cause of his death. His age was 67 years. The funeral occurred on Monday, attended by a large number of friends.
The Monster Cattle Farm.
The editor of the Ida Pioneer has made a visit to the Hereford cattle farm of Mr. C. W. Cook & Sons, of Odebolt, Sac county, Iowa. We make the following extracts from Mr. Williams' graphic description of this unrivalled farm:
We were shown the several beautiful herds of Hereford cattle, 306 head of them were brought from England two years ago, a detailed account of which has already been published in the Pioneer. The herd now consists of 640 head, an increase of more than double. This herd is divided up into about 75 to 100 lots, generally according to age. In one pasture we see a herd of cows, with each a two months old white faced calf by her side. It is a wonderful sight to view this herd, as a herd of Hereford cows and calves is the most beautiful of all cattle kind.
In another pasture is a herd of cows with their four months old calves, which look as if they were yearlings. Then in another pasture we saw 75 yearling heifers, all of the same size, color and age. The heifer calves are held at from $200 to $300 a head. The yearling heifers are held at from $400 to $600, Mr. Cook refusing $500 for one last week. A party will visit the ranch this week, from Wisconsin, with a view of taking thirty of those four-months-old heifer calves at $200 each. We were shown one male calf only four months old that could not be bought for $5,000. The Hereford is the only kind that Mr. Cook raises, and more for breeding than show, although he is fitting up about seventy-five head to take to the State Fair, some of which will be sold there at auction. We also visited the great barn. This is 200 feet square and about 50 feet high, and will stall 700 head of cattle. We went all through it and saw the various machines for cutting straw, hay, shelling and grinding corn, etc. In this barn were seen most of his bulls, some of which are valued up into the thousands, one especially whose sire was sold last year in England for $20,000. Our crowd went up into the observatory of the barn and could see over nearly half of Sac county, and one-third of Ida county. The grove on the adjacent hill to Ida Grove could be plainly seen. We could see Odebolt, Early, Schaller and Holstein, and could look down upon the whole Cook ranch, which contains 7,200 acres, and is nearly all fenced into 160 and 80 acre fields, making in all over two hundred miles of fence. This is the largest cultivated farm in the world, except the Dalrymple farm of Dakota. The barn is the largest farm barn in the world. A hay barn near by with a capacity of 800 tons, is built like a large railroad round house. In this is a hay and straw chopper operated by steam, with an elevator and long spout that conveys the chopped food to the center of the main barn. About fifty men are employed upon the place at present, and 25 or 30 in the winter, besides the renters, who occupy the some 30 or more tenant houses upon the ranch.
THANKSGIVING DAY was very generally and happily observed yesterday in Odebolt and vicinity. Some went into the country to dine with friends, and some from the country dined their town friends and tripped the light fantastic at the Firemen's ball in the evening.
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