News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1886-03-11
ONE NEW SOUTHERN TYPE.
A SUCCESSFUL YOUNG GEORGIA
FARMERS METHODS.
He Shows How the Earth will Prove
Gold Mine to the Man who
NnoII

a Gold Mine to the Man who
| Works 1t Well.
Mr.. Robert Rood is a young farmer.
Thin, Drowned, all fiber, slow but easy Of
motion, self reliant and independent
he is fine type of the young Southern
farmer
''The earth Is gold mine" he says,
''to any man that works it diligently"
1t certainly has proved to be one to
Mr.. Rood. In seven years he has made
over $40, 900 in farming-not by specu-
lating-for he has lost $40, 900 by that
method, but by the patient tilling of the
earth, and the slow transmitting of sun
shine, rain, and sweat into corn and cot
ton. The story of his work is signif-
cant, and it may be improving, SO here it
is in paragraphs, coaxed from his own
lips.
''My father said to me about seven
years ago: My son, I'm going to die,
and leave Sc, 900 in honest debts that
| you must pay In six weeks he was
dead, and l took the plantation in
Stewart county on the Chattahoo-
chez river. l mortgaged the place
| for $4, 900 and went to work.
| The first lesson l learned was economy.
/ darned my own socks and patched my
clothes as they wore out. When went
| to Eufaula put a biscuit in my pocket,
and when l got to town tied my horse to
rack and saved hotel bill. l ran
| plow myself, leading the way for my
hands. At night lit up the forge and
did my own blacksmithing, learning as
went. never left my farm day, and
slept only six hours night"
F'That must have brought success9"
''Of course it did, as it would have
brought it in any other business. In two
years had paid my debt and had money
in bank. have made in actual money
over $40, 900 This is my poorest year,
and yet will clear over SO, 800. l would
not give any man So to guarantee me
So, 900 year on my ten-mule farm for
| the next ten years. Farming is the safe
est business a man can engage in, if he
goes at it right.
"What are the rules by which you
worl12"
"First, I raise my own provisions.
have 1000 bushels of corn, /, 100 BUSH
els of oats, 800 bushels of peas, and 400
gallons of syrup now for sale. raise
much of my own meat, and would raise
it all except that my climate is too warm
to cure it. never saw man who did
on cotton. Inever saw a corn-raiser that
wasn't prosperous farmer. You can
often figure out that you can buy corn
cheaper than you can raise-but that is
only on paper. Corn-raisers prosper
the others fail. My cotton crop is always
q cash surplus. / make my other crops
carry the farm.
Next to raising my own corn, count
personal attention to my business. l sow
every bushel of oats myself, because I
never found q hand that could do it
right. This fall | worked eleven hours
day with a three-peck basket on my
arm and. sowed oats ahead of twelve
plows, till the ends of my fingers were
bleeding. In making syrup ! got along
with four hours of sleep in twenty-four,
and the result is perfect syrup. super
intend every detail of my farming as this.
Every backstrap of my harness has a bag
of moss sewed under the leather to pro-
tect the mules back. Thread wouldn't
do for that sort of sewing, as it would
rot. Iron wire wouldn't, for it would
rust So every pad is sewed with cop
per wire. 1 never had scald back or
piece of broken skin on mule sinceI
have been farming.
Next to personal supervision Is
economy. Nothing is wasted on my
farm. l have 120 tons of homemade
manure composted now, and one ton of
composted manure is worth three tons of
! guano. Not blade of grass is burned
! on my place. That, with the refuse of
my sugar cane even, is turned under and
enriches the ground. 1t is small things
that make or ruin the farmer. My neigh
bors use two or three sets of plough-hnes
year-mine last me two or three years.
Every night 1 oil every wagon on my
place, using cotton oil. Once a month
have every axle cleaned and the oil
rubbed off. This saves my wagons. MY
! stock and crops are all protected tho
same way. The poorest house on my
place is the house live in"
q How about your labor ~
''Better than slaves. pay them nine
dollars a month, half in cash every Sat
urday night, one ration, allow each hand
half acre for potatoes and an acre for
corn, and give them every Saturday after
noon. They work because they know I
know when they shirk. They began
stealing from me. slept on the ground
every night for three weeks, bagged three
of the thieves, and now lam safe. When
they are well l make them work, and
when they are sick give them medicine
from my own hand. In short, they know
l watch them and they work"
"You find the life happy oneT"
''The freest, happiest, most independ-
ent life in the world. have not been
sick day in eleven years. When lie
down l sleep. ask no man any odds.
NV broad acres are there and they are ex-
haustless. The best bank farmer can
have is the land. Every dollar he puts
there is safe, and will pay him interest
and principal MANY farmers sell their
cotton seed That is robbing their land.
l buy cotton seed, for with phosphate and
stable manure it makes the best fertilizer.
The farmer is the one independent man."
81 cannot understand" Mr.. Rood
went on to say, "why young fellow
will stay in the city and clerk at small
salary with no future. when farmers
life is open to him. No man could have
had much worse start than did. Now,
in spite of markets, weather, or any
thing else, l can live a freeman's life,
with health, open air, exercise, and at
the end of every year put from $4,000 to
So, 900 in bank This is not chance. It
is certainty. And there is nothing in
me except hard work, attention, and
little common sense. If fifty young clerks
were to 90 to Stewart county and farm
as do, each one would reach the same
result. 1t is no experiment 1t is the
most certain of certain things"
And away the young farmers went
with a gang of friends who had called
for him Why may not he prove to be
type There is plenty of land and more
| to come. Mr.. Rood started with 2, 900
acres, which he has already cut down to
1900. He contracts his arabic land once
every year. Intensive farming says
he, ''is the policy of the future. There
is one cry under which the South can
command the situation. That is ga bale
to the acre, full corncribs, a big compost
heap and home on farm p' Frankly
now hasn't this broad-shouldered young
| farmer, with his steel-like sinews, his un-
! troubled Sleep come nearer to solving
! the problem than those of us who, aim
ing at glittering heights, are fighting
and stumbling along the uneven way2-
| atlanta (GG.) Constitution.
One Thing Lacking.
| She'd a great and varied knowledge, picked
| up at q female college, of quadradtics,