Hi, Since George W. Bush's Crawford is called a Ranchette by New Yorkers who never did a day's work on a ranch, this is a good question. Most of us in Erath County thought 1000 acres was a fair sized ranch- but if it was plowed up , clear cut, and farmed, like the Texas High Plains and McLennan County cotton and Milo farmers and dairymen have a problem getting financed with less than 1000 acres of cotton , corn or Milo, or less than 700 to 1000 cows from Wisconsin, sometimes on less than 500 acres of land In Texas usage, a farm is a ranch cleared and plowed up. My brother in law at Levelland, Texas worked 1000 acres of Cotton at one time- most irrigated. It was farm land, but some of it in 1900's was part of the Slaughter Ranch, .The one who sold it for farm land was George and Janice Wyly Slaughter of Fort Worth and Roswell. , N.M. Texas definition of a ranchette is 20 to 100 acres worked by a man who works a 40 hour job in town, and his wife cuts hay and feeds cattle or works in the Courthouse or a local ,plant. He usually has a pickup or 2, a 4 wheel Yamaha or Junker car to feed with, and the kids help with daily choires asftger they ride the bus home or drive one of the family cars noit needed that day. then go play high school football or Little League. Some of Grandad's Uncles in Georgia had the Beverly Plantation and another or two. After the war, they returned to Habersham County Mountains and several left for Texas. The Neely Plantation west of Jackson Miss. in Louisiana was one of the larger ones in the area and James Grady and Fred Wyly, his son, still owned much of it near Lake Providence. & Talula, La, . I d not know the acerage, but the modern tractors and equipment have eliminated the need for a large work force. The farms would close in 1 year if they were supporting as many as lived on the land in Plantation days. 100 acres of tobacco was a sizeable farm. with nuch hand labor, 2 or 3 people with modern equipment can handle a thousand acres or so of wheat or Milo (The hip high Hybrid Maize) and, with his own combine, may follow the harvest north as time allows as some of the family care for the home place. Texas and Georgia peanut farming has always been more labor intensive 200 acres of peanuts in 1960 would make a family a good living, if the rain and harvest were synchronized. Financing a crop of feed or turkeys or Broilers today has cost some their farm in one year. Take care, ] Charles A. Wyly On Fri, 18 May 2001 21:50:03 EDT Dgreen909h@cs.com writes: > Charles, or anyone that knows!! > > What does the word 'Plantation" mean? How large does it have to be? > Would it > compare in size to a Texas farm or ranch?? > > Family tradition called the Pledger home in GA a plantation. I have > a copy of > the land deed when it was sold, dated 1864 and recorded 1867.(I > don't > understand the delay.) And, the combined acreage was only 300-400 > acres. > > Family tradition also states that when the Pledgers moved to TX they > moved > off and left the plantation, without selling it. So much for family > tradition!! Of course, this was right after the Civil War. Times > were hard. > > Will enjoy hearing your comments. I fear I've exposed my ignorance!! > (grin) > again! > > Thanks, > Dortha McElroy Greenlee > > > ============================== > Visit Ancestry's Library - The best collection of family history > learning and how-to articles on the Internet. > http://www.ancestry.com/learn/library >