Chapter 484 The Farm in Kansas
During this year’s vacation, little Gilbert did not go to any place overseas to play around. Instead, he took the whole family to a farm in Topeka, Kansas.
David, Gilbert's investment manager, bought this farm for little Gilbert last year as a place for vacation and leisure.
Kansas is one of the seven largest agricultural states in the central United States. It has endless Kansas prairie, and countless herds of cattle, sheep and horses spend their days leisurely in the grassland.
Kansas is also an important wheat producer in the United States, exported around the world.
It has the unique advantage that most rivers flow from west to east.
The northern part belongs to the Kansas River Basin, and its important tributaries include the Blue River, the Rippablicken River, the Solomon River, the Saline River and the Smokey Hill River.
The southern part belongs to the Arkansas River Basin, with its main tributaries including the Cimarron River, the Verdigris River, the Neosho River and the Meridian River. The corner of the northeastern border of Kansas is the Mississippi River.
The rivers in Honshu are suitable for building irrigation canals because the ground slopes to the southeast. Hundreds of small man-made lakes have been built.
In terms of terrain, although there are river valleys, streams, canyons and hills, most of the area is still dominated by high plains.
Flint Hills to the east, Smokey Hills and Red Hills to the west. Mount Senflower, close to the Colorado border in the west, has an altitude of 1,231 meters, the highest point in the state.
Flint Hills, which means flint hills, was named because Indians in the past found flints in this hilly area for use as arrowheads.
The Verdigris Valley near Oklahoma in the south is 213 meters above sea level, the lowest point in the entire territory.
Whether before or now, several large states in the middle are of great significance to the United States.
It is this endless central Great Plains that has enabled the United States to develop the world's largest agricultural industry with the smallest agricultural population.
The agricultural model in the central Great Plains is basically a mechanized large-scale farm model. The farm area owned by each farmer ranges from a dozen square kilometers to hundreds of square kilometers.
The Wagner Farm, the largest farm in Texas in the south, covers an area of 2,070 square kilometers and spans six counties. It is the largest farm in the world and belongs to the local Wagner family.
Founder Dan Wagner moved to Texas in the 1840s. He aggressively expanded his land and continued to invest. By 1870, he had begun purchasing land in western Wythe County.
In 1873, he took a group of cattle to the Kansas market for sale and obtained $55,000 worth of funds, which was regarded as the seed capital for establishing a farm empire.
Wagner Farm is not limited to agriculture and animal husbandry, it is also involved in many fields such as oil exploration, recreation and wildlife protection.
In terms of agriculture and animal husbandry, the farm raises 14,000 cattle and about 500 horses, and has more than 30,000 acres of arable land.
With the continuous improvement of breeding technology, the farm is expected to further increase the number of cattle, and even become a center supporting the breeding of tens of thousands of cattle.
In terms of oil extraction, Wagner Farm has more than 1,200 producing oil wells. Although the depth is relatively shallow, its potential contribution is huge.
This is an important potential resource for energy markets.
In the field of leisure and entertainment, the farm’s lakes can be used for fishing, boating and other water activities, and tourist facilities such as holiday villas can also be built to attract more tourists.
In terms of wild animals, the farm’s rich wild resources such as deer, turkeys, quails, pigeons, waterfowl and wild boars can ostensibly be used for wildlife protection and utilization, enriching the farm’s ornamental value.
But in fact, this is a huge hunting ground. It would be a pity not to go in and hunt with a shotgun.
Wagner Farms is not limited to Texas, but also owns a farm covering an area of 150 square kilometers in Kansas.
Nowadays, the Wagner family is in constant disputes over internal inheritance issues. The youngest son of the Wagner family decided to sell the farm under his name and go to Wall Street for development.
But today’s agricultural industry in the United States is a sunset industry.
Wall Street is keen on financial activities, and Silicon Valley combines with Wall Street to constantly speculate on high-concept technology stocks. Agriculture and manufacturing are both sunset industries, gradually abandoned by capitalists.
But compared with manufacturing, which can be relocated, agriculture cannot be relocated because the land is there.
Fortunately, because mechanization is highly developed, even if there are not many cowboys engaged in agriculture, the United States can still maintain its status as the largest agricultural country.
Rather than paying little attention to manufacturing, the men in Washington have long realized that the future world will be a competition for food and water resources.
Therefore, the Ministry of Agriculture has been providing subsidies to the agricultural industry. The purpose is to prevent the sunset industry of agriculture from becoming a sunset.
Little Gilbert's intention in buying the farm was not to get subsidies from the Department of Agriculture or to participate in future battles over food and water resources.
He had money and bought it simply for enjoyment.
This is the first time that little Gilbert has come here after buying this farm.
The private plane flew directly to Topeka and docked. Arthur, the local farm manager, was responsible for guiding the little Gilbert family all the way from Topeka to the town of Lenola, where little Gilbert's farm was.
"We are here," little Gilbert came down and took a deep breath, sighing: "It is indeed a farm, with the fragrance of earth, the smell of grass, mixed with the smell of cow, sheep and horse dung..."
Naomi Watts hugged Elian and couldn't help but smile after listening to little Gilbert's words: "The farm is always like this. It would be weird if there were no cow, sheep and horse dung."
"That's right," little Gilbert nodded and turned to tell Lily, who had replaced his mother Kyoko as the housekeeper: "Lily, follow them and arrange the rooms in the farm."
"Okay," Lily followed a manager of the farm to make arrangements first.
The women and children got off the car one by one, and the bodyguards moved their luggage inside first. Bodyguard Captain Anderson directed several people to check the security management equipment.
