Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1886-03-24
A Successful Southern Farmer.
INTENSIVE FARMING THE POLICY OF THE
FUTURE.

A Successful Southern Farmer.
INTENSIVE FARMING THE POLICY OF THE
FUTURE.
The following is from the Atlanta, Ga,
Constitutions
Mr.. Robert Rood is young farmer thin,
Drowned, all fibre, slow but easy of motion,
self-reliant and independent-he is fine
specimen of the young Southern farmer.
"The earth is a gold mine," he says, ''to
any man that works it diligently"
| 1t has certainly proved to be one to Mr..
Rood. In seven years he has made over
| $40, 600 in farming-not by specializing
he has lost $40, 900 by that method; but by
the patient tilling of the earth and the slow
transmitting of sunshine, rain, and sweat
into corn and cotton. The story of his work
is significant, 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
SO, 900 in honest debts that you must pay
In six weeks he was dead, and / took the
plantation in Stewart county, on the Chat
tahoochee river mortgaged the place for
81. 900 and went to work. The first lesson
/ learned was economy. ] darned my OWE
socks and patched my clothes as they wore
out, When ! went TO Eufaula put a bis
cult in my pocket, and when | got to town
tied my horse to rack, and saved hotel
bill. ran pillow myself, leading the way
for my hands. At night lit up the forge
and did my own blaoksmithing, learning as
| went ! never left my farm a day, and
slept only six hours night"
THAT must have brought success"
''of course it did, as it would have
brought is in any other business. In two
years | had paid my debt and had money in
bank have made in actual money over
$4,000. This is my poorest year, and yet
will clear over So, 500. l would not give
any man five dollars to guarantee me 49,.
900 year on my ten mule farm for the next
| ten years. Farming is the safest business
man can engage in, if he goes at it right"
"What are the rules by which you
work?'
''First, l raise my own provisions. 1
have 1000 bushels of corn. 1, 100 bushels of
oats, 800 bushels Of peas, and 400 gallons of
syrup now for sale. l raise much Of my
own meat, and would raise it all except
that my climate is too warm to cure it in.
I never saw man who did not raise his
own corn that made money on cotton. l
never saw a corn-raiser that wasn't pros
porous farmer. You can often figure out
that you can buy corn cheaper than you can
raise it-but that is only on paper. Corn
raisers prosper-the others fail. My cotton
crop is always a cash surplus. I make my
other crops carry the farm.
"Next to raising my own corn, | count
personal attention to my business. | SOW
every bushel of oats myself, because | new
er found hand that could do it right
This Fall l 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 syr-
up l got along with four hours sleep in
twenty four, and the result is perfect syr-
up I superintend every detail of my
farming as this. Every back-strap Of my
harness has bag of moss sewed under the
leather to protect 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
copper wire. l never had scald back or a
piece of broken skin on mule since I've
been farming.
'Next to personal supervision is economy.
Nothing is wasted on my farm. I have 100
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 re-
fuse of my sugar-cane even, is turned un-
der and enriches the ground. 1t is small
things that make or ruin the farmer. My
neighbors use two or three sets of plow-
lines a year; mine last me two or three
years. Every night l oil every wagon on
my place, using cotton oil. Once month
l have every axle cleaned and the old oil
rubbed off. This saves my wagons. My
stock and crops are all protected the same
way. The poores5 house on my place is
the house | live in. -
Chow about your labor?"
''Better than slaves. I pay them 50 a
month, half in cash every Saturday night
one ration, and allow each hand a half acre
for potatoes and an acre for corn, and give
them every Saturday afternoon. They
work because they know I know it when
they shirk They began stealing from me.
l slept On the ground every night for three
weeks. bagged three Of the thieves, and
now | am safe. When they are well make
them work, and when they'are sick I give
them medicine from my own hand. In
short, they know l watch them and they
work.
"You find the life happy one?"
'The freest. happiest, most independent
life in the world. / have not been sick a
day in eleven years. When I lie down l
sleep. l ask no man any odds. My broad
acres are there and they are exhaustless.-
The best bank farmer can have is his
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. 1 buy cotton seed,
for with acid 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 a small salary, with no
future, when q farmers life is open to him.
No man could have had much worse start
than I did. Now, in spite of markets,
weather, or anything else, can live a free
mans life, with health, open-air exercise,
and at the end of each year put from 49,,
500 to So, 600 in bank. This is not chance
1t is certainty. And there is nothing in
me except hard work, attention. and q lit
tie common sense. If fifty young clerks
were to go to Stewart county to-day and
farm just as do, each one would reach the
same result. 1t is no experiment. It is
the most certain of certain things
And away the young farmer went with a
gang of his friends who had called for him.
Why may not he prove to be a type? Why
may not there follow in his footsteps race
of young farmers, sturdy and self-reliant,
with smooth brows, clear eyes. and strong
arms? Why may they not come to the res
cue of our section from the domination of
Western smokehouses and cribs, and win
for the South amid their corn-rows fuller
and better independence than their fathers
fought for twenty-five years ago? There is
plenty of land and more to come. Mr.. Rood
| started with g. 600 acres which he has al
ready cut down to 1, 200. He contracts his
arabic land once every year. Offensive
farming" says he, sis the policy of the fu-
ture. There is one war cry under which
| the South can command the situation. That
is, "a bale to the acre, or full corn-cribs,
big compost heap, and home on the
farm! Frankly, now, hasn't this broad
shouldered young farmer, with his steellke
sinews, his untroubled sleep, come nearer
to solving the problem than those of us
who, aiming at glittering heights, are fight