Candidate For Attorney General Directs Profitable Farm Project
By BYRON F. HEUL

SHAWANO, Wis.—Besides being worked like a farm horse by his law practice here M. G. (Mike) Eberlein, candidate for attorney general of Wisconsin in the September primaries, has turned his horse sense and business experience back to two farms composing 1,800 acres,—and in this time of strife and struggle to eke out a farm living, is making a profit every day the farms are in operation.

For 28 years Mike Eberlein and his brother Fred have been partners in the legal and farming businesses, but during the last five years have built and developed a paradise farm of profit from timber land which the brothers had formerly logged.

Beautiful Setting
This magnificent farm is located 33 miles from Shawano and just north of the beautiful Menominee Indian reservation. After winding in and out, through tall timber and over sharp hilltops which characterize rough land, the tourist or motorist suddenly arrives at a two mile stretch of level, fertile farm land where the Langlade farm of the Eberleins is situated upon more than a mile of the bank of the beautiful Wolf river where rainbow trout may be caught in abundance.

Of the tillable land, there are 300 acres of Colby silt loam soil without ten feet of [?] in a mile and a half distance. Wet, did you say? Not at all,—for this depth of rich, heavy loam is underlayed with gravel which acts as a perfect drainage system to the productive soil. These 300 perfect acres were selected while timber by Mike Eberlein as a farm, for he could foresee a beautiful farm in its raw stages. So enthusiastic was Mr. Eberlein to develop this splendid piece of land that he spent all vacation time and week ends at Langlade using dynamite on the huge pine stumps that originally supported the virgin timber. Now Mike Eberlein grows alfalfa, barley, oats, hogs, potatoes, and steers on this 500 acre tract of which 300 are under cultivation. One hundred and fifteen steers which Mr. Eberlein purchased personally on the St. Paul market last spring, are now grazing in the attorney’s deer park.

Establishes Deer Park
Deer Park? Certainly Mike and Fred Eberlein have a deer park. It isn’t a fad, however, for these deer must pay a profit if the project is to be carried on. “Each operation on our farm pays a profit, and I know just what profit each operation pays,” continued Mike, as he led reporters on a dogtrot about the place. Just between you and me, visitors had better practice walking if they expect to keep up with Mike Eberlein when visiting that Langlade home. The deer park was started last year with 15 deer bought from the Wisconsin Conservation Commission and this year eleven orphan nanies [sic] are being raised on the Shawano Farm for transplanting on the 800 acre deer park which Borders the Langlade farm on the north. While waiting for the deer to multiply, the Eberleins use the deer park for a steer pasture where white clover and other pasture grasses grow abundantly. State Highway 55 divides the farm and the deer park, allowing tourists to view the new enterprise and one of the finest farms in all Wisconsin on the same trip. When deer get plentiful, hotels in Chicago will undoubtedly pay 80 cents and up per pound for the venison.

Woodsmen Know Mike
Surrounding the Langlade farm are settlers who Mike Eberlein say are his people. He knows all the sturdy, rough men of that cut-over country, and he vouches that there isn’t a bad man in the whole lot. They all call him Mike up there north of the Indian Reservation. And why do they know Mike? Until this year, up to the age of 50, Mike held down first sack on the Langlade baseball team that is always a strong team in its league. Few people in Shawano know that Mike played baseball regularly every Sunday, for he gave the matter little publicity,—but up North they all root for Mike at first. Mike is one of the pioneers up there, and that is where his heart goes the minute he has finished a hard week at Blackstone.

Ill Health Causes Reverse
Now we drift back to the Shawano home farm of Mike and Fred Eberlein, and where the original farm partnership began. Here, Fred Eberlein started some 20 years ago, after he was forced to dissolve law partnership with Mike on account of ill health. The two boys just had to have some kind of a partnership. Here at Shawano, the Eberleins do special farming, housing some 7OO Silver Black Foxes, milking a herd of highly bred Guernsey purebreds, and watching twelve acres of ginseng grow into profit The boys believe In specializing in order to keep away from the stiff competition which the average run of large scale production makes. Here 300 acres of land are cultivated. Guernsey heifers are being raised and transported to the northern farm where a dairy herd will be started in the huge Langlade farm dairy barn as soon as the  heifers become dairy cow age. The home herd numbers 100 at the present time.

Show Big Records
Digging into the records and pedigrees of the purebred we find that one of the Eberlein cows, bred and raised on the farm, holds a record of over 1,200 pounds of butter. The herd has been continually under dairy improvement and official testing work and in all events has stood high in competition. To demonstrate the Eberlein sense of business farming, this year 20 acres of Cobbler potatoes and 50 acres of Triumph potatoes were planted early and will soon be harvested for the early market. Potatoes being high priced last spring, a large crop was expected, thus the Eberleins are insuring themselves against low potato prices next fall. The potatoes are all raised on the Langlade farm.

Save on Building Costs
Realizing the high cost of lumber, the Eberlein Brothers purchased a small tract of lumber land just south of the big Langlade farm from which to build buildings, get fence posts, obtain lumber for ginseng beds, and get material for fox farm equipment. It was from a small cedar swamp on this tract that 3,OS2 cedar posts 14 feet long were obtained to build the deer fence around the 800 acre deer park. The tourist traveling highway 55 will know the Eberlein Deer Park by the tall fence posts that enclose it. Besides being interested in farming and legal practice, Mike Eberlein is also interested in the retail and wholesale oil business, a tourists park, a newspaper, and other successful financial enterprises. He is a member of the Shawano school board and is active in civic affairs of the county.

Fred Eberlein is mainly identified with the fox business, being secretary of the Wisconsin Fox Breeders’ association and taking very active interest in that organization. Fred, too, is a hard headed business man who believes that proper business methods on the farm, where specialized farming is used, will show a yearly profit.

Some Views of Eberlein: Shawano Farm
[Four photographs, not reproduced here]
Golden-milk producing guernseys are housed in these up-to-date and practical barns (above) on the Shawano farm of Eberlein and Eberlein. To the rear of these barns are found 700 silver black foxes in an acreage of fox pens and houses.
Below is seen the home of Mr. and Mrs. M. J. Eberlein and their five children.
Four boys, Mike, William, Ferdinand [sic] and Walter all attend Shawano schools, while Marge was graduated from the University of Wisconsin college of letters and science last June.

Above is a land-breaking scene on the Langlade farm of the Eberleins. The entire farm was developed from cut-over land which the men originally logged. Three men with tractors farm the 300 acres of cultivated land, exclusive of potato-digging time. There are 115 steers being fattened on the grass and crops of the land this season.
Below is Fred Eberlein, brother and partner to M. ]. Eberlein, candidate for,
attorney general in the September primaries. Fred is the active manager on the. farm where 100 guernseys, 700 silver foxes, and 12 acres of ginseng are raised.

Source: The Wisconsin State Journal, Sunday, 10 August 1930