When David acquired the farm last year, he carried out a comprehensive renovation of the farm, including the renovation of the dilapidated large villa in the center of the farm.
Monitoring equipment, side wall power grids and other safety equipment have also been installed, which can be regarded as a major modern renovation of this century-old farm.
As one of the few super-rich men, little Gilbert attaches great importance to his wealth and life.
Although he naturally belongs to the upper class of society, he is a squid man after all. But some people think that his work is too unorthodox, and it is difficult to find someone to give him a convertible ride because of his different ideas.
Fortunately, little Gilbert opened his own security company to serve himself, several women, children, and relatives. The security personnel inside are basically from the elite special forces and secret service agents of the United States, as well as security experts.
With good relationships with the Pentagon, these people were easy to hire.
Besides, working for his company is a good choice for retired soldiers and agents. After all, the salary is high, there are few things to do, and you don’t have to be a mercenary to work hard every day, how nice it is.
Of course, the security guards will work hard to protect little Gilbert and his family in order to keep their well-paying jobs.
Affection and trust cannot buy loyalty, but money can.
"You go and settle down first, take a rest, and Arthur and I will chat." Little Gilbert said to the women.
"Let's go, sisters." Naomi Watts greeted, and Cameron Diaz, Jennifer Connelly, Anne Hathaway, Noriko Sakai, and Norika Fujiwara followed in.
Together with the four children and the nanny, a large group of people moved into the large villa in the middle of the farm.
Charlize Theron is still busy with the overseas promotion of "Warrior" and will arrive later. Scarlett is hanging around little Gilbert and wants to visit the farm with him.
Little Gilbert didn't rush Scarlett to let her rest.
This girl is like this, she always has endless energy and is very lively.
"Arthur, please briefly introduce the situation of the farm to me. I just came here and don't know much about it." Little Gilbert said.
"Okay, boss, come with me. Let's talk as we walk and meet the employees." Arthur led little Gilbert from the big villa to the staff dormitory one kilometer behind the villa.
Because it was not far away, the three of them did not take a car. Instead, they enjoyed the pastoral scenery along the way and chatted while walking.
Start from the large villa in the center of the farm and follow the winding road. The red oak trees planted on both sides of the road are lush and full of vitality due to the summer season.
Behind the rows of tree walls, there is an endless field farm. On the left side, corn is planted, and the corn yields are big and plump.
On the right are endless golden wheat fields, with combine harvesters at work in the distance.
Arthur introduced: "This batch of wheat was planted in winter, and now it is harvest time."
Scarlett curiously asked: "What should we do with the wheat after harvesting? Directly make it into bread?"
Arthur smiled and said: "That's not the case, Miss Johnson. There will be businessmen from Topeka coming to the farm to buy it.
We also have our own bakery, but we usually make our own bread and eat it ourselves, not selling it to the outside world. "
After speaking, Arthur also looked at little Gilbert's face and felt relieved when he saw that he was not angry.
You must know that everything on the farm belongs to the boss. Previously, due to poor management, they could use wheat to make bread and brew wine without permission.
But after the boss changed last year, Arthur arrested the manager and sent the farm's account statement to investment manager David every month.
Including income, expenses, etc., all written clearly.
Arthur knew that they could do nothing without the farm. It is unrealistic to go mining or work as an assembly line worker. Although working on a farm is very tiring, having a rich boss will at least provide you with security.
Little Gilbert will not investigate the past, it is meaningless. There is no need to change management personnel. It is better to just use this group of familiar people.
As long as you work well under his hands, little Gilbert will not treat his own people badly.
Besides, the purpose of buying a farm is to have a place for leisure and vacation, not to become an agricultural tycoon.
Little Gilbert waved his hand and asked Arthur to continue the introduction: "You continue, I want to know the size of the farm."
"Okay," seeing that the boss didn't care, Arthur continued: "The current farm area is about 150 square kilometers. In addition to 40 square kilometers of cultivated land, there are also 52 square kilometers of pasture and 58 square kilometers of forest lakes."
Scarlett opened her mouth wide and felt incredible: "The farm is so big, how long will it take to visit?"
"So we're going to ride horses and motorcycles," Arthur laughed.
Scarlett was happy: "Great, I'm going to ride a horse."
Little Gilbert also thought it was okay. He didn't care about farmland and pastures. A resort area with a large enough area was the choice.
Arthur continued: "The entire farm is slightly higher on both sides and lower in the middle. Our location is the location of the central plain farm, with pastures to the east and forests to the west.
Three streams perfectly separate the three areas, and the artificially dug canals also provide convenience for irrigation of our farm. "
Arthur briefly introduced the situation of the farm to little Gilbert so that little Gilbert could understand it.
Simply put, this farm is no different than most typical large American farms. The farm is rich in resources and products.
Except for some daily necessities that need to be purchased from outside, the rest of the food, meat and vegetables can be self-sufficient.
Lakes and streams bring rich fishery assets. Although they cannot withstand large-scale fishing, there is no problem with fishing.
In addition, there are wild boars, deer, rabbits, wild sheep and other animals that appear in it, which are also good choices for hunting.
No wonder the last time I had dinner with Bill Gates, he showed off how much fun he had living as a farmer, which aroused little Gilbert's curiosity.
Otherwise, little Gilbert would not be free to come to the farm for vacation this summer and experience the life of a farmer.
Living like this for too long may be a bit monotonous for little Gilbert, but it's really nice to experience it once in a while on vacation.
(End of chapter)