Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1884-07-12
Shanghai.

Politics are getting to be one of
the principal topics. Those who
are looking for places are having
"Many Voters to place them con
spicuously before the public,
through the county papers; set
ting forth their great moral char
acter and their extraordinary bust
ness qualifications, some of which
look as if they were slightly over
drawn. In my last items I spoke
of A. NJ. Graham as a probable
candidate for assessor, but your
typo made me say A. M. Gran
than. IVA
l have just returned from trip
through Morgan county. I was
surprised and pleased to find the
greatly improved condition of the
county, generally. Their wheat
crop is an excellent one, their corn
is fine and there is an abundant
crop of grass. The farms, gener-
ally present a degree of thrift
that would have seemed impossi-
BILE for them to have attained in
SO short space of time. / was
told by farmers there, that five
years ago they were not able to
raise grain sufficient to bread them.
Now they will have surplus Of
several thousand bushels to put
upon the market This is owing
to the fact that the people are Civ
ing less attention to the lumber,
bark and crosstie business, and
more attention to farming. Their
lands are being cleaned up nicely;
their fencing is good; they are
using the most improved farming
implements, and are sowing the
best fertilizers they can get. In
quiring the variety of wheat they
sowed generally and what brand
of fertilizers they used, I was told
their principal sowing was of the
Fultz, and they used Janney's fer
tilizer, which they speak of in the
highest terms,
Whilst at Berkeley Springs I
called upon j. w. McCaffrey, Esq,
dealer in farming implements. [
spoke to him of the extent of his
business, when he gave me the
following list ofgoods sold by him
this season and used in Morgan
county: Is mowers, 5 reapers, 5
binders, 100 Malta shovel plows,
So barshear plows, Is Webster
wagons, 5 buggies, 3 harrows, 4
cider mills, 2 American fruit
driers, 2 steam threshers, $50 tons
of fertilizers, (Janney's goods, be
side many small sales that he did
not remember. This certainly
speaks we'll for Mr. McCaffrey, as
q popular business man, and also
for the agricultural enterprise of
the county.
Within the last year I have
travelled through a number of
counties in the State and / feel
safe in saying there is not one in
the State that is improving more
rapidly or has better people than
Morgan. The first call l made in
the county was upon Hon. Samuel
Dawson, whom I found at the
head of his corps of harvest hands
swinging a cradle, which he told
me he had done for twenty years.
When the days work was over I
assisted in devouring an excellent
supper. That over, and arrange
ments made for the work OF the
next day, the Major was ready for
a social chat, politics,of course, mot
being omitted. I found him we'll
posted, having about him eight
weekly newspapers, besides much
other valuable literature. Whilst
he makes no pretentions to being
anything more than farmer (of
which he is proud) his converse
ton discloses the fact that he is
not behind in any issues of the day.
He carries in his head a complete
journal Of the acts of the legisla-
ture during his term of service.
He can give every vote as it was
cast in both houses, some of which
would be damaging, politically, to
the parties casting the votes, if it
was generally known.
I spent some time pleasantly
with my friend, Mr.. James Smith,
and his excellent family. Mr.. S.
is one Of the foremost farmers in
Rock Gap District, is well posted
in the doings of the day and is