The state chronicle. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1883-1893, 1884-03-01
FARMING PAYS.
THE INSTRUCTIVE CAREER OF
MIR. w. L. KENNEDY OF LENOIR

N Ks w. LIZ KENNEDY OF LENO1R
Who has Carried the strictest Business
Methods into Practice i'm Farming
and got Rich.
Special Correspondence of the Chronicle
LENoR Co., N. c., February 2s.-And
so The STATE CHRONICLE wants our farm
ers to step to the front and tell what they
are doing and how they do it, l propose
to tell you about one.
Thirteen years ago William L. Kennedy,
of Lenoir county, paraphrased the apos-
ties pithy declaration II go fishing" by
saying, Il go farming" and he went in
right sensible fashion. He was then Is
years old; he had been a cavalier during
the war instead of a caviler, and after he
laid his sabre aside to rust, he frightened
his knowledge and gained experience by
helping his father at Cedar Dell, on the
Neuse during cropping season. He rode
in earnest fashion through storm of
Bob Ransom's orders, but that was moth
ing to the zeal with which he assaulted
the fields he had to till.
He began with good health, sterling
honesty, and a strong will. They fTNre
hfs capital, but it was sufficient NO
ownes Cedar Dell and its thousand acres
of splendid soil cut DIP into field and pas
ture, a place worth $50, 900, from which
he gets annually $4,000 cash over and
above all costs, including his family ex-
penses. Married to a charming lady,
owing no man anything, tilling his ground
| with rare skill and profit through good
bright exemplars of what can be done in
| North Carolina when one has the win
| strong enough to force the way.
Cedar Dell has been a noted farm for
| sixty years, but never SO worthy of notice
as now. Every year $50 acres feel the
! plow and $50 acres lie fallow in the sun.
! Fifty tons Of hay, $500 pounds of lint
| cotton, 2, 800 bushels of corn, oats, chu-
fas, sweet potatoes, ground peas, straw
berries, beef, poultry, butter, all these
and the old Hebrew blessings of wine and
oil in copious abundance reward his labors.
| How does Mr.. Kennedy do it?
He makes his own fertilizers and uses
them freely. He hires his laborers and
pays cash in full monthly. He believes
| that the eye of the master is worth more
than the hands of dozen wOrkmen, and
| so supervises every thing in person. He
| has faith in diversified crops and carries
his faith into practice. He thinks the best
is the cheapest and he gets it, whether it
be live stock or machinery. He shelters
his cattle, he takes the stitch in time that
saves nine, and so everything is in order
He does not despise the day of small
things, for he began without cent and in
thirteen years has made $50, 900. He
thinks the laborer is worthy of his hire,
and pays it ungrudingly, and the laborer
is diligent and therefore profitable. A
place for everything and everything in it's
place is a motto always followed, so no
time is lost at Cedar Dell. He abhors
debt and paying as he goes saves the pro-
fit other men lose to their creditors He
has system and consequently plenty of
time for fun. Whatever he does is done
1 with his might, so that whether it quail
shooting or cotton chopping, all is don6
promptly and correctly.
Lenoir county has excellent soil and 30
have all the ninety-four subdivisions of
North Carolina In every one there might
be a dozen William l.. Kennedys Why
! are there not more2 If one man but IS
years old could accomplish what Mr.. Ken
nedy has actually done in thirteen years,
why should not 1927 others have had
equal success? But never mind the past,
''let the bright thoughts of the present
overcome it, while we youngsters make
up our minds to redeem the time by fol-
lowing his example. SALvE.